While working on a thought leadership piece with a small team today, what I thought was a distraction came up. It turned out to be a question about a place that I'd spent some time in the field, within what little is left of the once vast Grand Kankakee Marsh. This article explains it well, so rather than repeat I'll link:
I'd forgotten how many places I'd visited, most of them long ago, within that 1,000+ square miles of former wetland. They range from the well known Jasper-Pulaski State Fish and Game Preserve, which I'd visited twice while still in high school to see the sandhill cranes during fall migration; to a cluster of sites managed by The Nature Conservancy and the State of Indiana Division of Nature Preserves in and around what was once Beaver Lake in Newton County; from near the headwaters in St. Joseph County, to the six miles of unchannelized and still meandering swamps downstream of the Illinois border, including Momence Wetlands.
This place was huge, covering parts of at least eight counties. The restoration opportunities are challenging, but nearly unlimited and in many areas still possible.
