Project to restore Waterfall Glen woodland, marsh underway

DARIEN – Snow and ice blanketed the trails leading into the 66-acre Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve as the road to restoration started with the sound of machinery heard in the faint distance.

“Watch your step,” said Nick Fuller, natural resource project coordinator for the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, as he played tour guide. “It might actually be easier to walk on the side of the trail. I almost fell a couple times earlier myself.”

Fuller knew the trails and ecology of Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve in Darien like Galileo knew the coordinates of the stars.

He and others have been studying the forest preserve for quite some time, and just this month, the forest preserve district has started the work to restore Kettle Woods and Musk Turtle Marsh to a functional, sustainable ecosystem.

Public enemy No. 1 at the vast forest preserve is invasive species, and throughout the spring the district will remove large amounts of buckthorn, honeysuckle and other weedy shrubs.

Oak trees tower high above, making up the canopy of the forest preserve, but it’s the trees and seedings that will take their place at the bottom of the woods that are most concerning to the district.

Fuller said even though there aren’t any leaves on the trees, light from the sun wouldn’t be able to reach the ground, so native plants aren’t surviving.

“The problem is you’ve got these baby oaks down here, or the seedlings, and they’re not getting any light,” he said. “The reason why they’re not getting any light is because of these invasives. If we don’t have any oak seedlings now, we won’t have any big oaks in the future.”

Removing the invasive plants will support an array of wildlife and provide “impressive views” of the wildflowers come spring.

Invasives are also creating problems at Musk Turtle Marsh as the plants are clogging the marsh, preventing anything else from growing. Birds that rely on the area for nesting and breeding are avoiding the area, and the musk turtle has all but disappeared.

John “Ole” Oldenburg, director of office of natural resources, said the time was now to start the recovery of Waterfall Glen.

Oldenburg said come March or April, the change will be evident to visitors of the forest preserve as the “curtain,” or the first 15 to 20 feet of the forest that’s comprised largely of invasive species, will be cleared out creating a more open look.

“The most dramatic effect will be the increase in light into the forest floor, so it will be a brighter penetration of light down into the forest floor,” Oldenburg said. “In general, we’ll see a lot greater diversity of ground plants and that in turn will create an increase in insect populations as well as bird utilization in those areas.”

After the removal of invasive plants, herbicides will be applied to nonnative plants in the marsh and woods to suppress any regrowth. The district will restock native shrubs, trees and flowers, and also use a controlled burn program.

Those phases of restoration will continue for two to three years, but change will be clear this spring.

“The cool thing is in this area we’re going to see an immediate change,” Fuller said. “All kinds of wild flowers are going to pop up here.”