
At Spunky Bottoms, an Illinois River wetland’s resilience is on display
The Nature Conservancy acquired the roughly 1,300-acre Merwin Preserve at Spunky Bottoms in the late 1990’s and allowed the site to return to being a floodplain wetland.

The Nature Conservancy acquired the roughly 1,300-acre Merwin Preserve at Spunky Bottoms in the late 1990’s and allowed the site to return to being a floodplain wetland.

NORMAL — That manatees still swim along Florida’s coast, grizzly bears still roam the west and bald eagles still fly in North American skies is due, in large part, to the Endangered Species Act of 1973 — once described by the Supreme Court as “the most comprehensive legislation for the preservation of endangered species enacted

URBANA — 80 years from now, Illinois’ climate may be unrecognizable. Summers could get a lot hotter, with temperatures reaching up to 114 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas. The state could see up to 150% more rainfall per year than it does currently, with more storms dumping more rain more frequently. Snow days would mostly