Lockport Prairie East Preserve, which is located across the Des Plaines River east of Lockport Prairie Nature Preserve, is small (only 30 acres), but its significance is not diminished for that.

The preserve contains an Illinois Natural Areas Inventory Site (a high level of state significance) harboring wet-mesic to mesic dolomite prairie with exposed bedrock, leafy prairie clover, and sedge meadow, and lies adjacent to Lockport Township Park District's Dellwood Park and Dellwood West Park.

The District received the bulk of the site from the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority in 2008 as mitigation for I-355 impacts to Keepataw Preserve.

In 2011 and 2012, the District is performing invasive plant species control work and habitat monitoring at the preserve. View more information about this project.

Photograph Courtesy of Ron Molk