Giant City State Park—Federal Aid Creates Habitat Benefitting Wildlife and Recreation

In this series we examine Illinois state sites benefiting from sportsmen’s contributions through the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration (Pittman-Robertson or PR) program. One of the largest, and longest running, projects is the Statewide Public Lands Wildlife Habitat Development Project (W-76-D), designed to create wildlife habitat on public lands, provide facility access and recreation opportunities, and establish wildlife management demonstration areas for Illinois citizens.

Giant City State Park has benefitted from activities undertaken through the W-76-D project for many years, including the development of grassland areas, food plots, ponds and water holes, all of which have enhanced wildlife habitat and created a host of recreational use opportunities. Today, like at many sites around the state, considerable effort is expended controlling invasive species.

“Unfortunately invasive, exotic species have gained a foothold in and around many of the wildlife openings,” remarked Kenneth Delahunt, Illinois Department of Natural Resources District Wildlife Biologist. “Today, the perimeter of these openings is bounded in a thick tangle of bush honeysuckle, oriental bittersweet and autumn olive, and within some of the openings we find stands of reed canary, Johnson grass and Serecia lespedeza. The changes in the plant species composition results in detrimental changes to the wildlife community, and ultimately impacts hunting and wildlife viewing opportunities.”

Working with Giant City staff and the district forester, Delahunt’s management plan includes expanding the invasive species control work to include the surrounding forest.

“Careful installation of our firebreaks allows us to increase the area of our controlled burns, so instead of just burning the wildlife openings we can burn into the timber, removing additional invasives and expanding the barrier between the openings and future seed sources,” explained Delahunt. “Utilizing grant funds, we have been able to hire contractors who can help build firebreaks, and who coordinate the mechanical and chemical removal of invasive plants.” Timing for controlled burns is always critical, and especially so in southern Illinois.

“We have a very short burn window in southern Illinois because of the early onset of spring and emergence of reptiles and amphibians, including some on the Illinois endangered and threatened species list,” Delahunt said. “By utilizing all the resources at hand, we’re slowly making progress at regaining the valuable benefits of wildlife openings.”

Hunting and Trapping at Giant City

Statewide regulations govern hunting at the site.

Available Game Species

Species available are beaver, coyote, crow, gray fox, mink, muskrat, opossum, quail, rabbit, raccoon, red fox, squirrel, stripped skunk, wild turkey, white-tail deer and woodchuck.

Hunter Fact Sheet and Hunting Regulations at Giant City

https://huntillinois.org/sites/giant-city-sp/

About the Site

235 Giant City Road, Makanda IL 62958

(618) 457-4836

Counties: Jackson and Union

Website:https://dnr.illinois.gov/parks/park.giantcity.html

GPS Coordinates: N: 37.602 W: -89.189

Directions: To reach Giant City State Park, travel 10 miles south of Carbondale on Illinois Route 51, turning left (east) at Makanka and proceeding 1 mile southeast to the park entrance.

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Kathy Andrews Wright is retired from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources where she was editor of Outdoor Illinois magazine. She is currently the editor of Outdoor Illinois Wildlife Journal and Illinois Audubon magazine.