Wolf Lake Campaign Report
from Terry Schilling
December, 2002

WOLF LAKE

I brought up the idea of starting up an independent community-based volunteer stewardship group that would be able to work on both sides of the state line. There had been very limited discussion of any volunteer efforts at habitat construction or restoration, with the parties mainly thinking about agencies working on specific remediation or construction projects. The Nature Conservancy's stewardship coordinator has expressed support and will help with training. The Forest Preserve District of Cook County has also expressed support, as has the Field Museum's Environmental and Conservation Programs department. I was invited to attend a meeting of the Calumet Stewardship Initiative and have leads on available grants for both helping organize the effort and for management/restoration work. I'll also be looking for a 501(c)3 organization to administer any grants, and some Wolf Lake Vision Implementation Committee (VIC) members have offered some suggestions as to what group that might be. I have yet to meet with some of the neighborhood people (Friends of Wolf Lake), but that is also planned. There's a lot of activity and interest in Wolf Lake now, and I think there may be fairly significant opportunities for habitat enhancement in the Wolf Lake area, which includes George Lake, Indian Creek, Hyde Lake wetland, Powderhorn Lake and Prairie, Eggers Grove and Marsh, the former Nike missile base site. Powers Conservation Area is the main public land on Wolf Lake itself, although Hammond maintains a park on the east side, and there is some private land that can perhaps be managed as habitat area also. I thought the Wolf Lake project was going to slow down until next spring (next grant funding cycle), but it seems as though things will be moving forward more quickly.

What came through at the Calumet Stewardship Initiative meeting that I attended was the importance all the partners are putting on the educational (read: school kids) component of stewardship in the region. I hope that we can find enough local adults with the desire to learn and manage restoration, much of which will be of wetland areas, of course (including Calumet Containers, should that in fact happen).

The other good news I heard at the CSI meeting is that the Hegewisch Marsh acquisition will be completed by December, and that the Environmental Center will be built there. Also, talks have begun between the city and Waste Management over the city's purchase of the Big Marsh. While that looks to be a long drawn out process because of toxic contamination issues, at least they're pointed in the right direction. Apparently, Indian Ridge Marsh (north and south) and MOST of the Heron Pond parcels are already under city ownership. Birders can feel free to enter those sites without fear of trespassing, although one can hope that everyone will be careful during heron nesting season.

As a little side light, BOLD Chicago is running a small (4 acre) prairie restoration site with schoolkids on the WEST side of Stony Island - on private property. Maybe we can look forward to this being a seed source for more extensive work at Lake Calumet in the future.



From: Michael Boos, AWLI project coordinator

RE: Section 319 application

As an update to AWLI's 319 application, funding for our proposal to the Chicago Community Trust foundation has been approved.  It will be sent to us through the Legacy Foundation of Lake County, Indiana.  A fitting bi-state funding mechanism.

Terry Schilling, of the Bird Conservation Network, is establishing through Wolf Lake Vision Implementation Committee, a Bi-state Wolf Lake Stewardship program that includes involvement of Friends of Wolf Lake, Chicago's Bowen High School, Bold Chicago, the Field Museum of Natural History and individuals from both states.  With AWLI, this entity will form the management entity for the Calumet Containers wetland.  This would be acceptable to the US EPA official overseeing the emergency removal there.