Here you'll find a web copy of the Chicago Nature & Wildlife Plan, which is the guiding document for the city's development of natural areas. Portions of the .pdf version of the document are available on the city's web site:

Chicago Nature and Wildlife Plan
Nature Areas Map and Site List
Appendices

The Nature Areas Directory link wasn't working as of this writing. This is the bulk of this document, which will be included here, although it may take some time to convert the whole document to web format. This section is particularly problematic, as it's designed for graphic interest on a printed page, and is not appropriate for web display as currenlt formatted. Part of the issue is with the fact that symbols are used for site features, rather than text descriptions. Another part is that the page layout contains a lot of white space. For these reasons, I will at least change the layout, and my dispense with the use of feature symbols entirely. I'll be experimenting with different possibilities, so you won't see very many of the sites right away, and what you do see will probably change.

The listing for Jarvis contains a few errors of interpretation, and I believe - from what we have heard - that the historical timeline has been compressed a bit. I'll make editorial additions to that copy, but the original copy will remain intact. If there is any further information anyone has, please feel free to post it.

The primaty author of this document is Jill Riddell, who is currently serving as Chair of the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission. The web formatting of this document was done by Terry Schilling. As the document is a publication of the City of Chicago, as such it is in the public domain. However, the web formatting is not, but may be used with attribution: "web formatting of this document is by Terry Schilling of tsssystems.net". Thank you.