Last month, Spring got a jumpstart at the Dixon Refuge—and at Square Marsh in the Calumet region, where TWI conducts restoration efforts—thanks to a series of prescribed burns. TWI ecologists and restoration technicians took to the fields to burn around 400 acres at the sites over three days. While fire may not be the first thing that comes to mind when envisioning the needs of a wetland, when it comes to prescribed burning, fire represents opportunities for new life and abundant vegetation!
TWI Featured in Natural Awakenings Magazine, Part 2
For the second month in a row, TWI's work is featured in Natural Awakenings, a healthy living magazine. The May issue continues the conversation with TWI ecologist Katie Kucera, this time focusing on the plant and animal species— both rare and abundant— that rely on wetland habitat.
Species such as sandhill cranes, pied-billed grebes, and Blanding’s turtles are discussed, as well as wetland plants such as the wild iris and the rare eastern prairie white-fringed orchid.
TWI Featured in Natural Awakenings Magazine
The most recent issue of Natural Awakenings, a healthy living magazine, features TWI’s wetland restoration efforts across the Chicago region and beyond. The piece traces the history of wetland loss in Illinois — once home to twenty times the amount of wetlands as we see today — and explains how restoration efforts like TWI’s are helping to reverse decades of habitat destruction.
The article describes various environmental benefits of wetland restoration, from reducing flood risk to helping migratory birds and rare species recover.
TWI Ecologists Collaborate on Tallgrass Prairie Restoration Case Study
TWI ecologists Gary Sullivan and Katie Kucera have partnered with ecologist William Sluis to co-author a research article on tallgrass prairie restoration, published in the latest issue of Ecological Solutions and Evidence.
Their study investigates the use of a remnant reference ecosystem model to guide the establishment of plant communities in tallgrass prairie restoration efforts. Their results demonstrated the feasibility of replicating the plant composition and species richness of mesic prairie remnants through ecological restoration.
Request for Proposals
New Leadership Driving the Wetlands Initiative’s Strategic Board Recruitment
Celebrating Dr. Gary Sullivan’s Retirement
This fall, we will be celebrating Dr. Gary Sullivan’s retirement and reflecting on his two-plus decades of work restoring wetlands in our region. As we look ahead to transitioning to a newly titled Restoration Program Director in the coming months, we at TWI are reflecting on Gary's impactful tenure at the organization.
Year of the Cicada
By Brier Gunderson
“2024 is a big year for periodical cicadas in Illinois, where Broods XII and XIX will be emerging throughout much of the state at the same time. This simultaneous emergence is the first time since 1803 and will not happen again until 2245.”
Back home in Illinois, this is the summer of the cicada—where trillions will emerge after seventeen years of life underground. Every summer, cicadas have been a part of my life, and I’ve found them only more and more fascinating as I’ve spent less and less time in the Midwest.
Plant power: Ecologists map vegetative makeup of Smart Wetlands to guide ecosystem management
In an exciting development for TWI’s Smart Wetlands program, staff ecologists have taken a step toward better understanding the evolving vegetative makeup of our farm-based Smart Wetlands sites, designed to improve water quality. Beginning in 2023, plant surveys were conducted at the sites for the first time. The surveys add to an existing body of water, soil, and nutrient data already collected for the purpose of better understanding, monitoring, and improving the Smart Wetlands going forward.
NIPSCO and NiSource Partner with TWI for Ecological Restoration, Land Preservation, and Community-Driven Planning Project in NW Indiana
Openlands and the Wetlands Initiative awarded historic $1.5M for grassland habitat expansion and restoration at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie
Openlands and the Wetlands Initiative (TWI) have received a $1.5 million America the Beautiful Challenge (ATBC) grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). The awarded project, titled “Grassland Habitat Expansion and Restoration across Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Illinois,” aims to enhance landscape-scale habitat restoration at the U.S. Forest Service's Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Will County, the first and only national tallgrass prairie in the country. The project focuses on Grant Creek, a Forest Service-designated Priority Watershed, and aims to transform an area the size of 1,000 football fields into healthy prairie, savanna, and floodplain wetland habitat.
Birders flock to the Refuge to see unusual avian guests
Longtime birder Vicky Sroczynski typically doesn’t “chase” rare birds, but she considered the opportunity to see a Roseate Spoonbill—normally a resident of the Gulf Coast and rarely seen further north—at TWI’s Dixon Waterfowl Refuge too good to miss. As soon as Vicky entered the Refuge gates after a two-hour drive from her home in Darien, she craned her neck toward the boat launch… just in time to glimpse a pink-winged bird fly behind the island and disappear.
Refuge paddling and fishing season opens May 1st
Get ready to cast your lines and paddle your way through the picturesque waters of the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge! The 2023 public fishing and paddling season kicked off on May 1st and runs through September 4th. We encourage all visitors to carefully review the rules before visiting the Refuge to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone.
Pollinator BioBlitz finds Dixon Refuge abuzz
Over the course of a day in late July, citizen scientists joined expert entomologists and TWI staff at the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge for a mini-BioBlitz to find as many pollinator species as possible at the site. By the end of the insect adventure, we turned up 277 types of butterflies, bees, flies, moths, wasps, beetles, and other pollinators.
Cranes at the Dixon Refuge and beyond
About five years ago, the International Crane Foundation (ICF) began to explore with the Wetlands Initiative (TWI) the potential of our Dixon Waterfowl Refuge as high-quality habitat for the reintroduction of seriously endangered Whooping Cranes. As part of this partnership, we began to more methodically monitor the Sandhill Cranes that have already chosen to nest and breed at the Refuge, since Sandhill Crane habitat will also often be good for Whooping Cranes.
New ag partnership with Ducks Unlimited
Long known for the restoration of lost wetlands, the Wetlands Initiative (TWI) is now also a leader in the practice of farm-based constructed wetlands that reduce nutrient pollution in agricultural runoff. This efficient and effective way to naturally improve water quality needs to be adopted on a large scale to really make a difference, and TWI has found the perfect partner in Ducks Unlimited (DU) to spread the practice in Illinois.
Milkweed project helps keep monarchs flying across Illinois
The Wetlands Initiative recently completed a five-year monarch butterfly conservation project that, for the first time, crossed two of our major project sites: Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie and the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge. Funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the project focused on increasing high-quality habitat for monarchs and also increasing availability of a range of milkweed species, the monarch caterpillar’s only food, across Illinois.
Motus towers at the Dixon Refuge: Helping to unlock migration mysteries
Most of us humans stayed close to home over the past 18 months, but the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t impact birds’ incredible migration journeys. This summer, researchers with the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC) and the Forbes Biological Station partnered with TWI to install three Motus towers at our Dixon Waterfowl Refuge in north-central Illinois to learn more about birds passing through the area.
When ecology meets engineering: Restoring wetlands in the Calumet
At TWI, successful wetland restoration involves more than getting rid of invasive species and planting native wildflowers and sedges. While these are important steps, it’s ecology combined with engineering that makes the magic happen. This is especially true in the Calumet region along the southern shores of Lake Michigan, where the hydrology has been extensively altered by industrial and residential development.
3,376 acres and counting: TWI's restoration projects at Midewin
The Wetlands Initiative has been a core restoration partner at Midewin nearly since the site’s designation as the country’s first National Tallgrass Prairie 25 years ago. Since 2001, when our habitat restoration efforts there really ramped up, TWI has worked in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service on restoring eight distinct parcels of land across a total of 3,376 acres on Midewin’s west side. As we celebrate Midewin’s silver anniversary this month we’re taking a walk down memory lane, looking at some of the highlights of what we’ve accomplished so far to transform this former U.S. Army arsenal, including the huge Glacial Plains Prairie project that’s now underway.