With no traces remaining of any invasive carp, numbers of migratory waterfowl visiting the Wetlands Initiative's Dixon Waterfowl Refuge at Hennepin & Hopper Lakes this fall are the highest ever recorded, and populations of reintroduced game and native fish are thriving.

In July, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that the Gulf of Mexico's toxic "dead zone" measures 5,840 square miles this year—about the size of Connecticut. But many small wetlands placed far upstream can help solve this very large problem.

Several members of TWI's technical staff got a chance to share their work with peers at the fifth National Conference on Ecosystem Restoration (NCER), held in Schaumburg, Illinois, from July 29 to August 2.

On Thursday, June 27, TWI senior ecologist Gary Sullivan and board member Mark Maffei talked wetlands on NPR's Worldview with Jerome McDonnell.

The Wetlands Initiative is seeing very positive signs that the invasive common carp has finally been eradicated in Hennepin & Hopper Lakes, which provided a window of opportunity this spring to reestablish higher-quality native lake vegetation.

The partnership between TWI and the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County to restore a degraded stream has expanded to include public and private "neighbors" of the two targeted forest preserves and individual homeowners throughout the Spring Brook watershed.

Just four months into the Wetlands Initiative's new Lobelia Meadows Restoration at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, the site looks much different. Earth-moving contractors, overseen by TWI, have removed nearly all manmade alterations to the landscape.

More than 100 people—including area residents, local officials, long-time Initiative supporters, and first-time guests—attended the Ramsar event August 8th to celebrate the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge's recognition as a Wetland of International Importance.

The Wetlands Initiative worked with the Friends of the Big Bureau Creek Watershed, a coalition for clean water, to hold a free producer workshop on March 2nd in Princeton, Illinois, on the economics of land stewardship and nutrient management practices.

The Wetlands Initiative has completed the second phase of a new boardwalk trail to increase public access at the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge at Hennepin & Hopper Lakes.

The Wetlands Initiative has completed the second phase of a new boardwalk trail to increase public access at the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge at Hennepin & Hopper Lakes.

The U.S. Forest Service and the Wetlands Initiative have committed to partner to restore 160 acres of former industrial land to native prairie and wetlands at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, to begin in summer 2012.