I am a forester by trade. I am currently working as a park ranger, via Americorps, for the Cache River State Natural Area, and it is one of the most beautiful areas in Southern Illinois. If you have never heard of it come visit, and enjoy our canoe trails! It is a cypress-tupelo swamp and home to over 100 endangered species. It is also located along the Mississippi flyway; therefore hundreds of migratory species visit this area annually. What makes this area so diverse and rich is due to the fact that four ecological regions overlap in this part of the state. You can quite literally be standing on a limestone bluff, jump off and land in the swamp.