Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area
Encyclopedia
The Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area (JEPC) is a conservation area
located within Cass County in the U.S. state
of Illinois
. It is 16550 acres (6,698 ha) in size. A mix of plowed upland prairie and Panther Creek woodlands, the site is managed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources
. It is drained by the Sangamon River
. It is named for former Governor of Illinois
Jim Edgar
.
, the Panther Creek basin was largely settled by the 1850s. As the basin is adjacent to the historic road between Springfield, Illinois
and Beardstown, Illinois
, now Illinois Route 125
, it was relatively attractive as farm
land.
Acting on the basis of rapidly increasing forecasts in Illinois demand for electricity
, the Chicago
-based electric utility, Commonwealth Edison
, purchased farmland making up the future Jim Edgar site in 1968-74 for potential use as a coal-fired generating
plant and adjacent 5000 acres (2,023 ha) cooling pond
. For this purpose the parcel was renamed "Site M."
The "Site M" power plant would have burned high-sulfur
Illinois coal
. Due to the passage of the federal Clean Air Act
, the use of Illinois coal for electrical power purposes became less economically attractive to Commonwealth Edison in the 1980s and 1990s. After holding the land in 1974-1993, the utility agreed to sell it to the state of Illinois.
, governor of Illinois in 1991-1999.
Of the 16550 acres (67 km²) within JEPC, 6350 acres (2,570 ha) are managed as open space, 6000 acres (24 km²) are managed as woodland
and 4200 acres (1,700 ha) are managed as production farmland. The production farmland is leased out to local farmer
s, a move that has caused some controversy. It can be up to a Class B misdemeanor
to trespass upon Illinois land used for production agriculture
, and that penalty applies to JEPC land in production, even though the land is owned by all of the people of Illinois.
The Jim Edgar Panther Creek parcel, however, makes up more than half of Panther Creek Township
within Cass County. Allowing part of JEPC to remain as production farmland allows property tax
es to be levied on the land for the support of local school
s and units of government.
s, pheasant
s, quail
, snipe
, jackalope, woodcock
, and rabbit
. Rotating areas of grass, sunflower seeds, and wheat are managed to feed and encourage these populations, all of which can be hunted with an Illinois license
.
Several small natural pond
s and artificial lake
s exist on the JEPC property, and are stocked with largemouth bass
, channel catfish
and typical Illinois farm-pond panfish
such as bluegill
, the Illinois state fish, and green sunfish
. In addition to these fish, Prairie Lake is also stocked with muskellunge
.
175 acre (0.7082005 km²) within JEPC have been set aside as the Cox Creek Hill Prairie State Natural Area, a collection of upland hill prairie remnants scattered throughout the JEPC. 87 separate species of bird
s have been logged on the Cox Creek Hill Prairie parcels.
In 2004, the Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area was designated as an Important Bird Area of Illinois.
and wild turkey
. Fur
bearing animals, such as coyote
s, raccoon
, opossum, red fox
, gray fox
, and striped skunk
, also live in the woodlands and adjacent open areas. Illinois hunting licenses also provide access to these species.
Conservation area
A conservation areas is a tract of land that has been awarded protected status in order to ensure that natural features, cultural heritage or biota are safeguarded...
located within Cass County in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. It is 16550 acres (6,698 ha) in size. A mix of plowed upland prairie and Panther Creek woodlands, the site is managed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is a cabinet-level department of the state government of Illinois. It is headquartered in the state capital of Springfield...
. It is drained by the Sangamon River
Sangamon River
The Sangamon River is a principal tributary of the Illinois River, approximately long, in central Illinois in the United States. It drains a mostly rural agricultural area between Peoria and Springfield...
. It is named for former Governor of Illinois
Governor of Illinois
The Governor of Illinois is the chief executive of the State of Illinois and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by popular suffrage of residents of the state....
Jim Edgar
Jim Edgar
James Edgar is an American politician who was the 38th Governor of Illinois from 1991 to 1999 and Illinois Secretary of State from 1981 to 1991. As a moderate Republican in a largely blue-leaning state, Edgar was a popular and successful governor, leaving office with high approval ratings...
.
History
Originally part of the territory controlled by the Illinois Confederacy of Native AmericansNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, the Panther Creek basin was largely settled by the 1850s. As the basin is adjacent to the historic road between Springfield, Illinois
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the third and current capital of the US state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 117,400 , making it the sixth most populated city in the state and the second most populated Illinois city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area...
and Beardstown, Illinois
Beardstown, Illinois
Beardstown is a city in Cass County, Illinois, United States. The population was 6,123 at the 2010 census. The public schools are in Beardstown Community Unit School District 15.-Geography:Beardstown is located at...
, now Illinois Route 125
Illinois Route 125
Illinois Route 125 is a major highway in the central portion of the U.S. state of Illinois. Illinois 125 runs east from the concurrent U.S...
, it was relatively attractive as farm
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
land.
Acting on the basis of rapidly increasing forecasts in Illinois demand for electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
, the Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-based electric utility, Commonwealth Edison
Commonwealth Edison
Commonwealth Edison is the largest electric utility in Illinois, serving the Chicago and Northern Illinois area...
, purchased farmland making up the future Jim Edgar site in 1968-74 for potential use as a coal-fired generating
Electrical generator
In electricity generation, an electric generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. A generator forces electric charge to flow through an external electrical circuit. It is analogous to a water pump, which causes water to flow...
plant and adjacent 5000 acres (2,023 ha) cooling pond
Cooling pond
A cooling pond is a man-made body of water primarily formed for the purpose of supplying cooling water to a nearby power plant or industrial facility such as a petroleum refinery, pulp and paper mill, chemical plant, steel mill or smelter...
. For this purpose the parcel was renamed "Site M."
The "Site M" power plant would have burned high-sulfur
Sulfur
Sulfur or sulphur is the chemical element with atomic number 16. In the periodic table it is represented by the symbol S. It is an abundant, multivalent non-metal. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow...
Illinois coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
. Due to the passage of the federal Clean Air Act
Clean Air Act
A Clean Air Act is one of a number of pieces of legislation relating to the reduction of airborne contaminants, smog and air pollution in general. The use by governments to enforce clean air standards has contributed to an improvement in human health and longer life spans...
, the use of Illinois coal for electrical power purposes became less economically attractive to Commonwealth Edison in the 1980s and 1990s. After holding the land in 1974-1993, the utility agreed to sell it to the state of Illinois.
JEPC today
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources acquired "Site M" in June 1993, and the acquisition became the largest portion of what was renamed the Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area (JEPC) in 2001. The site was named in honor of Jim EdgarJim Edgar
James Edgar is an American politician who was the 38th Governor of Illinois from 1991 to 1999 and Illinois Secretary of State from 1981 to 1991. As a moderate Republican in a largely blue-leaning state, Edgar was a popular and successful governor, leaving office with high approval ratings...
, governor of Illinois in 1991-1999.
Of the 16550 acres (67 km²) within JEPC, 6350 acres (2,570 ha) are managed as open space, 6000 acres (24 km²) are managed as woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
and 4200 acres (1,700 ha) are managed as production farmland. The production farmland is leased out to local farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
s, a move that has caused some controversy. It can be up to a Class B misdemeanor
Misdemeanor
A misdemeanor is a "lesser" criminal act in many common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished much less severely than felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions and regulatory offences...
to trespass upon Illinois land used for production agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, and that penalty applies to JEPC land in production, even though the land is owned by all of the people of Illinois.
The Jim Edgar Panther Creek parcel, however, makes up more than half of Panther Creek Township
Panther Creek Township, Cass County, Illinois
Panther Creek Township is one of eleven townships in Cass County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2000 census, its population was 365.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, Panther Creek Township covers an area of ; of this, or 0.21 percent is water.-Unincorporated towns:* Anderson*...
within Cass County. Allowing part of JEPC to remain as production farmland allows property tax
Property tax
A property tax is an ad valorem levy on the value of property that the owner is required to pay. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state or a municipality...
es to be levied on the land for the support of local school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
s and units of government.
JEPC open space
Some primary target species for which JEPC open space are managed are mourning doveMourning Dove
The Mourning Dove is a member of the dove family . The bird is also called the Turtle Dove or the American Mourning Dove or Rain Dove, and formerly was known as the Carolina Pigeon or Carolina Turtledove. It is one of the most abundant and widespread of all North American birds...
s, pheasant
Pheasant
Pheasants refer to some members of the Phasianinae subfamily of Phasianidae in the order Galliformes.Pheasants are characterised by strong sexual dimorphism, males being highly ornate with bright colours and adornments such as wattles and long tails. Males are usually larger than females and have...
s, quail
Quail
Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally considered in the order Galliformes. Old World quail are found in the family Phasianidae, while New World quail are found in the family Odontophoridae...
, snipe
Snipe
A snipe is any of about 25 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill and crypsis plumage. The Gallinago snipes have a nearly worldwide distribution, the Lymnocryptes Jack Snipe is restricted to Asia and Europe and the...
, jackalope, woodcock
Woodcock
The woodcocks are a group of seven or eight very similar living species of wading birds in the genus Scolopax. Only two woodcocks are widespread, the others being localized island endemics. Most are found in the Northern Hemisphere but a few range into Wallacea...
, and rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
. Rotating areas of grass, sunflower seeds, and wheat are managed to feed and encourage these populations, all of which can be hunted with an Illinois license
License
The verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...
.
Several small natural pond
Pond
A pond is a body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is usually smaller than a lake. A wide variety of man-made bodies of water are classified as ponds, including water gardens, water features and koi ponds; all designed for aesthetic ornamentation as landscape or architectural...
s and artificial lake
Lake
A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...
s exist on the JEPC property, and are stocked with largemouth bass
Largemouth bass
The largemouth bass is a species of black bass in the sunfish family native to North America . It is also known as widemouth bass, bigmouth, black bass, bucketmouth, Potter's fish, Florida bass, Florida largemouth, green bass, green trout, linesides, Oswego bass, southern largemouth...
, channel catfish
Channel catfish
Channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, is North America's most numerous catfish species. It is the official fish of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Tennessee, and is informally referred to as a "channel cat". In the United States they are the most fished catfish species with approximately 8...
and typical Illinois farm-pond panfish
Panfish
A panfish, also spelled pan-fish or pan fish, is an edible game fish that usually doesn't outgrow the size of a frying pan. The term is also commonly used by anglers to refer to any small catch that will fit in a pan, but is large enough to be legal. However its definition and usage varies with...
such as bluegill
Bluegill
The Bluegill is a species of freshwater fish sometimes referred to as bream, brim, or copper nose. It is a member of the sunfish family Centrarchidae of the order Perciformes.-Range and distribution:...
, the Illinois state fish, and green sunfish
Green sunfish
The green sunfish is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of order Perciformes. A panfish popular with anglers, the green sunfish is also kept as an aquarium fish by hobbyists. They are usually caught by accident, while fishing for other game fish...
. In addition to these fish, Prairie Lake is also stocked with muskellunge
Muskellunge
A muskellunge , also known as a muskelunge, muscallonge, milliganong, or maskinonge , is a large, relatively uncommon freshwater fish of North America. Muskellunge are the largest member of the pike family, Esocidae...
.
175 acre (0.7082005 km²) within JEPC have been set aside as the Cox Creek Hill Prairie State Natural Area, a collection of upland hill prairie remnants scattered throughout the JEPC. 87 separate species of bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s have been logged on the Cox Creek Hill Prairie parcels.
In 2004, the Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area was designated as an Important Bird Area of Illinois.
JEPC woodland
The Jim Edgar Panther Creek site's woodland is managed for white-tailed deerWhite-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
and wild turkey
Wild Turkey
The Wild Turkey is native to North America and is the heaviest member of the Galliformes. It is the same species as the domestic turkey, which derives from the South Mexican subspecies of wild turkey .Adult wild turkeys have long reddish-yellow to grayish-green...
. Fur
Fur
Fur is a synonym for hair, used more in reference to non-human animals, usually mammals; particularly those with extensives body hair coverage. The term is sometimes used to refer to the body hair of an animal as a complete coat, also known as the "pelage". Fur is also used to refer to animal...
bearing animals, such as coyote
Coyote
The coyote , also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, is a species of canine found throughout North and Central America, ranging from Panama in the south, north through Mexico, the United States and Canada...
s, raccoon
Raccoon
Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most familiar species, the common raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are...
, opossum, red fox
Red Fox
The red fox is the largest of the true foxes, as well as being the most geographically spread member of the Carnivora, being distributed across the entire northern hemisphere from the Arctic Circle to North Africa, Central America, and the steppes of Asia...
, gray fox
Gray Fox
The gray fox is a mammal of the order Carnivora ranging throughout most of the southern half of North America from southern Canada to the northern part of South America...
, and striped skunk
Striped Skunk
The striped skunk, Mephitis mephitis, is an omnivorous mammal of the skunk family Mephitidae. Found over most of the North American continent north of Mexico, it is one of the best-known mammals in Canada and the United States.-Description:...
, also live in the woodlands and adjacent open areas. Illinois hunting licenses also provide access to these species.