Land Use

Natural History and Human Influence
        Historically, the land upon which Clinton Lake is located was upland prairie and bottomland deciduous forest. Until the 1820s, the Kickapoo Tribe was in the area. During the 1830s, the first permanent settlers began to arrive in the region, from areas such as Kentucky and Tennessee, to farm the land. Small villages and hunting camps of the Illini Confederacy were likely located at this site. Until the 1970s, when construction of the lake began, most of the land was used for cropland and pasture.

Existing Landscape
        The landscape in the Clinton Lake Watershed includes streams, roads, county boundaries, agriculture, wooded, wetlands, urban/suburban, open water (Figure 4). Although population is growing in the watershed, there are currently no major areas of sprawl and development. The majority of the land in the watershed is rural. Agricultural operations include both row crops and livestock. It should be noted that areas categorized by agricultural use may include substantial conservation practices through federally supported programs. This may include filter strips, riparian buffers, grassed waterways, wildlife habitat, and others.

Land Ownership
        Clinton Lake and the surrounding land are privately owned by the energy company Exelon, which provides power to a large section of Illinois. Exelon leases the land to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which manages approximately 4,300 acres of the lake and 5,000 acres of the surrounding land (except the marina, which is owned by DeWitt County). The remainder of the land, approximately 178,700 acres, within the watershed is either owned by private persons, state agencies or is commercial property. The majority of the watershed is owned by private persons used mainly for production agriculture.

        LeRoy and Farmer City are the two major towns within the watershed. Farmer City has a population of approximately 2,300 with LeRoy having roughly 3,300 people. The major area for construction is on the southern edge of LeRoy which has a new development in process. The possibility of expansion is most likely due to people moving from the Bloomington area into this bedroom community.