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Dellwood Park West

Location: Will County, Lockport Township, T36N, R10E, Sec. 27, City of Lockport
Size of area affected by MSCSF-funded work: 75 acres
Resulting Illinois Nature Preserve Commission Land dedications: To be determined in 2006
Owner: Lockport Township Park District (LTPD)
Partners: LTPD, USACE-Chicago District, CorLands, Illinois Nature Preserves Commission

Action: Formulation of restoration management plan, drainage and tile inventory, soil analysis, hydrologic restoration, cutting and removal of shrubs and trees, prescribed burning, native seeding, control of invasive herbaceous species, monitoring of existing populations of federally-listed leafy prairie clover.

Summary: At 196 acres in size Dellwood Park West (“DPW”) is a site of extremes and marked differences. The southern portion of DPW property was once actively mined and used for the disposal of slag, a byproduct of the steel production at a steel mill that was once located adjacent to DPW. The middle and north portions of DPW were not mined or used for slag storage. The middle portion of DPW was in agricultural uses (livestock, small grains, corn, soybeans) until 1992. The northern portion of DPW was not farmed and is a part of a larger Illinois Natural Areas Inventory site called Lockport Prairie East, which contains a population of a Federally-endangered plant species (leafy prairie clover) and remnants of native dolomite prairie.

CorLands helped the LTPD acquire Dellwood Park West in 1990. The Park District’s original plan was to use the space for recreation and considered building a golf course. Today, the LTPD is committed to managing the property as a nature park area that will have paths for hiking, signage and other amenities appropriate to its passive use, with fishing and picnicking in and around the former quarry ponds and revegetated slag piles. The middle and north portions of DPW were chosen for restoration funding under the MSCSF because of its variety of potential habitats (including dolomite prairie habitat) and the opportunity to tie restoration of the two former agricultural fields and the southern portion of the Lockport Prairie East into the remaining 30 acres of the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory site that lie to the north of DPW.

Extensive restoration work has taken place at Dellwood Park West. Hand probes were used to conduct a soil analysis and a restoration management plan was created. Fifteen acres at the north end of the property was cleared of buckthorn and other invasive shrubs and trees. The brush was cut by hand, and the larger trees were girdled. The fallow agricultural fields were seeded with native species and have been mowed periodically to help control invasive species. A savanna area has been thinned of invasive and overstocked trees. Two prescribed burns have been conducted.

As a part of the initial ecological inventory of DPW a few plants of the federally-listed leafy prairie clover were found on the preserve nestled in an opening within a buckthorn thicket. After clearing of the buckthorn and prescribed burning, more than 75 leafy prairie clover plants have emerged that are flowering and setting seed.

A continuing problem is one of encroachment onto the site by vehicles. DPW is in a remote section of the township and is not patrolled on a regular basis and does not have fencing. The encroachment has led to rutting and erosion and degradation of plant populations in the former agricultural fields. The LTPD is working on increased patrols of the site and has sent letters to adjacent private land owners regarding off-road vehicles being prohibited at DPW.

When MSCSF was set up in 2000, the parties involved anticipated that a privately-owned 28-acre parcel to the north of the DPW which contains the main portion of the Lockport Prairie East natural area would soon be purchased by the Illinois Toll Highway Authority and conveyed to the Forest Preserve District of Will County (“FPDWC”). The 28 acres contains part of the population of the federally-endangered leafy prairie clover and additional remnants of dolomite prairie. The Illinois Tollway Authority is in the process of acquiring this parcel as mitigation for its development of the southern extension of the 355 Tollway.