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Lake Michigan coastline in Illinois, Wisconsin designated world class wetland

Conservation officials and those from related organizations and agencies gathered on the Lake Michigan shore Friday to celebrate the designation of the Chiwaukee Prairie Illinois Beach Lake Plain as a world-class wetland.

Officials from the Lake County Forest Preserve District, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Illinois and Wisconsin departments of natural resources and the Nature Conservancy were among those who gathered at North Point Marina in Winthrop Harbor for the special event.

The Ramsar Convention, a global environmental and intergovernmental agreement that provides a framework for conservation, designated 3,716 acres of land owned by eight public landowners along the lake in southeast Wisconsin and northeast Illinois as Wetland of International Importance.

The designated area starts in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, south to Waukegan and includes the Kenosha Sand Dunes, Chiwaukee Prairie State Natural and Scientific Area, Carol Beach parks and open space, Spring Bluff Nature Preserve, Illinois Beach State Park and Nature Preserve and Bowen Park.

Covering about 15 miles of coastline, the Chiwaukee Prairie Illinois Beach Lake Plain contains the highest quality coastal dune and swale ecosystem in the region and supports six globally rare fen, sedge meadow, freshwater marsh and seep wetland communities. Public and privately protected lands connect 14 different community types.

The designation does not hold regulatory authority but is a recognition of a wetland with international importance for the protection of biodiversity and wetland features. It gives more emphasis to grant applications and is a recognition of partners cooperating to protect the landscape.

This is the fifth Ramsar designated area in Illinois. The others are: the Cache River in southern Illinois; Hennepin Marsh in central Illinois; Emiquon along the Illinois River in Central Illinois; and the Upper Mississippi in northwestern Illinois. The other Ramsar site along Lake Michigan is the Door County Coastal Wetlands.

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