Hunting participation in the United States has declined over the past several decades. A special youth waterfowl hunting season to reverse, or at least mitigate, declines in hunting participation started in 1996. After 27 years an important question remains: has the youth waterfowl hunting season had an impact on youth hunting participation in Illinois?

Introduced to hunting as a child, today Lauren Dean hunts not only for the reward of harvesting her own meat but as a way of spending time in the woods with her husband and dog, and to experience cool things in nature. New to Illinois, she attributes her success in learning the regulations and finding places to hunt to the Illinois Learn to Hunt program.

According to the American Sportfishing Association, more than 24 million people annually participate in bass fishing. In 2009, the Illinois High School Association included bass fishing as a competitive team sport, with 324 Illinois high schools participating in the 2024 spring season. In addition to the school-sanctioned events, competitive tournament trails have been created to provide youth anglers with opportunities to fish all year long.

What should you do when an Illinois Conservation Police Officer checks you in the field? Many factors come into play when a field check is performed. This article provides a few suggestions for a basic standard check.

When you are in the deer stand during archery deer season and the deer aren’t present you have time to watch wildlife from a new perspective. Join author Tom Hintz as he recounts his first-ever archery hunt and enjoying the moment with black-capped chickadees.

The osprey was listed as a state-endangered species in Illinois in 1997. It struggled to thrive following years of habitat loss and the degradation of waterways essential to their food source and nest site selection. In 2012, Illinois Department of Natural Resources biologists Patrick McDonald and Joe Kath designed a program to give osprey a boost in building a self-sustaining breeding population in Illinois.

Chinook and coho salmon migrate to the Lake Michigan shorelines each fall looking for a place to spawn, signaling the onset of the Illinois snagging season. More than just an opportunity to land a large fish, for many anglers this unique approach to fishing is a cultural event.

Many people are familiar with the saying that pertains to the real estate business: “The First Rule in real estate is Location, Location, Location!” That same axiom might be properly applied to trapping, as well. This article highlights some elements that help trappers decide where to make a set and how those decisions can change with changing circumstances.

Even though muskrat harvest has declined, and their populations are lower today, there are still plenty of muskrats in Illinois. Grab some binoculars and perhaps a camera and get out and learn first-hand about muskrats and how these interesting animals utilize wetland habitats.

Like many states, Illinois has faced the challenge of dealing with invasive species and one of particular concern is the black carp. A bottom-dwelling fish, black carp are voracious predators of mollusks, posing a severe risk to native mollusk populations, and a threat to the fishing industry. Learn how state and federal agencies are working to address the threat of black carp in Illinois and other parts of the Mississippi River Basin.

An acorn fallen on a lawn doth not a mighty oak make. It was that fact that made me gather acorns and move them elsewhere. As I did so, I discovered that other creatures did likewise.

The Bats in Small Cities Project was organized to learn how urban bat ecology relates to the context of the city, specifically to learn how bats respond to their environment in a city with lots of tree cover versus one with little tree cover. Check out the findings here.

The eastern monarch butterfly population has reached historic low numbers since the mid-1990s. Climate change, land use practices, and conversion of grasslands are primary drivers that have reduced available habitat across the landscape. In response, Illinoisans are working alongside people all across North America to help reverse these trends.

Several lines of evidence demonstrate the recurrence of fires in our past: layers of charcoal in sediments, burn scars on trees rings, journals of pioneers and historical records. Today, Shawnee National Forest personnel, along with numerous state and local agencies, non-profit organizations and private landowners, are increasing their use of prescribed fire to manage natural communities.

A hard-working, collaborative team of volunteers and staff are embarking on a pioneering restoration at Volo Bog State Natural Area, Illinois’ only open-water bog. Sphagnum mosses, pitcher plants, calla lilies, orchids – along with countless rare fungi, spiders, butterflies, and other creatures adapted to this remarkable habitat – may depend on this effort to recreate a natural balance where invasive species have taken over.

We continue learning about the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois River Bottomlands Natural Division as we delve into details about the nearly 225-mile shoreline of the Illinois River from the mouth of the river upstream to LaSalle.

In the first part of our exploration of the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois River Bottomlands Natural Division we explore an area that stretches nearly 338 miles along the shoreline of the Mississippi River, from the Illinois-Wisconsin border to its confluence with the Missouri River.

Since 2021, planning teams from around the nation developed large-scale initiatives for wildlife habitat restoration under the Working Lands for Wildlife model, with the northern bobwhite identified as a species of concern. A variety of programs offer landowners in west-central and south-central Illinois technical assistance and financial incentives to modify land management practices that improve farm productivity, sustainability and restore wildlife habitat.

Determining what bats use an area once meant you had to have a good look at a small, quickly moving nocturnal species. But diagnostic features of the bat too often weren’t visible at that scale. Today, a passive sampling technique entailing the collection of guano allows researchers to observe and record species-specific information even if the animals aren’t seen.

Just for the fun of it, Jim Gillespie mentions some of the things he has learned during his five decades of waterfowl hunting. Not all those lessons have been about hunting techniques.