Thursday, January 15, 2009
SouthtownStar
by Jim Hook

Snowplow drivers aren't the only heavy equipment operators maneuvering in this frigid weather.

Crews in Bobcats and backhoes this week are unearthing buckthorn, maple and other nonnative trees from the frozen ground at a south suburban Cook County Forest Preserve District site.

The 250-acre site is bound by Flossmoor Road on the south, Central Avenue on the east, 183rd Street on the north and Ridgeland Avenue on the west.

The unearthed trees are stacked in piles and burned to make room for the heavy equipment to maneuver.

Burning the wood also provides heat for the workers who brave darkness and sub-zero wind chills.

It's a slow and deliberate process but one that must start now to keep the project on course, preserve officials say.

When it's completed in five years, the 250-acre site will be restored to natural wetlands, something the area hasn't seen in decades.

It's all part of an ambitious wetlands restoration project undertaken by the district, which hopes the project will return native birds and other wildlife to the habitat.

Dubbed the Bartel Grasslands Expansion, the $4.5 million project was born out of the city of Chicago's need to relocate wetlands displaced by the expansion of O'Hare International Airport.

Richard Newhard, director of the county's department of resource management, said work is starting now so as not to disturb the ground when the temperature warms and the soil softens.

"We want as little disturbance as possible," he said.

Newhard said heavy-equipment operators in heated cabs will spend the next month removing trees before the project's second phase can begin.

In that phase, a herbicide will be applied to rid the area of unwanted grasses and weeds.

Crews also will remove drain tiles installed by farmers decades ago who wanted water directed away from their farmland.

"We want to restore hydrology to the site," Newhard said. "Doing that will return the site to a wetlands, which will help bring back native birds, insects and amphibians that once called this area home."

He said the county was one of several agencies that requested money for wetlands mitigation projects.

The Army Corp of Engineers is providing the money for the projects.

"That area historically was a wetlands," Newhard said. "We're trying to restore it to the way it once was."

Newhard said the project will be constantly monitored as it goes through its various phases.

"We want to make sure the habitat is right for the species to return," he said.

Henslow sparrows and bobolinks left the site when farmers started plowing it decades ago.

Newhard said that when the project is completed it also will serve as a great "environmental education tool."