Today
The first 250 acres (100 ha) of Goose Lake was purchased by Illinois for nature preservation purposes in 1969. The addition of additional parcels created the present-day Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area. The remaining patches of tallgrass prairie had been extensively altered by human activity during the preceding 150 years, but active management began to re-knit these patches into a unified swathe of natural grassland.
Unlike many of Illinois's state parks, Goose Lake Prairie is not primarily managed for hunting; visitors are encouraged to enjoy a tallgrass prairie ecosystem, dominated by grasses such as big bluestem, Indian grass, and switchgrass, and by flowering forbs such as compass plants, coneflowers, goldenrod, shooting stars, and violets. The state park's workers and managers maintain a seven-mile network of trails throughout the park. Some of the park's patches of mature grassland sprout blades up to eight feet in height.
The patches of old-growth tallgrass prairie that have survived to the present day serve as a biotic refuge for many species that can live nowhere else, especially prairie-endemic moths and butterflies. Some rare prairie plants are especially adapted to feed and be fertilized by equally rare prairie insects. Lepidopterists have found the papaipema moth, previously thought to be extinct, fluttering about Goose Lake Prairie's forbs and flowers.
The Cragg Cabin, a c. 1838 log cabin originally built in nearby Mazon, Illinois, has been relocated to Goose Lake Prairie as a tribute to the frontier heritage of the Prairie State. Together with the nearby Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, Goose Lake Prairie is a reminder of the tens of thousands of acres of tallgrass prairie that once lived in Illinois.
Goose Lake Prairie has been listed as an Important Bird Area of Illinois.
Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area is accessible from Exit 240 on Interstate 55.
Read more about this topic: Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area
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