E-Newsletter ■ December 2006

Nutrient farming pilot project moves forward

In late November, TWI received the official green light to proceed with its proposed Nutrient Farming Pilot Project at Goose Pond. Both landowners at the site—Princeton Game and Fish Club and the Senachwine Club—voted to participate in the project and agreed to form a new drainage district. The new district will be responsible for negotiating contracts to construct and operate the nutrient farm.

The 1,230-acre pilot project is located in a highly disturbed, backwater lake and wetland complex on the west side of the Illinois River directly across from TWI’s Hennepin & Hopper Lakes project. By creating a series of wetland “cells” in the project, TWI will be able to manage the water depth, retention time, and other hydrologic variables that impact removal of nitrogen and phosphorus.

Officials at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago are eager to partner with TWI in this project. The district expects to invest approximately $15 million to construct the berms and pumps needed to control the water levels and to enable the research. The district believes that restored wetlands could provide its ratepayers a lower-cost, higher-value option than concrete and steel to meet EPA’s pending nutrient standards.

The Nature Conservancy is another supporter of this project. “We believe the project is extremely important, as it will provide direct benefits, specifically improved water quality and important habitat for native plants and animals, and indirect benefits by providing information that will promote future restoration floodplain wetland restoration project,” said Doug Blodgett, director of TNC’s Upper Mississippi River Floodplain Initiative.

Restoration to begin in the rare seep

TWI is preparing to launch a major one-year restoration effort in the Dore Seep at the Sue & Wes Dixon Waterfowl Refuge at Hennepin & Hopper Lakes. Gary Sullivan, TWI’s restoration ecologist, has developed a restoration plan to attack the invasive woody vegetation in the exceedingly rare seep community along the lower slopes of calcareous glacial terrace at the eastern edge of the project site.

Seeps are usually only found in tracts of less than one-tenth of an acre, making the 40 acres of the seep at Hennepin one of the largest in the state. Its location adjacent to other natural landscapes makes it even more significant. Yet the seep’s ecological integrity is threatened by invasive species. Previously TWI has restored only a small portion, now—thanks to several recent grants—we will be able to fully restore this area.

Since August 2006, TWI has received grants from the following organizations for this restoration: Grand Victoria Foundation, Tellabs Foundation, the Community Foundation of Central Illinois, and Dr. Scholl Foundation. In addition, REI Inc. provided a grant for restoring marsh communities at the project.

Natural wonders seen at the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge

“This year we have experienced an unbelievable display of waterfowl that reminds me of when I was a young boy growing up in Hennepin. This afternoon, for example, the sky was filled with thousands of birds entering the wetlands as if part of a huge tornado. This went on for nearly an hour. It is a wonderful thing to see.”

--Terry Judd, Hennepin resident; comments emailed to TWI, 11/16/06

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