January 25, 2009
1:30 pm 11 F, overcast and very, very cold
TNC Office Road

Following a snowfall, I pulled off onto TNC office road and parked. Braving bitter cold, regardless of how ill prepared I was, I made my way along something like a frontage road, running south parallel to the highway. A dusting of snow covered everything, brush piles, tree stumps, sturdy weeds. Round empty nettle heads wore mounded white caps, while icy caterpillars weighted down arcing grasses. I counted seven snow topped nests waiting for the return of spring temperatures, while waves of geese flew overhead.

January 10, 2009 10:00 am 27 degrees, cold, overcast W of highway, near old mine office area

I hope someone with a better camera and photographic skills that mine, is documenting this overall change, as the wetland grows outward encompassing more and more area. As the water turns to a single expanding sheet of ice, the change becomes remarkably more visible. Each time the Emiquon acreage first comes into view approaching from the north down the highway, it's a bit of a shock to see just how far the water stretches compared to the last visit. Incredible. From this view it appears to reach to the far levee and it's very tempting to attempt a trek across it just to observe from different vantage points. On this particularly cold day, two eagles out on the ice keep an eye on me as I share their space.

Introduction to ECD

Welcome to the first posting of the Emiquon Corp of Discovery. We started in 2005 as a group or 45 participants in a project created by The Nature Conservancy to document the development of the Emiquon wetland restoration, along the Illinois river which includes over 7200 acres of predominantly farm land located near the towns of Havana and Lewistown Illinois.

One of the original suggested ideas to the group was to keep a field journal of observations as changes took place during the restoration of the Emiquon wetland. This blog will hopefully serve as an outlet for that purpose.