Eastward expansion

FRANKLIN GROVE – Nachusa Grasslands has expanded with the purchase of 80 acres at 8594 S. Carthage Road, 1 mile east of its visitor center on Lowden Road.

About 60 acres of the new acquisition are low crop land, and the remaining 20 are pasture. Clear Creek runs through it, and it has a manmade pond. The Grasslands’ Thelma Carpenter Prairie is south of the property.

Public access, including trails, is planned in the near future.

The Nature Conservancy owns and operates the Grasslands, which comprises more than 3,600 acres of prairie and wooded area, and includes nearly 700 native plant species and 105 bison.

It paid the Juanita Williams Trust $620,000 for the land, with the majority of its funds coming from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation.

The Williams family farmed the land before retirement, and her children decided to sell, Nachusa Project Director Bill Kleiman said. A two-story farmhouse, two-car garage and several smaller farm equipment buildings also are on the site; how the will be used hasn’t yet been decided, he said.

A habitat to help maintain Illinois’ ornate box turtle population, among other animals, will be preserved at the site.

The small turtles have golden stripes on their shells and hibernate during the winter. Friends of Nachusa Grasslands has reported sightings within and around the grasslands in recent years, with a concentration of them around the new property.

“We’ve seen them there, and they are a rare turtle that occurs in Illinois, and every state they occur in,” he said. “They are not associated with ponds or wetlands, but uplands.”

The turtles are small enough to be held in the palm of a hand. They gather moisture from dew, rain, and eating seeds, fruits and insects.

“They’ll occasionally get into water, but they’re not necessarily known for that,” Kleiman said.

The turtles were considered threatened by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources as late as 2013, but more have been sighted in recent years.

The Grasslands has one of the state’s largest ornate box turtle populations, along with Lost Mound Sand Prairie on the grounds of the former Savanna Army Depot in Carroll County.