Projects

Powderhorn Lake

Funded by a Great Lakes grant won on the strength of a 2017 Hey planning study, we are currently working with the Forest Preserves of Cook County (FPCC), Audubon Great Lakes, NOAA, and IDNR to implement water level control and hydrologic restoration at the Powderhorn Lake Preserve.

The project will include a reimagined drainage system between Powderhorn Lake and Wolf Lake, taking advantage of two FPCC owned parcel between the lakes to create a maintainable water level management system. The new system will allow for water level management to facilitate ecologic restoration and vegetative management at the Powderhorn Prairie and Marsh Nature Preserve, one of the only remnant dune and swale ecosystems in northern Illinois. Fish passage opportunities between the systems will also be restored and enhanced. As part of the ecologically complex and unique Calumet region, the ability to manage water levels and marsh habitat will create new and improved habitat for a varierty of threatened and endangered plant and animal species.