 |
Home | Search | Browse | About IPO | Staff | Links |
|
Home | Search | Browse | About IPO | Staff | Links |
|
Forest preserve recreates beauty and resources
By Patrick Wilson During the next three years the Lake County Forest Preserve District is going to be making history — "natural" history — by participating in a research project which will serve as a national model. It will also leave Lake County with a 450-acre site rich in recreational, aesthetic and environmental benefits. The district and its partner, Open Lands Project, have set up Wetlands Research, Inc., a nonprofit organization, to carry out the Des Plaines River Wetlands Demonstration Project. This project will reconstruct a former wetland bordering a two-mile stretch of the Des Plaines River in Wadsworth, IL. The site, a part of the district's almost 13,000 acres of forest, fields and wetlands, was badly degraded over the last century as a result of economic activities. Today it retains scarcely a trace of the native prairie and wetland habitats it formerly offered to a rich diversity of wildlife. The river bed itself is channelized, and the poor water quality coursing through it nurtures little more than the all-too-present carp. Project details The project will begin by widening the channel and regrading the adjoining land into a gradually sloping flood plain characterized by wetland "saucers," where water will be controlled and monitored. The transformation process will be speeded along by an irrigation system which will move water to the site perimeter and allow it to return, gradually, to the channel. Native prairie and wetland plant communities will be introduced, spawning and breeding areas created, and the site repopulated with fish and wildlife.
Illinois Parks and Recreation 12 March/April 1985 Natural wetlands have long been known for the great variety of fascinating plants and animals they support. The presence of water, the abundance of food and the variety of protective cover attract ducks and geese, provide spawning ground for pike and blue gill, and nurture many of our endangered species. This fascinating array of wildlife, in turn, delights naturalists, educates children, rewards fishermen and generally enriches the lives of the people who have access to it. This recreated wetland, situated securely within the forest preserve district's boundaries, will bring pleasure to the entire metropolitan area with nature walks, canoe trails and educational programs. Wetlands support plants and animals. How they help Natural wetlands are almost as well known for their ability to serve as retention basins for flood waters. The run-off from snowmelt or heavy rains spreads gently and harmlessly across a wetland. In channelized, steep-sided streams, like the portion of the Des Plaines which now traverses the site, floodwaters move rapidly onward to do damage downstream. The Des Plaines site, once the channel walls are flattened and the old levies removed in the creation of the wetlands, promises hundreds of acre feet of flood storage capacity. However, natural wetlands are much less well known for their ability to cleanse and purify the water that flows through them. As water slows it drops its load of sediment, while the plants filter and capture the finer sediments. Nutrient balance is achieved and algal blooms controlled. Experiments around the country are bringing in new data every day about the ability of wetlands to absorb and contain phosphorus and nitrogen, and even heavy metals. The reconstructed wetland on the Des Plaines will provide water quality benefits but, more than that, it will add to the increasing body of data on what those benefits are. Natural wetlands purify the water. Above all, the demonstration project will be a living laboratory. Engineers, landscape architects, hydrologists, botanists, microbiologists, geologists, soil scientists and a host of others will experiment with the conditions to understand how best, and at what cost, wetlands can be reconstructed. The Des Plaines project will be a living laboratory. Justifying the costs
The project is not cheap. A total of $8.25 million will be invested before it is over, but half of that is going for research alone. What we know today about wetlands is that they provide benefits: flood control, water quality improvement and wildlife habitat creation. What we don't know is how much it would cost us to reproduce those benefits in our nation's many
Illinois Parks and Recreation 13 March/April 1985 urban areas where we need them the most. On the Des Plaines River in Lake County we will be trying to find not only the best ways, but also the least expensive as well. If wetland reconstruction turns out to be, as many of us believe it will, a cost-effective way to reduce non-point-source pollution and control flood waters, the possibilities for its future use are limitless. With a little bit of time and trouble, we could open up the hundreds of filled-in oxbows and meanders that line our rivers, cut through old dikes and levies, and selectively and strategically bring back fragments of our former wetlands to work for us. A unique venture The project is unique in many ways, particularly as a cooperative venture among a variety of institutions in both the public and private sectors. The Lake County Forest Preserve District, under the stewardship of President Donald Strenger, not only provided the site (valued at $1.5 million), but also has contributed three members to the Board of Wetlands Research, Inc. Robert Depke, chairman of the forest preserve's Development and Planning Committee and a board member of Wetlands Research, Inc., stressed the significance of the project to the district's strong land restoration commitment. With its implementation, the district will have accomplished the native landscape restoration of a 1,400 acre, four-mile-long contiguous stretch of the Des Plaines River Valley. The Open Lands Project, which provides the other four board members, is a pioneer in the public acquisition of open space. Its accomplishments include the recent federal designation of the I&M Canal as a National Heritage Corridor. State agencies have played an important role. The Illinois Department of Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) provided an early grant which produced the feasibility study in May, 1982. It was authored by Dr. Donald Hey, a hydrologist, who is the project's director. Other State agencies, including the Scientific Surveys, will play an important role in the research activities. The U.S. Department of the Interior, the first but hopefully not the last federal agency to become involved, is the administrator of a half-million dollar grant for research and design. Many members of the Illinois Congressional delegation, including Sen. Alan Dixon (D) and Reps. Phil Crane (R-12), Sidney Yates (D-9) and John Porter (R-10), gave their strong support to the congressional appropriation which made this grant possible. Former Sen. Charles Percy (R) was also a proponent of the project.
Illinois Parks and Recreation 14 March/April 1985 Funding the project Public agencies are expected to provide two-thirds of the funding for the project, mainly for the design and research activities. Private corporations and foundations will provide the remaining funds necessary for the actual project? construction. Many private sponsors have also come forth with support. Atlantic Richfield Foundation, for example, has been an early and committed supporter of the project. Prominent businessman and conservationist Gaylord Donnelley has been an impressive contributor. Fund raising is far from over. Our immediate efforts are to identify corporations throughout Illinois whose interest in the environment is accompanied by the manufacture of, or access to, the kind of heavy equipment appropriate to grading and excavating the site. A wide range of business and foundation executives have shown an interest in the project as an innovative approach to solving environmental problems. Site design, inventory and research plans are being developed this spring, and we expect to begin major construction activities in the summer. Planting will begin in the fall. The remainder of the construction and planting will be accomplished in the spring and summer of 1986. For the next two or three years, monitoring and research will be carried on, with project completion scheduled for 1990. The Lake County Forest Preserve District will continue to maintain the project site. Greater metropolitan Chicago residents will enjoy the rich scenic beauty of Illinois' restored savannas, prairies and wetlands along the Des Plaines River Valley for years to come. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Patrick Wilson is a commissioner of the Lake County Forest Preserve District. He also serves on the Board of Directors, Illinois Association of Park Districts.
Illinois Parks and Recreation 15 March/April 1985 |
|
|
