University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The heart of the Sangamon: an inventory of the region's resources

Submitter: Sarah Shreeves

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/14149

Description

Title
The heart of the Sangamon: an inventory of the region's resources
Issue Date
2000
Keyword(s)
  • Natural Resources --Sangamon River Watershed
  • Environmental protection --Sangamon River Watershed
  • Ecosystem management --Sangamon River Watershed
Geographic Coverage
Illinois
Abstract
"The Sangamon River meanders across central Illinois for more than 240 miles. Its waters accumulate in southeast McLean County and northwest Champaign County and eventually empty into the Illinois River near Beardstown. Near its headwaters, the gathering Sangamon is scarcely a river at all. In its lower reaches, which have been straightened by engineers, it is scarcely a natural river. In between is the heart of the Sangamon, and from Gibson City to its meeting with Mosquito Creek near Illiopolis, the river retains much of its character from the days before settlement. The heart of the Sangamon drains 1,220 square miles, most of it in Macon and Piatt counties. The countryside is part of a massive ""till"" plain that blankets most of east central Illinois. Till is the jumbled rock debris -mostly gravels, sands, and clays -left behind by glaciers. (Till can be seen locally along streams where erosion has exposed the subsurface.) The bulldozing ice ground down the high spots of the old landscape and filled in the low ones, so that the most obvious trait of today's terrain is its lack of obvious traits."
Publisher
Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources
Series/Report Name or Number
Critical Trends Assessment Program
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/14149
Copyright and License Information
These documents are a product of the Illinois state scientific surveys and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and has been selected and made available by the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They are intended solely for noncommercial research and educational use, and proper attribution is requested.

Owning Collections

Critical Trends Assessment Program PRIMARY
Detailed assessments of 32 major watersheds in Illinois, conducted through the Critical Trends Assessment Program administered by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Includes contributions from each of the State Scientific Surveys which are now part of the Prairie Research Institute.