The 1,829-acre Springbrook Prairie Forest Preserve in Naperville is a birder's paradise in addition to offering trails, picnicking areas, an off-leash dog area, model craft field and state-designated nature preserve and land and water reserve. It offers some of the best displays of summertime blooms.
Springbrook Prairie is a regionally significant grassland for breeding and overwintering birds and home to meadowlarks, dickcissels, grasshopper sparrows, woodcocks and bobolinks as well as state-endangered northern harriers, short-eared owls, and Henslow’s sparrows.
Restoration work along Spring Brook added more-natural twists and turns to the waterway and created a wider, shallower bank along the stream. These changes have slowed the flow of water, improved aquatic habitat, and allowed the brook to more easily pour over its banks and into the preserve during heavy rains.
Springbrook Prairie contains the largest grassland community in DuPage County and has one of the healthiest streams in the area.
In 2013, the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission gave 1,650 acres of the forest preserve an extra level of protection by designating it as the Springbrook Prairie Nature Preserve and Springbrook Marsh Land & Water Reserve.
