Statistics
- Gross Acres (ga): 289.428
- Net Acres (na): 289.123
- Trails (Miles): 0
- Wetlands (Acres): 23.28
- Agricultural (Acres): 210.71
Purchases
- Bleck*: 09/04/86 - 35.000 ga - (34.695 na) - $157,000.00
- Brennan*: 03/02/87 - 4.000 ga - (4.000 na) - $18,500.00
- Pritzker*: 11/06/87 - 250.428 ga - (250.428 na) - $2,504,280.00
- Total Cost: $2,679,780.00
* The Township does not own the Bleck, Brennan, or the Prtizker parcels fee simple. It does own a conservation easement on the land.
Ecological Description (Applied Ecological Services, Inc. 1997)
Most of the Bleck [southern] parcel occupies soils that are mapped as very poorly drained to somewhat poorly drained silt clay and silt loam. Similar soils extend into the Pritzker [all land north of Bleck] parcel to the north and northeast and into the Guerin Road site to the southwest. The property is currently maintained as mowed pasture.
The Brennan [small disconnected] parcel lies on level ground largely of a single soil type mapped as a hydric silt clay loam. A drainage swale runs through the property from northeast to southwest and courses about one to two miles to the Des Plains River to the southwest. The property is maintained as mowed pasture and lawn, with small recently developed woodland on the north end. Adjacent property to the west is mostly hydric soil, and represents an opportunity to expand the existing parcel and restore these wet soils to wet prairie and sedge meadow communities.
The Pritzker parcel is bisected by Hanlon Road and is predominantly gently rolling agricultural lands on silt loam soils. Approximately 30% of the property is mapped as poorly to very poorly drained silt clay loam, but has likely been drained in the past for crop production. The drainage swales and depressions associated with these soils are continuous with the drainage systems in the [O'Plaine Road site], Brennan, and Bleck parcels to the west and southwest. Much of the property is currently in corn and bean production. Former open oak savanna communities in the western parcel have developed an overstocked canopy of recently developed woodland species such as elm, wild black cherry, and dense buckthorn.