The National Weather Service says multiple tornadoes touched down in central Illinois, damaging dozens of structures and injuring at least 20 people.

Barns are practical. They store equipment, keep animals safe, and speak to our agricultural impact. And now Illinois Public Media is bringing you the story of these iconic structures that dot our landscape with the new documentary Barns: An Illinois Story, featuring barns in Champaign, Piatt, McDonough, and Peoria counties.

One of the early season highlights of birding in central Illinois is the widespread return in March of a bird called the American woodcock.

People who go looking for beauty in the woodlands of central Illinois tend to get excited about the months of April and May, when showy beauties like Virginia bluebells carpet the woodland floor. But if you wait until April to get out, you may already be a month late for the emergence of the first flower of spring.

In much of Illinois heavy rains in late February and early March trigger an astonishing and ancient natural phenomenon—the annual congregation of amphibians in the waters where they breed.