The 215-acre Keepataw Preserve, acquired by the District in 1978, offers a unique feature among District properties: a sheer, 60-foot bluff carved from limestone deposits mined around the turn of the 20th century. A quarter-mile path leads from the parking lot to a scenic overview of these bluffs and the extensive wetlands that spread out beneath in the Des Plaines River Valley.

Look off into the distance and you'll see the ruins of a kiln that was used during the quarrying. The lowland habitat is a true wetland, with spring water seeping out of the bluffs onto the land. This habitat is home for a variety of plant and animal species, including the endangered Hines Emerald Dragonfly. Natural resource management activities ongoing since 1993 have focused on enhancing and monitoring this habitat, in addition to removing exotic plant species invading the site's wetlands and bluff.

In 2010 and 2011, the District completed the restoration of upland prairie and savanna on a 9-acre section of disturbed invasive successional old field/woodland. View more information about this project.

In 2011 and 2012, the District is performing the restoration of wet dolomite prairie on a 15-acre section of the bluff face and slope, west of the restoration work initiated in 2010. View more information about this project.

In 2011 and 2012, the District is developing the Veterans Memorial Trail across the Des Plaines River to the Centennial Trail from Keepataw Preserve north to Bluff Road. View more information about this project.

Photograph Courtesy of John Trilik