The Mackinaw River begins near Sibley in Ford County and runs west to meet the Illinois River south of Pekin, Illinois. The boundaries of the Mackinaw River Area Assessment, as well as the Mackinaw River Ecosystem Partnership area, coincide with the boundaries of the Mackinaw River Basin. This area is situated along the roughly 125-mile river in the counties of Tazewell, McLean, and Woodford, with small sections in Mason, Livingston, and Ford counties. The Basin has 15 subbasins (identified by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency) which cover approximately 1,138 squ mi (728,495 acres). The land in the Panther Creek and the "middle" Mackinaw River subbasins, an area totaling 124,740 acres, was designated a state "Resource Rich Area" because it contains significant natural community diversity. The Mackinaw River Ecosystem Partnership was subsequently formed around this core area of high quality ecological resources.
This assessment is comprised oftwo volumes. In Volume 1, Land Cover Inventory provides an overview of the land cover in the region; Geology discusses the geology, soils, and minerals in the assessment. area; Water Resources discusses the surface and groundwater resources; and Living Resources describes the natural vegetation communities and the fauna of the region.
In Volume 2, the Socio-Economic Profile discusses the demographics, infrastructure, and economy of the area, focusing on the three counties with the greatest amount of land in the watershed area --McLean, Tazewell and Woodford counties; Environmental Quality discusses air and water quality, and hazardous and toxic waste generation and management in the area; Archaeological Resources identifies and assesses the archaeological sites, ranging from the Paleoindian Prehistoric (B.C. 10,000) to the Historic (A.D. 1650), known in the assessment watershed; and Early Accounts of the Ecology of the Mackinaw River Area describes the ecology of the area as recorded by historical writings of explorers, pioneers, early visitors and early historians.published or submitted for publicatio
