How the Midwest Lost Its Wetlands

When Louis Joliet and Father Jacques Marquette first explored the Illinois River in 1673, they noted the fertility of the soil and the lush vegetation, fed by abundant water: small lakes, broad rivers, and shallow marshes.

So where did all that water go and how did it move? The answers are: Downstream, and drain tiles.

Settlers laid drain tiles (pictured above) and dug drainage ditches to quickly and efficiently move the water off fields. Soon, the Illinois landscape—once peppered with depressions that retained water—was dry land to host fields of crops, specifically corn and soybeans.

How did this work? By capitalizing on one of water’s key characteristics—that is, water always seeks the path of least resistance. Its make-up creates strong attraction between molecules, so that one water droplet will “pull” another. Thus, farmers were able to dig straight ditches that pulled water quickly off of their farmland and into local streams and rivers. They then improved on this basic idea by moving the ditches underground, using clay drain tiles.

In the early and mid-19th century, each farmer tended only his own land, lining his fields with drain tiles, often homemade. However, in the late 1870s, Illinois passed laws to establish drainage and levee districts. These districts allowed landowners to create a taxing unit that could manage drain tiles and ditches for an area. This has encouraged further drainage, and by 1935, there were enough drain tiles in Illinois to circle the globe six times!

In Illinois—as in other upper Midwestern Corn Belt states—nearly 90 percent of the state’s wetlands have been drained for agricultural or urban development. By the mid 20th century, as sedimentation and flooding peaked and wildlife plummeted, people began to recognize that they had lost something of value when they drained wetlands.

As a nation, we began to set modest wetland restoration goals. For example, in 1992, the National Research Council recommended restoring 10 million acres of wetlands by 2010, or 555,000 acres per year.¹ Yet, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, only 32,000 acres per year have been restored since 1998—a mere 6 percent of the annual goal. ²

The Wetlands Initiative seeks to reverse that disturbing trend by bringing back the deteriorated wetlands of Illinois to improve water quality, increase wildlife habitat and biodiversity, and reduce flood damages. A slideshow can be viewed here of the Initiative's recent work to disable drain tiles on our Grant Creek Restoration Project at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. 

References:

¹“Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems: Science, Technology, and Public Policy.” Committee on Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems: Science, Technology, and Public Policy, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1992. p. 354.

²Dahl, T.E. “Status and Trends of Wetlands in the Conterminous United States: 1998 to 2004.” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C., 2006. p. 16.