Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary

The Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary is a 120 acre private-sector nonprofit park and wildlife sanctuary.

A couple’s life long dream to turn a portion of their farm into a wildlife sanctuary is the main goal of the Nipper Trust. In their will, Frank and Gladys Nipper stipulated that 120 acres of their property near Loami, Illinois should be set aside as a wildlife sanctuary and returned to a natural state. The Nippers were married for 68 years. Frank died in 1989 at age 91. Gladys died at age 97, six years later.

They also left two other parcels totaling about 200 acres to be farmed with the proceeds used to create the sanctuary.

Over the past several years, prairies with diverse seed mixes have been planted, wetlands created, and woods thinned of weedy species of trees. An old oxbow lake was restored and 9 wetlands created to provide additional wetland habitat in central Illinois. Grassland birds, such as meadowlarks and dickcissels, are a common sight and the state-endangered short-eared owl has been seen here.

This is an EASY walk, only about 3.5 miles in length.