IL DNR Ecological Lands

Live

Illinois DNR ecological consultation parcels, Natural Area Inventory, Nature Preserves + Land/Water Reserves, and Endangered/Threatened species habitat via agency host. 5 curated layers across the ecocat + ecocatpro folders. No credentials required.

What is IL DNR Ecological Lands?

Illinois Department of Natural Resources ecological lands data via agency data services. Five curated layers from across the ecocat + ecocatpro folders: ecocat/ecocat_parcels layer 0 (~217,483 ecological consultation case parcels with PROGRAM enum: GIS Program 122,339 / Interagency Review 43,577 / ESCP 24,850 / CERP 12,784 / Permit Review 6,339 / Transportation 6,046 / Federal Review 1,289 / Ecosystem 25; 103 distinct counties led by Cook 16,737 / Will 8,892 / DuPage 8,148 / Lake 7,750 / Kane 5,450); ecocat/Ecocat_report_poly layer 0 (~49,581 natural-heritage project polygons); layer 3 (~1,515 Natural Area Inventory sites with INAI category codes I=High-quality natural community, II=E&T habitat, III=Designated nature preserve / land-water reserve, IV=Geological, V=Aquatic, VI=Concentration, VII=Old growth; sample sites Bohm Woods 121.92 ac "I, III" / Red Hills Woods / Big Creek Woods); layer 4 (~743 Nature Preserves + Land/Water Reserves administered by INPC, e.g. McCune Sand Prairie LWR149 / Lost Creek Marsh / Degognia Canyon LWR / Wapello LWR); layer 2 (~5,302 Endangered/Threatened species habitat polygons). §0 surprises: 6 of 10 root-catalog folders (Forestry, heritage, IRAP_6_1_20, LIDAR, OREP, plus Wildlife/CWD-only) are EMPTY post-Hub-migration — confirmed live during §0 probe (L2-A agent flagged this previously, validated). ecocatpro data services layers report objectIdField=null but pagination works when orderByFields=OBJECTID is sent explicitly — handler always passes it. ecocatpro/4 (Nature Preserves) has wildly mangled field names: site name lives at MANAGED__6 (with Ma_name as a duplicate), managing agency at MANAGED__7 (MA_COM duplicate), INPC number at INPC_NUMBE, MA code at MACODE_BCD. ecocatpro/2 (E&T Species) similarly mangled — common name at COMMON_NAM, scientific at SCIENTIFIC, ELCODE at ELCODE_BCD. ecocat_parcels STATUS column is empty for all 217K records — handler does not expose a status filter; PROGRAM is the meaningful enum. CRS reported as null on ecocatpro layers but server-side regardless. across every layer. Last verified live 2026-05-08.

Available Tools

searchNaturePreserves
IL Nature Preserves + Land/Water Reserves (~740 polygons administered by INPC). Filter siteName (substring on MANAGED__6), managingAgency (MANAGED__7), minAcres (AREA_IN_ST), bbox, near. Returns INPC numbers, MA codes, total + in-state acres.
searchNaturalAreaInventory
IL Natural Area Inventory sites (~1.5K). Filter siteName, category (substring match — 'I' matches 'I, III' combined-category sites; INAI codes I=High-quality natural community, II=E&T habitat, III=Designated NP/LWR, IV=Geological, V=Aquatic, VI=Concentration, VII=Old growth), minAcres (PRIMARY_AR), bbox.
searchEndangeredSpeciesHabitat
IL E&T species habitat polygons (~5.3K). Filter commonName, scientificName, elcode (ELCODE_BCD prefix or substring), bbox. Mangled field names — handler reads COMMON_NAM and SCIENTIFIC.
searchEcoConsultations
IL EcoCat ecological consultation case parcels (~217K). Filter county (103 Title Case e.g. Cook / Lake / St. Clair / Cook), program (GIS Program / Interagency Review / ESCP / CERP / Permit Review / Transportation / Federal Review / Ecosystem), city, applicantName, projectYear, bbox. STATUS column empty — handler exposes PROGRAM as the enum.
getServiceInfo
Schema, record counts (live), max-page caps, INAI category codes + ecocat program enums, list of EMPTY root folders, §0 probe notes for any of the 5 curated layers.

Requirements

Toggle on
Toggle on and use — no setup needed.

Quick Setup Guide

Follow these steps to connect your AI agents to this connector

Open /mcp and enable IL DNR Ecological Lands with the toggle — no credentials needed.

Call searchNaturePreserves with siteName: 'sand prairie' to find INPC-managed prairie reserves, or searchNaturalAreaInventory with category: 'I' and minAcres: 50 for high-quality natural communities.

Connect to Your AI Assistant

Choose your AI assistant below for specific setup instructions

Follow these steps to connect IL DNR Ecological Lands to Claude:

Step 1: Open Claude Settings

Launch Claude → Click the profile button (bottom left) → Navigate to Settings

Step 2: Access Connectors

Scroll down to the Connectors tab → Navigate to the bottom → Click “Add Custom Connector”

Step 3: Name Your Connector

Enter any name you'd like for this connector

Step 4: Get the Connector URL

Step 5: Add the Connector

Paste the URL in the “Remote MCP Server URL” text box → Click Add

Step 6: Start Using

Your connector is now ready to use in Claude

Follow these steps to connect IL DNR Ecological Lands to ChatGPT:

Step 1: Enable Developer Mode

Go to Settings → Connectors → Advanced → Enable Developer mode

Step 2: Create New Connector

Go back to Connectors page → Click “Create” (top right)

Step 3: Name Your Connector

Enter any name you'd like for this connector (descriptions are optional)

Step 4: Get the Connector URL

Step 5: Add the URL

Paste the URL in the “MCP Server URL” text box

Step 6: Set Authentication

Click the authentication dropdown → Select “No authentication” (PatchOps handles authentication internally)

Step 7: Create the Connector

Click “I understand and want to continue” checkbox → Press Create

Step 8: Using the Connector

Start a new chat → Click the + button (left of text box) → Open dropdown → Hover over three dots labeled “More” → Select your connector

Instructions for connecting IL DNR Ecological Lands to GitHub Copilot:

Coming Soon

Detailed setup instructions for GitHub Copilot will be added here.

For other MCP-compatible platforms:

Step 1: Get the Connector URL

Step 2: Add to Configuration

Add this configuration to your MCP settings file. Replace the URL with your specific connector URL from the /mcp page:

"IL DNR Ecological Lands-MCP": {
  "url": "https://patchops.ai/api/mcp/...",
  "type": "http"
}

Example Configuration

Here’s an example using PatchOps MCP:

"PatchOps-MCP": {
  "url": "https://patchops.ai/api/mcp/...",
  "type": "http"
}