News & Media
There’s always something happening at the Macon County Conservation District! Staff and volunteers work all year round to provide you with educational programs, restore natural areas, and preserve historic sites. To know what’s going on:
Prairie Islander
Subscribe to the Prairie Islander, our free, quarterly newsletter. You may also read the current issue online or subscribe to our mailing list to have the Prairie Islander emailed to you each quarter.
Media Inquiries
For media inquiries about stories or photo requests, call 217-423-7708. If you wish to receive our news releases and photo opportunities via email, send a message to mccd@maconccd.org or call 217-423-7708.
Social Media
Receive trail condition updates, see the work we’re doing, and share pictures of your visits to the conservation areas by following us on Facebook.
A Summer Intern’s Involvement
By DCLI Intern, Sam R. Being an intern with the MCCD (Macon County Conservation District) this summer has been absolutely amazing, to say the least. All sorts of different opportunities and tasks came my way that exposed me to things I hadn’t necessarily done before, let alone in a work environment! These new experiences not only allowed me to improve my photography skills but also have fun and meet new people while doing it! This article provides an in-depth look into my experience as an intern with the MCCD and also explores how it influenced my personal and professional...
Let Them Be Wild
By Ashton Dukeman We understand more than most that baby animals are downright adorable, but is it ever a good idea to take an animal from the wild to keep as a pet? The answer to that would be, no. No matter how cute a wild animal is, removing them from their home in the wild to bring in and attempt to keep them as a domestic animal is never advisable for many reasons. Wild animals can be dangerous. Wild animals are just that: wild. They have natural instincts that they have developed to protect themselves, and it is not...
A Solid Foundation
By Ashton Dukeman We here at the Macon County Conservation District wouldn’t be able to do what we do without several vital things that all play major roles in our daily operations, including our amazing volunteer base, our stellar and knowledgeable staff, and of course, the public that we serve. One other major piece of the puzzle that makes up the Macon County Conservation District is the Macon County Conservation Foundation. As the fundraising arm of the District, the Macon County Conservation Foundation actively works to restore and preserve local natural areas, and to ensure a good quality of...
April is Citizen Science Month
by Beth Lane April is Citizen Science Month, and is celebrated by renewing the effort to involve the public in scientific research projects. But why should we care? Citizen Science is a collaboration between public and scientific professionals to collect and analyze data for research projects. It has pseudonyms such as: community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring. Citizen scientists are not always professional scientists! In fact they can be any age, from any walk of life, with any amount of experience. All that is really needed to be a citizen scientist is curiosity...
A Natural Partnership
By Ethan Snively For over a decade, Dr. David Horn’s biology classes at Millikin University have assisted the Macon County Conservation District with various natural resources projects, totaling well over 1,000 volunteer hours. This partnership with Millikin has been important for both the students and MCCD. While the Conservation District gets hands-on help for projects that would otherwise not get completed, the students get realworld experience, which Horn says better prepares them for their professional careers. “At Millikin University, we emphasize both theory and practice,” Horn said. “Ecological principles can be taught in the classroom and those concepts can...
Join us this Saturday June 13 for our Firefly Hike at Rock Springs Conservation Area! We'll take a leisurely after-hours stroll down the Rock Springs-Fairview Bike Trail and learn all about our glowing friends and see how many we can spot!
Registration closes Friday, June 12 at noon, and can be found on our website and in the comments below.
Check out our upcoming events for this week! We have two special events that you can find the links for in the comments below. You can find the full list of events and details at out website, MaconCCD.org.
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Today is World Environment Day, a day that should be important to us all. We only have one Earth, and it's our duty to care for it! 🌎
Want to make a difference locally today? You can donate to the Macon County Conservation Foundation, whose mission is to restore and preserve Macon County’s natural and cultural resources through the Macon County Conservation District, and promote education about these resources. It's because of our Foundation that we are able to fund some of our larger natural resource projects. This year, we are doing a $45 for 45 years fundraiser to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Foundation. $1 for each of the 45 years that the Foundation has been working alongside the Macon County Conservation District to protect our county's natural resources!
You can find the link to our donation page in the comments below!
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Only 9 more days until Wine in the Wild! Check out Monday's episode of Soy City Buzz to hear Jerry Culp and Ashton Dukeman talk about what to expect at the event. Tickets are starting to sell fast, so make sure you get yours before they sell out! 🍷🌳
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We're so excited to welcome guest speaker and creator of the hugely popular group "All Bugs Go to Kevin", Kevin Wiener for the What Flies at Night: Discovering Moths with Kevin Wiener program! There are still tickets left, but we only have a select number of spots available for this program. Check out the Facebook event post below for all the details! 🌙
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