Natural Resources
of the Lower
Des Plaines

The Lower Des Plaines River basin contains a hidden world of ancient nature and history. Consider these snapshots:

• Not far from Woodfield Mall, muskrats escort your canoe as you paddle along a clear-water stretch of Salt Creek.

• Take a turn off the highway onto the Salt Creek Greenway and you are ages away from nearby downtown Oak Brook, riding an old Indian trail route through woods that include a Civil War era Underground Railroad stop and a pioneer cemetery.

• Meander off the Harlem Avenue commercial strip and you enter the winding streets of Riverside, whose cathedral-like trees enable squirrels to leap from Harlem to the Des Plaines River in record time.

• Visit the Chicago Portage Nation­al Historic Site and stand on the same ground where all the dis­coverers, explorers, and creators of Chicago once walked.

• In the heart of the Palos Forest Preserves, you help cut back weeds in a wetland area, where sandhill cranes have returned because of restoration efforts.

• Visit Long Run Seep Nature Pre­serve and you might get a glimpse of the Hine's emerald dragonfly, one of the most endangered dragonflies in the U.S.

The natural forces that shaped this hidden world of the Lower Des Plaines watershed are millennia old and still at work. Many modern residents are now realizing that they are a part of those forces, and that the quality of the environment can be a major economic resource.

With riches to protect, the basin has become a national leader in nature preservation and restoration, with projects ranging from prairie and savanna restoration in the Palos Forest Preserves to the country's first National Heritage Corridor.