It won’t overwhelm you like the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls. It’s not as big as Yellowstone Park. In fact, it’s probably not as large as a nearby forest preserve.
But to some, the 93-acre Dokum Mskoda Sedge Meadow Nature Preserve in Lake County is even more beautiful than a tropical rain forest, and to protect its rareness and subtle beauty, it was recently designated an Illinois State Nature Preserve.
“The designation of open space as a state nature preserve gives it the highest protection, even more so than a forest preserve,” said Steve Byers, field representative for the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission.
Byers said no one can develop the land, whose name comes from a Potawatomi phrase meaning “quiet prairie.” No roads can be built through it, and likely no trails will be constructed within the preserve, he said.
View Dokum Mskoda Sedge Meadow Nature Preserve in a larger map
East of the Tri-State Tollway between Illinois Highways 120 and 137, the preserve boasts 98 rare and native plants, including three kinds of blazing stars, deep purple-flowered plants called bottle gentian and a tiny, easily overlooked state-endangered plant called the golden sedge.
The prairie dock, a more common prairie plant, sends thick 6-foot-tall stems to the sky, culminating in a lemon-yellow sunflower-like bloom. The land looks much as it did during the time of the early American settlers and the Native Americans before them. In fact, the roots of the prairie plants in this undisturbed preserve are likely hundreds of years old and reach 16 or more feet below the ground, experts say.
Byers credits a condominium association, which owns the land, and a conservation organization with ensuring the site’s protection.
The Fields of Cambridge Condominium Association considered selling the land until members learned of its special nature, said Marc Speziale, president of the association. Speziale concedes he didn’t know much about prairies and sedge meadows, but as he talked with Byers and Steve Barg, executive director of the Liberty Prairie Conservancy in Grayslake, he began to realize how important it was to save this property.
“I learned this preserve is even rarer than a rain forest,” Speziale said.
In fact, only about one-hundredth of 1 percent of the state’s native prairie/sedge meadow remnants are left, said Barg, whose group just bought eight acres of the preserve, to bring the total 101 acres.
“This is a remnant of what once covered 20 million acres in Illinois,” Barg said. “This is a sacred spot.”
Barg praised the condo association for working with his group, as well as with the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission, Chicago Wilderness and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure the ecosystem remains intact.
“It’s an affirmation that people in Lake County — whether they live in condos, in Lincolnshire or Antioch — care about the land, the rare areas and want to roll up their sleeves and do something about it,” Barg said.
Volunteers are helping remove invasive plants so the native plants thrive, Barg said. Non-native plants that were introduced from elsewhere can wreak havoc on native ecosystems. Some of the species that could take over at this preserve include buckthorn and phragmites, which need to be eradicated, he said.
Seeds can be collected from plants in the preserve to use for nearby prairie and sedge meadow restoration projects, Barg said.
Speziale said there’s more land to the north that could be preserved and added to the 101 acres.
“We’re very proud of this project,” Speziale said. “We wanted to embrace the land that belonged to indigenous people. And we’re not stopping here.”
