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DuPage County Forest Preserve District to partner with Initiative

The Wetlands Initiative is poised to add an urban wetland restoration to its portfolio, through a new project in partnership with the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County.

In the midst of Illinois' second most populous county lies three miles of degraded stream, bisecting both the St. James Farm and the Blackwell forest preserves. With an invitation from the Forest Preserve District, the Initiative has created a conceptual design to restore a high-quality natural area in the two preserves.

"This is an opportunity to expose millions of people to the restoration process, connecting people to the stewardship of water resources," said John "Ole" Oldenburg, director of the district's Office of Natural Resources.

The Initiative and the Forest Preserve District intend to work together to refine the conceptual design and to seek feedback from the public. The Initiative's ecologist, engineer, and GIS (geographic information systems) analyst are serving as the project's design team. The Initiative will also aid in the fundraising effort to complete the restoration, in partnership with public funds from the Forest Preserve District.

"The Forest Preserve District would not be doing this project now or in the near future without the contribution of technical expertise and funds from the Wetlands Initiative," Oldenburg said.

"The Wetlands Initiative has a great track record for re-creating functioning wetlands," Oldenburg said. Like the district, the Initiative focuses on the "landscape scale" for restoration, he said, rather than creating only a small pocket wetland.

The Initiative's goal is to restore the ecological function of the stream, floodplains, adjacent wetlands, and upland habitats, said Jill Kostel, Ph.D., the Initiative's project manager. "We want to restore channel meanders and recontour the adjacent floodplain to create a connected high-quality marsh zone. We can also open the stream for fish passage by rerouting stream flow around the existing Arrow Road Marsh culvert, which currently serves as a barrier."

The stream, a tributary of the West Branch of the DuPage River, is typical of many in the region where stormwater, wastewater treatment plant effluent, and other runoff fill its channel. Historically, these small streams would have flowed only seasonally, meandering through marshy areas. But when farmers and other settlers developed the landscape, they straightened and channelized the streams to quickly move the water off the surrounding land. As a result, the floodplain is no longer connected to the stream, degrading the habitat quality.

"If you reconnect the floodplain to the stream, you can start to look at how a whole landscape like this could have high ecological value, including supporting the spawning of game and nongame fish," Oldenburg said.

This Wetlands Initiative project connects with previous restored areas on the West Branch of the DuPage River, where the Forest Preserve District used federal Superfund dollars to complete habitat restoration on the river and floodplain. The project is also near the new Urban Stream Research Center, completed in 2011 with a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), on Blackwell Forest Preserve property.

The Forest Preserve District will offer ample opportunities for visitors to experience the habitats through education and interpretive displays, Oldenburg said.

"We think this will become one of our prime use preserves. Our ultimate goal is getting people connected to the resource, to be stewards of their water resources. If people understand the resource, they can change their behavior to support the resource."

The next steps for the project will be to draft formal documents to define the partnership, begin permit applications and formal design review, followed by construction and implementation of the restoration plan (tentatively set for 2013).