Teeming with Life
Emiquon Nature Preserve, The Nature Conservancy, IL
This award-winning project brought together many partners including The Nature Conservancy, Illinois State Museum-Dickson Mounds, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to create an innovative blueprint for bringing the Emiquon Nature Preserve’s story to visitors.
Services
Interpretive Planning
Site Design
Wayfinding System
Dimensional Exhibit Panels and Maps
Interpretive Signs
Viewing Scopes
Design Approach
The Emiquon Preserve is a 7,000-acre conservation area located on the Illinois River in Central Illinois. The preserve was established to highlight the remarkable efforts of The Nature Conservancy to restore more than 6,000 acres of wetlands and open-water habitat.
The purpose of the project was to develop strategies that would welcome visitors to the Emiquon Nature Preserve, engage them in the preserve’s rich natural context, and invite them the story of this place—a place rich in ecological and recreational resources, as well as unique cultural history and archaeological significance. Equally important, visitors needed to be invited into a conversation about the habitat restoration underway at Emiquon Nature Preserve and its critical benefits to humans, wildlife, and the natural world.
The design team developed concepts for seven observatories connected by a system of roads, boardwalks, and trails with important amenities such as parking and a canoe launch. The design encourages visitors to access, enjoy, and learn about Emiquon Nature Preserve’s features and the environmental restoration projects underway.
The Emiquon Nature Preserve project won a 2012 award from Georgia’s chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
