Some terms to know if you want to converse intelligently on the many apsects of open space and wetlands:Bog: Bogs are usually in isolated depressions or basins where drainage is either nonexistent or extremely limited. The highly acidic conditions in bogs favor the growth of a highly select group of plants.
Buffer: Acquisition of land with wetlands involves the purchasing of wetlands or easements on wetlands and surrounding uplands that serve as a buffer to protect the wetland. The size of the buffer needed to protect a wetland depends on the type of activity proposed and the purpose. If water quality is a concern, the size of the buffer can range from 50 to 400 feet. To protect some endangered bird species sensitive to human noise and activity, a buffer of 330 to 700 feet is recommended.
Conservation area/community: A development that aims to maintain a balance between physical building and the natural environment, usually with common ownership of open spaces.
Conservation easement: An agreement between the landowner and a third party (such as a homeowners association, park district, forest preserve district or conservation organization) granting certain rights concerning the use of a piece of property without transferring ownership of that land. The developer may have created the easement at the time of development to restrict how the property is used. The easement may prohibit fences, swing sets, sheds, planting of trees, mowing and dumping.
Deed restrictions: Similar to a conservation easement, it restricts what activities the landowner can do on his or her land or the land owned by the homeowners association. In the last decade, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has required deed restrictions on homes that border a wetland project permitted by its office. Detention pond or basin: A manmade basin designed to hold water that used to be absorbed into the soil, but now runs off impervious areas such as homes, driveway, roads and mowed lawns. Rainwater and snow melt accumulate here and then are slowly released to a nearby creek or stream.
Dune: Rounded hill or ridge of sand heaped up by the action of the wind. Open dunes, marshes, prairies, upland forests and swamps, oak savannas and relic populations of jack pines all grow within a few miles of Lake Michigan.
Fen: Unique wetlands that grow on slopes that are constantly fed by ground water flowing out of sand or gravel deposits. The ground water picks up calcium and magnesium carbonates from the sand and gravel. The highly alkaline water creates conditions that only a select group of calcium-loving plants can tolerate.
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Flood plain: Any land area susceptible to being inundated from flood waters from any source. Often lowlands adjacent to a river channel that are regularly flooded during periods of heavy flow, such as early spring. Land and water conservation preserve: Public or private land dedicated to protection of native flora and fauna.
Marsh: Occurs in a variety of circumstances from isolated basins to the shallow water at the edges of lakes or along the banks of rivers. Water depth is a major controlling factor of marsh vegetation. Cattails are among the most familiar of these, but in healthy, diverse marsh communities, cattails are only a part of the plant life. Many marshlands are dry in late summer.
Prairie: Grasslands. Sunny open places with native grasses and no trees.
Prairie restoration: The process to return and maintain the living things native to the grasslands area before settlement in the early 1800s.
Preserves/reserves: An area dedicated to protect the native flora and fauna of the region for the “education, pleasure and recreation of the public.” In the Chicago area, there are 200,000 acres of protected natural land of Chicago Wilderness including preserves owned by federal, state, county and municipal governments as well as private organizations. These lands are the base that supports much of the region’s biodiversity. Restoration area: The process to return and maintain the biodiversity of the living things in a ecosystem or community. Begun in the Midwest about 60 years when scientists at the University of Wisconsin began planting tallgrass prairie species at the University’s Arboretum in Madison, the aim is to return the species typical of the community to the land and to receate the ecological forces that sustained the land in the past.
Retention pond: A basin that is designed to hold accumulated rainwater and snow melts from the surrounding area, releasing the water slowly into the soil or nearby stream. A retention pond differs from a detention pond by having vegetation appropriate to filter sediments and other pollutants in the water, thereby acting to improve the water quality.
Savanna: Grasslands with some trees; in Illinois, originally oak varieties able to survive periodic prairie fires.
Sedge meadow: Most easily recognized in early spring, look for low, flat ground flooded with a few inches of water and studded with lump tussocks or hummocks. These clumps of sedge by mid-summer usually are hidden by new growth. Sedges belong to the same order of plants as grasses, but they form a separate family within that order. Sedge meadows typically flourish where soils remain saturated most of the time.
Slough: A backwater area, typically associated with a river system, that has been cut off from the river and where the water is no longer connected to the main stream.
Watershed: The land area that drains to a water body and affects its flow and water level.
Wetlands: Wetlands are areas that are either covered with shallow water or have soils saturated with water for extended periods during the growing season. Some wetlands are dry much of the year and thus are not so easy to recognize. All wetlands have unique soils, specially adapted plants and wildlife and serve environmental functions.
It is necessary to secure a permit from the Corps of Engineers to discharge dredged of fill materials into U.S. waters. Failure to secure a permit can result in civil and/or criminal penalties. The State of Illinois has a no-net-loss goal for wetlands and requires replacement of all wetlands lost. For example, bogs and fens cannot be destroyed because the expertise does not exist to replace them. Mitigation agreements vary according to location and kind of replacement. Economic incentives are sometimes provided by governments to protect wetlands.