Featured News

New projects to take root in 2012

Details

Published on Sunday, 13 November 2011 09:18

More wetlands in more places for more benefits for more people and wildlife. That's the goal of the Wetlands Initiative's effort to expand its project portfolio during 2012.

“We’re looking to go both broader and further with our programs,” said Paul Botts, TWI executive director.

“We’ll broaden our work by finding new sites and new partners to collaborate with,” he said. “At the same time, we'll go further with the projects we’re already committed to, including restoration at the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge and Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, and collaboration with farmers to increase wetland restoration on agricultural lands.”

With more than 90% of Illinois’ presettlement wetlands drained, there’s no shortage of opportunities for more restoration. TWI staff and board members are currently in discussion with public landowners in the region to determine where best to apply the organization’s skills and energies.

“We can bring specialized expertise in wetland restoration and hands-on experience designing and implementing large-scale restoration projects to new areas.”

“We’ve partnered with the U.S. Forest Service at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie for a number of years now, and the beautiful results there are something to be proud of,” Botts said. “So we know that model of public-private partnership is a good one and we expect to do more of it.”

TWI’s next wave of project work could also include a large “transformational” project on a new site, on land that may not yet be in conservation ownership but that has great potential to become high-quality wetlands with associated uplands.

“Our program staff is systematically examining the entire Illinois River basin– both on the mainstem and its many tributaries – to find sites that could support a restored landscape that would provide one or more of the many functions provided by wetlands, including cleaner water, more wildlife habitat and biodiversity, or reduced flood damages."

Using digitized maps, land use data, and other information, TWI ecologists and engineers are sorting and evaluating potential new sites with a stuctured set of criteria. The factors to be considered include the size, location in a watershed, potential to restore hydrology as simply as possible, community engagement, possibility to quantify ecosystem services, long-term management options, and available funding sources for restoration.

Botts said the move to expand TWI’s project portfolio is a natural extension of the organization’s 17-year history.

“Since 1994, TWI has accomplished a lot, attempted a lot, and learned a lot. We’ve learned from our very successful on-the-ground projects, and our experiments still on the drawing board, and some things that didn’t pan out. Behind the scenes during 2010 the board and staff did some really impressive self-examination work: frankly reviewing all those experiences, identifying the key takeaways, and laying out the specifics of how and where TWI works best and what sorts of work it wants to take on. That’s something that really impressed me upon first formally sitting down with everyone early this year,” said Botts, who joined the organization in spring 2011.

“The internal capacities here are strong and the mindset is excellent,” he said. “I feel fortunate, a bit like someone who’s been handed the keys to a nice car that’s fresh from getting a tuneup. This engine is primed and ready to produce its next set of results on the ground.”

But TWI will remain committed to its current projects, says Botts.

“We have been working for years at two of the most ambitious and important restoration efforts in the state – at the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge and at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. In 2012, we will be restoring the high-quality marsh and the rare wet meadow at the refuge, while we begin restoration on a new parcel within Midewin. At this new Midewin site, TWI will for the first time restore land that has a heavy industrial footprint, as the Army’s sewage treatment plant was located there.

“We’re also moving forward in the Big Bureau Creek Watershed in north-central Illinois where 3 out of every 4 acres is used for agriculture. In an area such as that – and there are many throughout the upper Midwest – we have to find a way to restore wetlands on private lands within the agricultural context. That’s what our “Growing Wetlands for Clean Water” study is all about, and now we’re working to move that effort into on-the-ground demonstration.”

Each of these projects brings the multifunctional power of wetlands to lands that have been disturbed and drained.

“Our vision is always to make real the maxim: Wetlands are more valuable wet than dry. That’s what every one of our projects is about,” Botts said. “That’s not going to change.”