30 ILCS 150/4

(30 ILCS 150/4) (from Ch. 105, par. 734)

Sec. 4.

The Natural Heritage Fund and the Natural Heritage Endowment
Trust Fund.  There is established the Natural Heritage Fund.  The moneys in
this fund shall be used, pursuant to appropriation, exclusively by the
Department for the preservation and maintenance of natural heritage lands held
in the public trust. The Natural Heritage Fund shall be financed through
transfers of investment income earned by the Natural Heritage Endowment Trust
Fund created herebelow.

The Natural Heritage Endowment Trust Fund (Trust Fund) is created as a
trust fund in the State treasury.   The Trust Fund shall be established
in the form of an irrevocable trust in a depository bank with capital in
surplus of at least $50,000,000 and approved by the State Treasurer. The Trust
Fund shall be financed by a combination of private donations and by
appropriations by the General Assembly.
The Department may accept from all sources, contributions, grants, gifts,
bequeaths, legacies of money and securities to be deposited into the Trust
Fund.  All deposits shall become part of the Trust Fund corpus. Moneys in the
Trust Fund, are not subject to appropriation and shall be used solely to
provide financing to the Natural Heritage Fund.

All gifts, grants, assets, funds, or moneys received by the Department
under this Act shall be deposited and held in the Trust Fund by the State
Treasurer as ex officio custodian separate and apart from all public
moneys or funds of this State and shall be administered by the Director
exclusively for the purposes set forth in this Act.  All moneys in the
Trust Fund shall be invested and reinvested by the State Treasurer.  All
interest accruing from these investments shall be deposited in the Trust Fund.

The Governor shall request and the General Assembly may appropriate funds
 to the Trust Fund up to an amount not to
exceed a total of $2,500,000.  Subject to appropriation, the Department shall
pay into the Trust Fund at the end of each fiscal year the sum of $500,000 and
such sum equal to the amount by which private contributions for the year exceed
$500,000.  Once the corpus of the Trust Fund has reached $5,000,000, any
obligation of the State to provide State funds to the Trust Fund shall cease;
however, additional private funds donated specifically to the Trust Fund shall
be applied to the Trust Fund corpus.

(Source: P.A. 94-91, eff. 7-1-05.)