Summer of 1993 - The Playing Field

 I was at the Wetlands Research, Inc. (WRI) site in Wadsworth, Illinois, as a graduate research assistant for the summer of 1993. But before I get into what I was doing, I want to tell you more about the area, and what the organization was trying to accomplish.

This land is directly adjacent to the Des Plaines River, and there is a very good reason for that.

Another non-profit organization had as their goal to restore oak savannah lands along the river banks. These are native eco-systems that are almost park-like. They are characterized by mature oaks with low understory and grasses. They are transition zones between prairie and eastern woodland, and often need fire to preserve the open spaces. The mature trees are tolerant of the low ground fires.

Through "our" property, and continuing for 56 miles, the Des Plaines River Trail follows the river. Portions of the trail have existed since the 1920s. Where I was, it was a crushed limestone surface, multi-use, but non-motorized. Every day at 6 pm, the gates to the WRI property were locked. Everyone else who worked there went home. Chips and I were locked inside because we lived on site. Are you beginning to get the sense of how I managed to go to heaven without dying?

What WRI had to do with this whole thing is that it was a series of constructed wetlands designed to help clean the water from the Des Plaines River. This is an aerial photo (yes, I got an airplane ride before the summer was over). The road across the lower part of the picture ends in that little turnaround where the pumping station was located.

You can see the river curving around the left side of the picture. We pulled water from the river and fed it first into those wavy channels. It was beginning to be understood at that time that wetlands were very good at filtering and cleaning water. The channels are beds designed to help that filtering process by keeping the water moving very slowly and allowing natural bioremediation processes to take place.

From there, the water went to six "treatment" ponds. Here is a view of a couple of them. I may have a better picture. I discovered another whole box of slides from that summer, just when I thought I was almost done scanning, and I think it has some of the better ones. I hope to do those tomorrow. Anyway, you get the idea.

Some of the ponds looked very appealing and recreational.

Some of them were perhaps less aesthetically appealing to those who like nature to look clean, but they were very good at doing their jobs.

After the water went through these ponds it was released back to the river. I'll just say that my duties had to do with monitoring how well the cleaning process was being accomplished. I'll tell you more about what I actually did in the coming days.

In other news: I edited, I wrote, I walked to the library, and I made yogurt.

Total miles hiked in 2024: 167.3 of which 52.8 is North Country Trail

See Summer of 1993 Intro

To the Newaygo County Oak Savanna

  A group of four of us hiked again today on the North Country Trail in Newaygo County. This is a bit north of what I hiked on Tuesday. The weather was chillier, but comfy for hiking. The sky stayed gray, but it didn't rain. It was nice to see hiker friends.

We began at 6 Mile Rd (in Newaygo County), and walked north. Almost immeiately we found leaves of Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens). This is a fairly common, but attractive wild orchid. It will bloom in July.

We passed beside some small wetlands. These were shallow and quite scummy, but I managed to find some attractive aspen trees with white bark across the water.

This wetland wasn't a place you'd even want to filter water, but there were some nice colors. I'm sure last spring's very high water levels are responsible for the dying trees at the edges. However, the yellowed and brown pine needles lend some color for a picture. Just a small band of remaining ice on the far bank.

I thought this hike was going to take us through a rather unique place, but I wasn't positive of exactly where it was. However, I was correct. There is an area here, with about a mile of trail, where the Forest Service has partnered with the National Wild Turkey Federation and the Michigan DNR to restore an area of Oak Savanna. It's an oddly open and rolling area of grasses within the forest.

Interestingly, the scrub oaks have sprouted from old stumps a lot since the last time I was here. You can see some pictures of it in 2016 at the second link below. I'm not sure if they will do a controlled burn to make sure it remains open, or perhaps something else.

There are several old kettle holes in this section that no longer hold enough water to be lakes, but they are still just wet enough to grow leatherleaf. That's the reddish shrub down in the low area.

I loved the bands of color, texture, and vegetation at the edge.

We took a break for our snack, walked to the four-mile point and turned around. Total walked: 8 miles.

North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 146.

North Country Trail, Newaygo County, MI. 6 Mile Rd north for 4 miles and back

In other news: The 8 miles felt fine! Not sore or stiff at all. When I got home I spent the rest of the day working on the data book for this county.

See Croton to Coolbough See Backpacking Day 2

Country Drivers

 
I did reasonably well at the vendor event today. It was mostly a flea market. I didn't realize that, or I might have looked for somewhere else. But, I came out in the black, so I can't complain.

And you know what I did on the way home- back roads!

But this picture is too cute to leave out. Big brother is getting a head start on helping his sister out of vehicular crises. She really was too young for that toy- she would hold the steering wheel, and the battery would move the jeep forward, but she was looking all over the place and not having a clue about steering. Fortunately, it didn't move very fast.



I headed out to do some country driving myself. Found a good road.



Came across a sign about restoring Oak Savannas. What? Out in the middle of nowhere?



Backed up, and here's why the Forest Service put a sign there. Can you see it? This is a crossing of the North Country Trail! Blue blaze, nice treadway.



That was good for a big smile.

In other news, I fooled around in the trailer a little bit when I got home.

	See I Can Make Any Two Hour Trip Take Four
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