The District acquired the 114-acre Potawatomi Woods Preserve in 2000 to expand and buffer the Joliet Park District’s Pilcher Park and Higginbotham Woods between Joliet and New Lenox, and to protect the Hickory Creek Sedge Meadow Illinois Natural Areas Inventory Site. Potawatomi Woods includes wet, wet-mesic, and mesic floodplain forest; mesic and wet-mesic upland forest; calcareous fen; forested seep; and a perennial stream with deep pools and gravel/cobble bars. 

Preservation of the parcel protected interior woodland bird habitat and cultural resources on adjacent parcels from indirect impacts. The preserve is named after the most significant Native American group still in Will County at the time of Euro/American settlement.

The District is initiating resource management work and will be coordinating with the Joliet Park District to provide public access to the landlocked parcel from Francis Road in New Lenox. Future planning will look at possible trail linkages to Old Plank Road Trail and Spring Creek Greenway Trail.

Photograph Courtesy of Ron Molk