A year after Powderhorn project, nature rebounding at Chicago’s only nature preserve

On a crisp Saturday morning in early November, Kayla Lindsay Fisher led a small group of birders on a tour of recent habitat restoration efforts affecting the Powderhorn Prairie and Marsh Nature Preserve on Chicago’s Southeast Side.

The group gathered at 133rd Street and Avenue K, in a parking lot near a boat launch at the southern tip of the Wolf Lake channel. In the stillness, they could hear water draining into Wolf Lake.

“This is a big deal for birds,” said Fisher, senior associate in stewardship for Audubon Great Lakes, as she held up an enlarged map of an elaborate drainage system that starts a half mile to the south.

Indeed. The habitat improvement project dedicated in October 2023 resulted from $1.2 million provided by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Great Lakes Commission Regional Partnership.

The water monitoring and drainage system uses underground tunnels, a stream channel and small ponds to restore the natural drainage from Powderhorn Lake’s northern marsh area into Wolf Lake, which empties into Lake Michigan via Indian Creek and the Calumet River.

Besides being important for birds, it’s a big deal for fish.

The tour started near the tail end of the drainage system, where Sean Schneider, a toddler, tossed a stone into a small pond located in the Wolf Lake boat launch parking lot.

“He loves to explore,” said his mother, Martha Schneider.

Like others in the group, mother and son seemed surprised to see small fish swimming there.

Fisher said the fish are a sign that, after a year, the drainage system is making good on its promise to encourage fish movement from Lake Michigan and Wolf Lake to Powderhorn’s recovering hemi-marsh, where fry can mature among plants that provide refuge from predators. The idea is to support a wider diversity of species and provide food for birds and other wildlife.

In another portion of the drainage system, the group saw a large-gray fish slowly pivoting in water barely deep enough to cover its back. One birder identified it as a carp, but the bumpy ridges on the creature’s back suggested an ancient sturgeon known for feeding in shallows.

Wildlife responses to the habitat changes seem to signal success for a partnering effort that continues to involve Audubon Great Lakes, the Forest Preserves of Cook County, the Great Lakes Commission and NOAA.

These days, hemi-marshes are considered rare throughout the world, Fisher said. The hemi-marshes of the Calumet region provide essential breeding habitat for water birds like the least bittern, the pied-billed grebe, and the not-so-common common gallinule, according to the FPCC website.

Just to the south of 133rd Street, the group surveyed a block-long expanse of prairie plants lining a stream channel.

Fisher oversees the work of eight Audubon Great Lakes interns, who earlier in the year planted the area with seeds taken from native plants at Kickapoo Forest Preserve.

She pointed to goldenrod, boneset, Indian grass and bluestem gaining ground against non-native phragmites and hybridized cattails. She also pointed out where herbicide had been applied to eliminate non-native plants.

Another drainage tunnel running beneath 134th street marked the beginning of a wetland enhancement zone.

Standing in an alley that borders the zone, Walter Marcisz, a lifelong Hegewisch resident and Audubon Great Lakes bird monitor, peered eastward, through binoculars and layers of grasses and tall trees to get a better look at birds landing on sparkling water.

“Look, four hooded mergansers!” he said to the group.

The duck represents one of 200 bird species to be found in the most biodiverse area and the only state-dedicated nature preserve within Chicago’s city limits.

Besides seeing a great blue heron, a great egret, several Canadian geese, mallard ducks and mute swans on or near water, the group spotted a red-shouldered hawk, an orange crowned warbler, a blue jay, and woodpeckers flitting among the prairie grasses and treetops. They also saw lots of plump mourning doves resting on power lines leading to nearby homes.

As they continued walking south, Marcisz recalled more than 50 years ago, as a young teen, becoming fascinated with the water birds at Powderhorn Lake’s hemi-marsh.

“Before homes were built, this was dune and swale topography and you’d get these postage stamp pieces of nature,” Marcisz said.

Located just west of the Indiana border and a few feet south of the Indiana Harbor Belt Railway tracks, the large watery expanse had once attracted swamp sparrows, snowy egrets, marsh wrens, black rails, blue winged teals, black crowned night herons, black terns and other water birds that relied on the unique habitat for food and shelter.

The wetland also likely served as a haven for leopard frogs, green frogs, croaking bullfrogs, snapping turtles, and now endangered yellow-spotted Blanding’s turtle. The air above pulsed with dragonflies, butterflies and thousands of other insects.

“All that changed when the shallow water and muddy areas and vegetation got covered by water,” Marcisz said. “It became open water, so the marsh birds went kaput.”

Development that impeded natural drainage was to blame.

“There’s a ton of slag under our feet,” Marcisz said, kicking dark rocky soil. “They had to bring in a ton of equipment to get underneath it. “

Just steps south of the railroad tracks, a white pole topped by an electronic device monitors water levels to inform manual activation of controls that regulate drainage. Before the drainage system, water from heavy rains sometimes covered the railroad tracks and flooded the basements of nearby homes, Marcisz said.

Lotus plants died in the greater depths, and the water reflected the sky like a mirror.

Now, lotus dot the surface, their leaves having turned brown in advance of winter. Marcisz seemed happy to see exposed mud, dried grasses, reeds and cattails lining the marsh’s western edge.

Off in the distance and nearly to the state line, the group noted more swans, geese and ducks splashing and settling on the water. The ducks were too far away to identify by species, but their presence still seemed a good sign.

Pamela Steiner, from Chicago’s North Side, didn’t get many bird photos, but she said she was still glad she came.

“I grew up in a rural area of Texas, and I miss nature,” she said at the start of the walk. “The pandemic made me aware of that. In Chicago we think we don’t have any wild animals, but many people still see skunks, raccoons and coyotes. And we’re located on two really good flyways. Every four to six months a million different birds come through. On these walks I get to see birds coming from the northern tundra to the Andes.”

Susan DeGrane is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.