A large-scale wetland restoration project at Pratt’s Wayne Woods Forest Preserve in Wayne could move into the construction phase as early as June and be completed next summer.
In a presentation at Tuesday’s planning session, natural resource coordinator Maggie Zoellner told DuPage County Forest Preserve District commissioners that district staff members are pre-qualifying bidders for the project, which involves more than 50 acres in the preserve’s Brewster Creek area. Restoration will include removing an extensive system of buried clay drainage pipes dating as far as the early 1900s, when the land was farmed.
Zoellner recommended that commissioners approve an additional payment for up to $59,500 to Christopher B. Burke Engineering Ltd., Rosemont, to coordinate the project’s construction and permit process. Commissioners earlier had approved a contract with the firm for $118,000 for assistance in developing the restoration concept and securing necessary storm-water permits.
Zoellner said that, by pre-qualifying bidders, the district could award a construction contract by June 1 with a projected start date of June 15 and projected completion date of June 30, 2005. Total estimated costs of the project are $850,000.
In 2002, preliminary digging at the Brewster Creek site revealed the area once was covered by a glacial lake, its bed long buried under a dozen feet of peat and muck. Unlike many similar glacial lakebed remnants in the region, Brewster Creek’s peat-based soil layers remained largely undisturbed, affording unusual research opportunities.
Using radiocarbon dating, researchers determined that material recovered from lakebed sediment–including seed pods and a gnawed piece of wood–was between 10,000 and 13,000 years old. This post-ice age period, known as the Younger Dryas, involved rapid climate changes and is of particular interest to scientists studying global warming.
A more detailed study of the site’s geological features is in progress at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
