Lake County Adaptation
Lake County Adaptation is the revitalization of 33 acres of former crop and pasture fields, retention pond, and farm structures in agricultural Lake County, Illinois. The landscape is in transition from grazing land to a more ecologically complex mix of wetland, meadowland, and mixed shrubland. The project is guided by the principle, “design for healthy soil.” In practice, this meant not disturbing or compacting any more of the site to allow the land to slowly recover from decades of overgrazing. It also necessitated limiting all new built work to within the 5-acres of the original farm’s buildings, drive, and corrals, excluding the use of herbicides, and keeping and reusing all materials on site.
The project is a long-term collaboration between landscape architect, client, and the land. It is made possible through the generous and generative relationship with the family that cares for this place, and is guided by a stewardship plan, or landscape strategy, a planning document that replaces the fixity of a masterplan by providing scenarios that vary over time, acknowledging shifting plant communities and maintenance regimes and integrating the cultural and ecological landscape.
Wetland
A retention pond, dug in the 1970s to accept agricultural runoff from upstream farms, drained directly into the Des Plaines River by one 18” pipe for fifty years. The existing pipe could not accommodate the amount of water flowing into the pond and the banks were terribly eroded, the water stagnant. The lower basin through which the stream runs was completely covered in invasive reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea). Because the pond was legally considered a wetland it was subject to federal oversight resulting in a large-scale experiment in ecological landscape management to turn the stagnant retention pond into a thriving wetland.
Onsite observation and analysis of spectrogrammetry taken during the Ecological Assessment phase of the project indicated that there was a natural drainage path across the north field that would connect the pond with the existing stream. Construction began in 2022, in collaboration with ENCAP, Inc. First, the pond was dredged, the material spread on uphill slopes to dry (later graded and seeded), and a forebay excavated on the east side where the under-road culvert directs runoff in. Next, the pond was deepened at several points to encourage oxygenation and the movement of sediment, and the banks were regraded to shallow, undulating curves, stabilized with woody branches and rootballs from pruning and cleanup around the site, planted with native species grown by Possibility Place in Monee, IL. The pipe through the berm was removed, the hole filled with sand, and the berm broken for the construction of a timber weir dam, through which water slowly and continuously percolates, catching on a number of log drops and woody roots.
Without the pressure of the drainage pipe cutting the stream into a ditch, the basin of reed canary grass around the stream has transformed into a new wetland. Too wet to burn, we devised a strategy with ENCAP of covering several acres with landscape fabric to suppress the unwanted species (a USACE permit requirement).
Timothy Schuler wrote more about this experiment and our commitment to not using herbicides in Landscape Architecture Magazine, "With the potential to influence future restoration projects, this project is a case study in the generative potential of constraints—whether legally or artificially imposed—and the novel practices that emerge in response."
The site is located on the traditional unceded homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations. Many other tribes such as the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, and Fox also called this area home. The region has long been a center for Indigenous people to gather, trade, and maintain kinship ties. We acknowledge the indigenous roots of the state of Illinois and recognizes the deep history of the land tied to the traditions of the Potawatomi Tribe.
Collaborators
Kiel Moe
Decentralized Design Lab
Alex Heid
ENCAP, Inc.
Mariani Landscape
Possibility Place
Intrinsic Perennial Gardens
Johnson’s Nursery
Kaneville Tree Farms
Dane Carlson
Photos:
Practice Landscape
Alex Heid
