(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The Wetlands Initiative was formed in 1994 with the idea that there needs to be a non-profit that specializes in wetlands restoration.
“In the Midwest, most of our wetlands were drained or filled in,” President and Executive Director Paul Botts says. “If we’re going to have the beauty in nature and useful services the wetlands can provide, we have to be able to do restoration and we have to be able to do it in today’s built landscape.”
He says the Wetlands Initiative takes on the hard cases.
“We take on places like Indian Ridge Marsh and Big Marsh at the south end of the city of Chicago, which were abused by industry for decades, then just basically abandoned.”
Big Marsh is now a nearly 300-acre nature area and bike park in the South Deering neighborhood. Botts says the Wetlands Initiative has also restored thousands of acres at the old Joliet Arsenal site.
Another big project the Wetlands Initiative is undertaking has to do with Illinois farms and pesticide runoff.
“Fertilzer runoff is harming our rivers and the Great Lakes, and it creates an annual dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico,” Botts said.
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