Margery Carlson Nature Preserve 12-07-2017

About twice a year the Starved Rock Walker's Club goes to a Nature Preserve. Today we decided to go south of Rt. 178 to the 234 acre Margery Carson Nature Preserve.

This nature preserve contains young forest, bluffs and streams typical of sites near the Vermilion River in the Grand Prairie Section. Some excellent examples of eroding bluff plant communities may be seen here. Over seventy-five species of flowering herbaceous plants have been identified in the preserve including forked aster and bottle gentian. Deer, beaver and red fox are also known to inhabit the area.

This preserve is named in memory of Margery Carlson, who was instrumental in protecting the area, formerly known as Big Bend Nature Preserve. Carlson was a founder of the Illinois chapter of The Nature Conservancy, serving the chapter as its first secretary and later as trustee.

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Today there were 46 walkers.  We car pooled and still didn't all fit in the small parking lot.

Smile!  Especially if your a dear!

There is sort of like a trail once you leave the parking lot.  We went down a slope for quite a while, maybe 3/4 mile.  Once we got to the bottom I told everyone to stay together and make sure you could see the person in front.

We arrived at the Vermillion River and had to go down a small slope.

The View at the Vermillion River was spectacular. At least I thought it was.

I wish I knew what I was looking for.  I should have taken photos of the trees around me at this point.  I believe these to be "Cypress knees or knuckles"

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the bald cypress is the presence of knees. Cypress knees are cone-shaped structures that grow vertically from the roots of the tree where the roots are at the soil/sediment surface.  The most likely function of the knees is to provide stability in the swamp substrate. 
Knees were once thought to provide the roots with oxygen an adaptive strategy under flooded circumstances. Later, experiments showed that there was little exchange of oxygen between roots and knees. Trees that had knees removed continued to thrive.

Horse tails also grow here.  The other place that I know they grow are at the intersection of Ottawa and Kaskaskia Canyons in Starved Rock State Park.

I will leave you with this: Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.” “The sea is emotion incarnate. It loves, hates, and weeps.