Good News!  Filling Yet Another Donut Hole at Kankakee Sands
 

Last year at this time we told you of a 400-acre acquisition at our Kankakee Sands restoration. The parcel is west of the Kankakee Sands office and fills in a “hole” between Willow Slough Fish and Wildlife Area and the restoration, creating an additional 1.25 miles of connection between the two preserves.
 
Not ones to let the grass grow under our feet (not even prairie grasses), the Indiana Chapter recently acquired 200 additional acres at Kankakee Sands. This acquisition marks an important turning point for the restoration. Located immediately west of the Conservancy office and surrounded on all sides by the Kankakee Sands restoration, this new “donut hole” was a key in-holding in the preserve design, and it completes our connection with Willow Slough. For the short-term, the property will continue to be farmed, and the proceeds used to support the restoration. Eventually, the parcel will undergo restoration.
 
Most of the 200 acres is flat, low-lying ground, perfectly fit for wet prairie and sedge meadow restoration. The southeast corner has three small sand dunes that will make excellent black oak savanna “sand-knobs”, a feature once common in the area, but becoming rarer as they are converted for agriculture or home sites.
October 2008
Kankakee Sands Map

 


In 1996, three key natural areas in northern Newton County—Conrad Savanna, Beaver Lake Prairie and Willow Slough Fish and Wildlife Area—were imbedded within a matrix of corn and bean fields. In a unique strategy to improve the long term survival of the plants and animals on those natural areas, The Nature Conservancy purchased 7,200 intervening acres from Prudential Insurance. This single purchase connected the three properties—a crucial step to ensure that plants and animals isolated on a single site would have a more natural bridge to interact, share genetic material and increase the vigor of the populations. This acquisition was the birth of the project known as Kankakee Sands, headquartered in a ranch house on U.S. 41 north of Morocco, Indiana. 

Recently The Nature Conservancy purchased an additional 400 acres of land directly west of the Kankakee Sands office. A quick look at a map of the Kankakee Sands project illustrates why this piece was so integral to our restoration efforts. The 400 acres fills in a “hole” between Willow Slough FWA and the Kankakee Sands restoration. It creates an additional 1.25 miles of connection between the two preserves, helping to fulfill the original goals of the project.

There is more to this parcel than just its location. It possesses a natural basin, drained by previous owners in order to be farmed. The depression offers an exceptional opportunity for creation of an abundant wetland, much larger than any currently on the Kankakee Sands restoration. The wetland will have significant areas of open water intermingled with shallower fingers of sedge meadow and wet prairie. The new habitat will be ideal for waterfowl, shorebirds, and marsh birds. We anticipate that this wetland will become a key resting and nesting area for thousands of migratory water birds each spring and fall.

Creating vegetation for such a large emergent wetland poses exciting challenges requiring new strategies and techniques. The restoration will demand much more sophisticated engineering and detailed planning than the restoration of any other acres on the project to date. The sheer size of the wetland will require formulation of safe water retention. We expect there will be a great interest from the local community, birders, naturalists, and outdoorsman in visiting the site. In anticipation of that, we plan to construct a platform for wildlife viewing, much in the same vein as the platform used by thousands each fall at Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area.

November 2007