by Gail Goldberger

Tiles," Brad Semel says. "10.6 miles of them!" He picks up a terra cotta cylinder, 12 inches tall and 4 inches wide, and holds it up for display. Indeed many more of these hollow pipe-like cylinders — in various shapes and sizes — lie piled into two back corners of his office.

Brad Semel is a heritage biologist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) and over the last five years he and his crew have excavated 55,773 feet of these drainage tiles, planted in the late 1800s by European settlers seeking to divert water from their corn, soybean and dairy farms. By altering the flow of surface and subsurface water from what were once rich wetland communities, they eliminated hundreds of plant and animal species, and ultimately contributed to floods and water contamination that affected human communities.

Excavating the tiles to restore our region's wetlands is a monumental task, and one that can only be accomplished with vision, tenacity, and hard work. Brad has these qualities in abundance. The Turner Lake Wetlands Restoration Project in Chain O'Lakes State Park was completed in 1999 using the tried-and-true formula of removing drainage tile, reducing exotic trees and plants, clearing invasive brush, seeding the cleared areas with a mix of native species, and constructing levees and water control structures to impound water over wetland soils.

For $148,000 ($29,600 per year), Brad assembled park staff, equipment, and contractors, and turned defunct agricultural fields into 162 acres of wetlands. And they are flourishing! Orchids, cranes, woodcocks, and blue-winged teal have returned. A fen community has re-established itself near the excavation of an artesian well, and along with it unusual plant species such as Kalm's lobelia. For more on Turner Lake, a demonstration project for Chicago Wilderness, see Reading Pictures: Destruction or Resurrection.

In order to complete the project, Brad pulled together the resources of eight agencies: the Illinois DNR, US Army Corps of Engineers, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, Corlands, and The Conservation Fund.

Brad says he first grew interested in nature by watching birds along Long Island in New York. After studying ornithology at Cornell University, he earned a Masters degree in wildlife science from Purdue. Before joining the IDNR in 1995, Brad spent 13 years at the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation as a wildlife research biologist. Today his projects range from helping Ducks Unlimited engineer a water control structure at Red Wing Slough to enhance habitat for migrating shorebirds to working with volunteers removing buckthorn at Lake-in-the-Hills fen.

"Recently," he says, "I had to convince the pheasant hunters here (there is a large hunting program in the park) to let me remove sorghum and reed canary grass (aggressive exotics) and replace them with northern dropseed, wild oats, and little bluestem (native species)." The latter plantings sustain not only pheasants, but also helped Brad re-establish a population of wild turkeys. "By the way," he adds, grinning, "will you please plug the check-off on the Illinois State Income Tax Return for saving wildlife?"

When asked what he liked best about his work, Brad says, "I can make a difference. And now that I have a nine-year-old and a five-year-old, there's a chance I can make a difference for them, too."

The hardest part of his work? Policy, he replies. Lake and McHenry Counties are the fastest growing counties in Illinois. The battle to save and restore natural habitats grows more intense as competition for land increases. Moreover, Lake and McHenry are also the counties with the greatest number of natural habitats waiting to be saved.

Brad says his favorite time of the year is in June when his task is to inventory and monitor endangered species for Illinois, and specifically, wetland species of birds in breeding season.

Outside his office building, Brad points to a small fenced-in area holding an array of terra cotta tiles. It's a trophy trove or memorial, if you will, to the monumental achievement that is the Turner Lake Wetlands, or any restored habitat for that matter. Anyone can visit, and pay homage.

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