DuPage FPD to Restore Wetland along Brewster Creek

Blue-winged teal and great egrets have already moved in. Now the habitat is scheduled to get even better.

Through the generosity of the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County (FPDDC) will start the next phase of efforts to restore Pratt's Wayne Woods in early summer. The initiative has already begun protecting and restoring a nearly 1,000-acre mosaic of prairie, wetland, and woodland, some of which had been in agricultural use for 150 years (CW, Spring 2000).

This next phase will restore a unique wetland that was formed over glacial lake sediments and peat along the east fork of Brewster Creek. Numerous agricultural drain tiles must be removed from the 105-acre area, a task that will require some ingenuity. Peat muck makes for a poor surface on which to drive the heavy equipment required for the job.

Salamanders, though, have no problem navigating on peat, and they offer some interesting restoration opportunities. The prior work, north of Sterns Road, laid the groundwork for innovative ways to mimic the customized niches that each species needs.

"In previous phases of the project, we removed tile and reseeded," explained Maggie Zoellner, FPDDC natural resources management coordinator. "During the first phase, we attempted to improve the structure of the habitat for the animals that would use it."

The district created separate pools of standing water of varying depths within the same wetland basin, with trees dropped in to provide microhabitat for amphibians. They also dug 6- to 8-foot-deep pits, with broken concrete culverts dropped in and covered with wood chips, soil, gravel, and branches. They then capped these pits with soil, rocks, and boulders to create hibernating sites for snakes — to replace similar sites destroyed during decades of farming. Finally, based on the district's extensive research on the Blanding's turtle, the staff mixed gravel, sand, and soil to create areas with the structure and texture in which this reptile likes to lay eggs.

"In four to five years, we hope to see a community response in plants and animals," stated John Oldenburg, manager of grounds and resources for the district. "Our goal is to restore wetland communities that are sustained through population stability with mature food webs and breeding habitat."

"This area will become an anchor for breeding wetland birds in northeastern Illinois," said John Rogner, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field supervisor, who with Wayne Lampa helped garner support for this project more than ten years ago. "Many of these species are listed as threatened or endangered by the State of Illinois," Rogner said, "and some are of federal conservation concern. The same is true of the grassland birds that the site will doubtless support in increasing numbers as old fencelines are removed and prairie is expanded."

— Alison Carney Brown