Hidden Gem - Harvard: Rush Creek an escape in backyard
By KURT BEGALKA – kbegalka@nwherald.com
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| Woodstock residents John Rigby (right) and Paul Nelson enjoy an evening under the moon during a candlelight cross-country skiing event organized by the McHenry County Conservation District at Rush Creek in Harvard. (Justin Edmonds – jedmonds@nwherald.com) |
HARVARD – This is one “creek” you’d like to be lost on without a paddle. Besides, you couldn’t drift through it if you wanted to.
But you can traverse the Rush Creek Conservation Area, walking aimlessly across 679 acres of sedge meadow and woodlands punctuated by oak and hickory.
The preserve includes two interpretive hiking loops (0.75 miles and 1.75 miles), a separate 5-mile horse trail, and a 4-acre, spring-fed pond suitable for skating and ice fishing when the ice is at least 4 inches thick.
The pond recently was stocked with largemouth bass, bluegill, green sunfish and plenty of forage fish (minnows and shiners), after an extensive restoration project in 2005 that deepened and reshaped the bottom.
“What we did was take a pond that was being filled in with sediment, that was weedy and would get winter kill, and drain it and dredge it out,” said Perry Weborg, land and facilities supervisor for the McHenry County Conservation District. “We deepened it, cut the banks back to stop erosion, and restocked it. We put sunken timbers along the shoreline and built five or six fish cribs made of red pine logs that we tied together in a square with voids in between.”
Built during the summer with the help of volunteers, the structures were dragged out onto the ice that winter and weighed down so they would sink when spring arrived.
The district then banned fishing for three years, Weborg said, giving the panfish and bass time to get established.
In addition, efforts to restore the creek bank and control erosion have improved the surrounding wetlands. Ephemeral pools, though they dry up seasonally, still provide an ideal nursery for salamanders and frogs.
“A lot of what we do is in phases,” said Brad Woodson, MCCD’s natural resource manager.
A wholesale effort to eliminate non-native invasive species, such as buckthorn and Russian olive, has been continuing since 2004. That allowed oaks to gain more of a foothold.
“The way we look at it from an ecological standpoint, it’s a big woodland and fairly contiguous,” Woodson said. “You just don’t find that in McHenry County. You don’t see that much anymore. That is the most unique feature out there.”
The preserve’s core originally was bought by the Jerome family in 1835, and sold off to the McFadden, Kvarme, Diggins, Burrows and Iverson families. The western portion formerly was divided into 10-acre parcels, used by landowners as a source of wood for heating and cooking.
During World War I, walnut trees were cut down to use for gun stocks. The logs, hauled to Harvard, never were shipped because the war ended.
In 1942, owners and other groups set aside 8 acres as one of the earliest wildlife conservation demonstration areas in Illinois. An open field, which lies in the site’s center, was cleared by gypsies hired by the Diggins estate to create more tillable farmland. Toward that end, a section of Rush Creek was channelized in the 1940s using draglines and dynamite.
Dairy operations ended in 1962. Pasturing of livestock ended five years later.
MCCD bought tracts between 1974 and 1981 with plans to restore the parcels to native habitat. Subsequent additions have expanded the site to nearly 680 acres.
On a summer day, visitors can see some of the 13 butterfly species, among them the comma and the great spangled fritillary. Screech owls, flying squirrels, and several species of bat come out at night. Wild turkeys and deer also forage there.
Controlled hunting of deer, begun in 2001, has helped to encourage the spread of native plants such as wild geraniums, Solomon’s seal, wild onion, Joe Pye weed, and sedges.
“The mid-’90s turned out to be the peak for deer,” Woodson said. “We had over 90 deer per square mile out there. They were stripping bark off trees. You almost had a browse line.
“Now we’re looking at 30 deer per square mile. That is ecologically much better for the habitat.”
