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| Newsletter from The Wetlands Initiative ■ November 2009 |
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Lakes to be rehabbed; carp sent packing |
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Rehabbing high quality marsh is job #1 at the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge this fall. In late October, TWI and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) began a joint effort to remove the invasive common carp from Hennepin & Hopper Lakes at the refuge. The bottom-feeding habits of this invasive fish wreaks havoc on lakes and marshes by uprooting plants, stirring up sediment, and reducing water clarity, ultimately destroying the marsh habitat and the food web that supports waterfowl and many other native flora and fauna. The rehab operation includes pumping down the lake levels this fall (while rescuing some desirable game fish), taking advantage of winter to freeze the fish in shallow lake ice, applying rotenone to remaining fish in spring, and then letting spring rains and groundwater refill the lakes. IDNR will re-stock the lakes with both native and game fish. Read more |
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EPA issues call to stop nutrient pollution |
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For the past 11 years, the federal EPA has called on states to adopt laws to reduce excess nitrogen and phosphorus in streams and rivers. These nutrients enter waterways through run-off from farm fertilizer and human waste and degrade water quality and fuel the growing dead zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Yet, today not one of the 50 states has passed the requested nutrient standards, cites a new report from the EPA’s Inspector General.
The EPA watchdog calls on the federal agency to stop waiting for the states to take action and, instead, set standards now, particularly in high priority areas like the Upper Mississippi Basin where nutrients from the Corn Belt flow downstream to the Gulf. Illinois has been named the #1 contributor of nutrients to the Gulf of Mexico.
The report is a reminder that nutrient pollution remains a critical environmental issue across the nation. The Wetlands Initiative has advocated for the use of restored wetlands to reduce nutrient pollution. Wetlands naturally trap, store, and process nutrients. Read more |
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Prairie yields valuable harvest |
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Prairie restoration can be a labor-intensive effort, as demonstrated this fall when 30 volunteers gathered at TWI’s Dixon Waterfowl Refuge at Hennepin & Hopper Lakes to harvest native seeds by hand. Dr. Gary Sullivan, TWI’s restoration ecologist, led the group through portions of the nearly 1,000 acres of restored prairie, identifying plants ripe for seed gathering.
Seed from these plants, such as the wild white indigo, is often expensive and hard to find on the commercial market. Sullivan estimates that the harvest from this one day is valued at nearly $17,000. TWI staff will clean and sort the seeds during the winter and re-plant them on other areas within the project, increasing density and diversity of the overall prairie. TWI has been restoring prairie plant communities at the refuge since 2001, which today supports a robust community of native species. Harvesting seed on-site is a cost-effective way to restore and enhance habitat. |
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Return of endangered species, new partner at Midewin |
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After two years of intensive restoration work by TWI and the U.S. Forest Service, the Lower Drummond Restoration Project at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie is healthy enough to host the rare leafy prairie clover, says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The clover is a federally endangered native plant that thrives only in shallow soils over limestone—the exact description of the rare dolomitic prairie-wetland habitats now being restored at Midewin. Forest Service staff is now preparing to re-introduce the clover to the site next spring.
The 110-acre Lower Drummond Restoration Project, which began in 2007, is the third Midewin site on which TWI has partnered with the U.S. Forest Service. By contributing its restoration expertise and considerable private financing, TWI has forged one of the most successful public-private partnerships in the nation at this 19,000 acre federal restoration site. TWI’s fourth project at Midewin is now underway. Called the Grant Creek Project, the 634 restored acres will create large-scale contiguous habitat. National Forest Foundation recently awarded a $30,000 grant to begin this work and Enbridge Energy Company has committed $10,000 as a matching partner. Read more |
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Illinois Steward magazine highlights restoration |
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Two of the Wetlands Initiative’s projects were highlighted in the recent issue of Illinois Steward magazine focusing on the 12 “notable mega-restoration projects now underway in Illinois.” Both the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge and Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie were profiled in the summer issue.
“The practice of restoration has been around for a long time, but it is only recently that restorations have been attempted at these very large scales,” wrote Jim Herkert and Fran Harty in the introductory essay. “So Illinois is once again on the ‘conservation frontier,’ embarking on some of the largest and most complex restoration projects anywhere in the Midwest, in an effort to enhance the long-term sustainability of these areas and the species they harbor.”
Illinois Steward is published quarterly by the University of Illinois to increase awareness and respect for the natural world of Illinois and to foster the responsible use and preservation of the natural resources that sustain our physical and emotional well-being. Copies are $6 or $24 for a one-year subscription. Read more |
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The Nitrogen Fix: Breaking a costly addiction |
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“The environmental consequences of the massive amounts of nitrogen sent coursing through the planet’s ecosystems are growing fast,” writes journalist Fred Pearce in this week’s issue of Yale Environment 360. “We have learned to fear carbon and the changes it can cause to our climate. But one day soon we may learn to fear the nitrogen fix even more.”
Pearce writes that our intensive use of chemical fertilizers has enabled the world to feed its growing population, but it also has overloaded the Earth’s soils, waters, and atmosphere with nitrogen. One example he cites: the Mississippi River sends excess nitrogen to the Gulf of Mexico, where it fuels a growing “dead zone.”
The Wetlands Initiative promotes restored wetlands as a means to remove nitrogen pollution for our nation’s rivers and streams. Read more |
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