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1    AN ACT concerning government.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the
5Illinois Natural Areas Stewardship Act.
 
6    Section 5. Legislative findings and statement of public
7policy.
8    (a) The General Assembly finds that:
9        (1) The Illinois Natural Areas Preservation Act
10    defines natural areas and creates the Illinois Nature
11    Preserves Commission to preserve the highest quality
12    natural areas in perpetuity to sustain for the people of
13    present and future generations the benefits of an enduring
14    resource of natural areas, including the elements of
15    natural diversity present.
16        (2) The Natural Areas Acquisition Fund, established in
17    the Open Lands Acquisition and Development Act, shall be
18    used by the Department of Natural Resources for the
19    acquisition, preservation, and stewardship of natural
20    areas, including habitats for endangered and threatened
21    species, high quality natural communities, wetlands, and
22    other areas with unique or unusual natural heritage
23    qualities.

 

 

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1        (3) The condition of dedicated and registered sites
2    tends to degrade over time without stewardship actions.
3    Once degraded, the public's significant investment is
4    devalued and these natural areas provide reduced benefit to
5    the people of present and future generations.
6        (4) Conservation land trusts have experience managing
7    natural areas in order to counter the constant and
8    increasing pressures exerted on conservation lands by
9    ecological succession, habitat fragmentation, hydrological
10    alteration, pollution, encroachment by invasive and exotic
11    species, and criminal trespass.
12        (5) This Act and the powers afforded to the Illinois
13    Nature Preserves Commission are desirable to guide and
14    preserve the highest quality natural areas in perpetuity.
15    (b) It is the purpose of this Act to:
16        (1) increase stewardship by providing stewardship
17    grants to conservation land trusts to help perform
18    stewardship actions on eligible lands; and
19        (2) to enhance stewardship capacity within
20    conservation land trusts in local areas.
 
21    Section 10. Definitions. As used in this Act:
22    "Administrative decision" has the same meaning ascribed to
23the term in Section 3-101 of the Administrative Review Law of
24the Code of Civil Procedure.
25    "Commission" means the Illinois Nature Preserves

 

 

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1Commission.
2    "Conservation land trust" means an entity exempt from
3taxation under Section 501(c)(3) of the federal Internal
4Revenue Code whose purposes include the restoration,
5stewardship, or conservation of land, natural areas, open
6space, or water areas for the preservation of native plants or
7animals, biotic communities, geologic formations, or
8archeological sites of significance.
9    "Department" means the Department of Natural Resources.
10    "Eligible land" means a site that has been dedicated by the
11Commission as an Illinois Nature Preserve or dedicated buffer
12or registered as a Land and Water Reserve, and has a current,
13approved management schedule.
14    "Illinois Natural Areas Stewardship Grant Program" means a
15program established under Section 20 of this Act.
16    "Land" means real property and ownership rights applying to
17it and includes the real property, structures, and
18improvements.
19    "Management schedule" means an approved document
20consistent with rules for Management of Nature Preserves or
21rules for Register of Land and Water Reserves under the
22Illinois Administrative Code developed for the preservation,
23protection, management, and use of lands.
24    "Stewardship actions" means actions identified in an
25approved management schedule which are designed to maintain,
26preserve, or improve the condition of native natural

 

 

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1communities, diversity of species, and ecological processes on
2eligible lands, such as, but not limited to, prescribed burns,
3control of exotic and invasive species, fencing, and other
4restorative practices.
5    "Stewardship grant" means a grant from the Department to a
6conservation land trust for the purpose of providing
7stewardship actions under Section 20 of this Act.
 
8    Section 15. Powers, duties, and authorizations. The
9Department may:
10        (1) make stewardship grants under Section 20 of this
11    Act from the Natural Areas Acquisition Fund to conservation
12    land trusts to conduct stewardship actions on eligible
13    lands;
14        (2) establish the total amount of funds available for
15    annual stewardship grants, except the amount of
16    stewardship grants made for any fiscal year may not exceed
17    the amount set by administrative rule and shall not result
18    in adverse impacts on the operations funded by the Natural
19    Areas Acquisition Fund;
20        (3) accept and receive any funds including by
21    agreement, grant, contract, donation, gift, or bequest
22    from any corporation, foundation, non-governmental agency,
23    individual, or instrumentality of any of those for the
24    purposes of executing stewardship grants under this Act and
25    these funds are to be deposited into the Natural Areas

 

 

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1    Acquisition Fund;
2        (4) develop and administer the Illinois Natural Areas
3    Stewardship Grant Program within the Department;
4        (5) adopt rules to effectuate the purposes of this Act;
5    or
6        (6) use funds received under this Act to pay for the
7    cost of departmental personnel; contractual, professional
8    or technical services; and equipment, materials, and
9    supplies necessary or appropriate to perform the functions
10    under this Act.
 
11    Section 20. Illinois Natural Areas Stewardship Grant
12Program.
13    (a) The Illinois Natural Areas Stewardship Grant Program is
14established to make grants to conservation land trusts for the
15purpose of promoting stewardship actions on eligible lands.
16    (b) A conservation land trust in good standing with the
17federal Internal Revenue Service may apply for a grant.
18    (c) An agency, organization, or entity that has taxing
19powers, collects taxes, or has eminent domain powers is not
20eligible to apply for the grant program under this Act.
21    (d) Eligible land held by agencies, organizations, or other
22entities may be the recipient of stewardship actions conducted
23under the grant as long as there is a properly executed
24agreement between the agency, organization, or entity and the
25conservation land trust that has been awarded the grant.

 

 

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1    (e) The Department shall adopt administrative rules in
2consultation with the Commission for grant writing, the
3selection of grant recipients, amount of grant awards, and
4eligibility requirements to implement the purposes of this Act.
5However, the rules shall include the following requirements:
6        (1) amounts for match and caps for any stewardship
7    grant under this Act; and
8        (2) the Commission shall be notified of any agreement
9    between a conservation land trust and an owner of eligible
10    lands for stewardship actions to be conducted under the
11    grant agreement.
 
12    Section 25. Priorities. In considering applications for
13grants under this Act, the Department shall establish
14priorities that:
15    (1) provide the greatest benefit to implementing the needs
16and priorities identified in the Illinois Natural Area Plan,
17the Illinois Sustainable Natural Areas Vision, and the Illinois
18Wildlife Action Plan;
19    (2) provide the greatest benefit to other stewardship needs
20identified by the Department, in consultation with the
21Commission, in administrative rule; and
22    (3) consider, but not be limited to, the rarity and
23condition of resources, severity of stewardship need,
24timeliness of actions, proposed stewardship actions, and
25availability of other resources.
 

 

 

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1    Section 30. Administrative Review Law. All final
2administrative decisions under this Act are subject to judicial
3review under the Administrative Review Law of the Code of Civil
4Procedure.
 
5    Section 35. Fund depository. All funds, assessments,
6fines, settlements, compensations, transfers, appropriations,
7penalties, and donations made under this Act shall be deposited
8into the Natural Areas Acquisition Fund subject to the
9limitations described in subsection (2) of Section 15 of this
10Act.
 
11    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
12becoming law.