By Roberta Clifton, Extension Master Naturalist, serving Fulton, Mason, Peoria, and Tazewell
Off the beaten path, but only 30 minutes from our capital city of Springfield, in Loami, Illinois, is a wonderful place I found in 2015. Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary is a nature stop that offers everything from plants, prairies, wetlands, forest, wildlife, birds and our ever-robust world of insects. In my eagerness to do Master Naturalist training, I was given permission to go over to our neighboring unit covering Logan, Menard and Sangamon counties. That is how I found Nipper. A great deal of our training happened all in one spot. Nipper’s Nature Center was our comfortable classroom with nature at our fingertips. The trails are easy to walk, and go for miles. Or just step out the door to view our nature topic and go back into the classroom. The center provides a spacious porch where classes gather for watercolor classes, banding birds, tagging butterflies, or viewing the water snakes basking on the floating moss.
Volunteers and the leadership of Vern LaGesse have played a huge part of restoring this farmland of soybeans and corn back to versions of prairie that match the terrain. It takes valued and appreciated crews of volunteers to do controlled burns, control of invasive species and plantings. Some of the area has been restored back to wetland wood lands with the native willows, oaks, and nut trees that once thrived in this region. There are examples of tall grass prairie, short grass prairie as well.
Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary was established in 1995 fulfilling the lifetime dream of Frank and Gladys Nipper to protect the land for future generations. Surrounding the 120-acre sanctuary are very good farming neighbors that have used the pollinator farm programs to create more wildlife refuge. All of this combined effort has totaled an area of prairie of over 500 acres.
As Master Naturalist, it was a blessing to find Nipper and learn the diversity and volunteer opportunities of seven counties from Springfield to Peoria. Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary will always be one of my favorites and truly is “A Sanctuary”.
