Conservationists to restore major Illinois wetland

 

(Note: 'Restore' has Nothing to do with it. The word is Control and it is imperative that the reader consider the global driving forces behind this massive lockup of land, water, natural resources, and private property. It is called Collusion, and The Nature Conservancy has been working with the federal and state government to pull off this coup. Giant Red Flags are flying here -- connect the dots to so many other places and so many other schemes. It's a global land/water/control grab going on. There is a great amount of information contained herein, as well as immediately following the article. Please assimilate, then share!)

 

December 16, 2003

 

By Gary Wisby, Environment reporter

 

gwisby@suntimes.com

 

The Chicago Sun-Times

 

Chicago, Illinois

 

http://www.suntimes.com

 

To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@suntimes.com

 

It's the largest wetland restoration project in the United States outside the Florida Everglades.

Under way on the Illinois River south of Peoria, 3-1/2 hours from Chicago, the work embraces 10,000 acres known as Emiquon.

"This is rare on a global scale," said Michael Reuter, chief conservation officer for the Nature Conservancy, which paid $18.4 million for 7,600 acres. The federal government owns the rest.

The Illinois is one of only three large floodplain rivers in the world that are recoverable.

"Six hundred generations of Native Americans lived there because the land was so rich and plentiful," Reuter said. "It's the crown jewel of the Illinois River valley."

Near Dixon Mounds, the famous Indian burial ground, the river flooded often, leaving behind fertile topsoil. But about 1920, during a time Emiquon was owned by salt tycoon Joy Morton, it was drained to create farmland.

The Emiquon project, involving 40 scientists from around the country, will "add water and stir."

Work on a 2,000-acre area nearby called Spunky Bottom provides a 'model.' In 2000 it attracted up to 16,000 waterfowl, twice as many as the year before.

"It's as close as you get to instant gratification in the conservation business," Reuter said.

Nature Conservancy staffer Jo Skoglund, who lives in Havana, Ill., across the river from Emiquon, said, "We had so many eagles in the bay yesterday that I couldn't get any work done. I had two immatures clashing talons right over my backyard about 30 feet in the air."

One day recently ducks were as closely packed as in an M. C. Escher print. "They had to take off in waves because there were so many they would bump into each other," Nature Conservancy spokeswoman Genie Ehnis-Lester said.

"We take doubters to see Spunky Bottom," Reuter said. "Then we go back to Emiquon and they see the scale and they say, 'This is too cool.' "

Emiquon once was one of the biggest fishing sites in the nation, producing 12 million pounds in 1908. Still, it supports 100 different species, including sturgeon, gar and the big-nosed paddlefish.

The restoration is expected to be completed by 2005. The current "guesstimate" of the cost is $6 million.

In September, Reuter attended a Large Rivers Rehabilitation Conference in the Netherlands. "They were astounded at the scale and opportunity of what we have here," he said.

"What we hope to do is to be able to influence how lands all up and down the Illinois River, the Mississippi and large rivers around the world are managed."

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-wetland16.html

Additional reading:

First is the 'Think Global, Act Local' language deception:

Illinois State Water Survey 2003 Strategic Plan ... The major components of these cycles - atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere - will provide a basis for organization and program management at the ...
http://www.sws.uiuc.edu/iswsdocs/ISWSStrategicPlan2003.pdf

http://www.unep.or.jp/ietc/New-Events/Index.asp (it's a long list of global land/water/people control plans)

Specific to this article: September 15, 18, 2003:

Monitoring Tailor-Made IV: Information To Support Sustainable Water Management: From Local to Global Levels, Netherlands (yes, they come right out and SAY 'from Local to Global Level' - can you change 'water management' to 'water control' and then contemplate the real agenda? It's the FOURTH one in 2003! They'd already had February, April and May 'conferences.')

http://www.unep.or.jp/ietc/New-Events/MTM-IV.pdf 

Here's the FACTS:

http://www.riverbadger.0catch.com/people_for_the_west3.htm  

This is 'the campaign,' all laid out, blow by blow:

ICLEI Water Campaign: The Mission Statement for the Water Campaign is:
to build a worldwide movement of local governments with their stakeholders, who are together committed to achieving tangible improvements in the sustainable use of fresh water resources by protecting and enhancing local watersheds, reducing water pollution, improving the availability and efficiency of water and environmental sanitation services and promoting public health. http://www.iclei.org/water/ 

Chapter 3: The Refuge Environment ... organisms are part of a complex, delicately balanced network called the biosphere. ... Plan 36 Figure 12: Conservation Focus Areas, Chautauqua NWR and Emiquon NWR ...
http://midwest.fws.gov/planning/ilriverdccpch3.pdf

Appendix A: Draft Environmental Assessment ... 120 Figure 5: Chautauqua and Emiquon Focus Area ... 121 List of Tables: Table 1: Alternatives ...
http://midwest.fws.gov/planning/ilriverdccpAppA.pdf

Notice the relationship between the Tuscon, Arizona, connection and 'soil samples' and their 'viability:'

... Viability in Soil Samples from The Nature Conservancy Site at Emiquon, Report to ... Invited speaker, Columbia University Biosphere II center, Tuscon, AZ, May 28. ...
http://www2.ic.edu/beal/cv03.html

Connect a few more dots? Why, sure!

 

Big Buck Awards Page 1. Big Buck Awards Recognizing Corporations that Use Their Influence to Exploit Public Lands and Resources for Private Profit ... http://www.pennenvironment.org/reports/BigBuckAwards10_02.pdf

 

GREEN STURGEON PETITION EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .. Information Center, the Center for Biological Diversity, and WaterKeepers ... and all of earths remaining biodiversity. ... of only a handful of large rivers. ...
http://www.wildcalifornia.org/projects/endangered_species/grsturgeon/execsum060601.html

Biodiversity Activist SearchResults Page ... On 6-11-01, the Center for Biological Diversity, EPIC, and WaterKeepers Northern California ... to British Columbia, and spawns in the mainstem of large rivers. ... http://www.endangeredearth.org/alerts/result.asp?index=1005

Fisheries Management Section ... Responding to a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, the US District Court ordered the Service to reconsider the designation of critical ... http://www.sdafs.org/fmsafs/news/fms19_1.pdf

SAF - Working Groups - C5 - Wildlife and Fish Ecology ... Protection Information Center, Center for Biological Diversity, and Waterkeepers ... by the Biodiversity Legal Foundation to ... in medium to large rivers with low to ...
http://www.safnet.org/workinggroups/c5.cfm

Abdel-Mallek, AY, Abdel-Kader, MIA and Shonkeir, AMA, 1994, " ... of riparian vegetation along large rivers is complicated by ... major threats to native and natural biodiversity. ... 40, Southwest Center for Biological Diversity. ... http://teamarundo.org/research_reference/biblio/TAdN_Bib.html

EPA: Federal Register: Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and ... small springs to large rivers, and high ... to litigation by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project, and the ... http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-SPECIES/2002/February/Day-12/e3140.htm

CURRICULUM VITAE File Format: Microsoft Word 2000 - View as HTML
... Emiquon Scientific Advisory Council, Nature Conservancy of Illinois, 2001- present. ... land-water interface: science for a sustainable biosphere," hosted jointly ...
http://bio.winona.msus.edu/delong/VITAE.300.doc