Students slog through the bog, help restore wetlands

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Planting native species at Cowles Bog on Friday afternoon was an adventure in the mud for about 20 college students.

“It’s definitely not typical gardening,” said 20-year-old Brittany Wisniewski, one of the hearty young people from Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin who were helping to restore degraded wetlands.

Peppering the tough-to-trek Cowles Bog with hundreds of native plants was an effort led by the National Parks Conservation Association.

Located in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore near Dune Acres, Cowles Bog proved to be a tough place to put the likes of Carex stricta and hop sedge in the soil.

Much of the soft, watery ground was thick with cattails.

“They’re tough to dig through,” said Wisniewski, a resident of Park Ridge, Ill., who is majoring in environmental studies at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill.

“It’s not easy to work out here,” said Monika Kastle, who is studying biology and chemistry at Aurora University in Aurora, Ill.

She cited one of the major focuses during the planting efforts: “Not getting stuck in the mud.”

Despite the physical challenges, Kastle and the other college students — with the assistance of National Park Service staff — were happy to be in their element.

“My major focus is on ecology,” Kastle said.

“It’s awesome,” said 21-year-old Heather Dulaney, alluding to an opportunity that had arisen for “putting good stuff back in” the earth.

“It’s nice to get out and be able to work outside,” said Dulaney, a Wheatfield resident who attends Ivy Tech Community College in Valparaiso.

Tom Strong, a university student who lives in Milwaukee, said working the soil at Cowles Bog complemented a life’s goal.

“I’m pretty interested in the national park system for a career,” said the 22-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.

According to the National Parks Conservation Association, Friday’s planting of native species was part of the National Lakeshore’s larger effort to improve Lake Michigan’s water quality by restoring wetlands. When degraded wetlands are restored, they act as a filter, removing pollutants from storm and agricultural runoff before the water reaches the lake, according to the NPCA.

Those who were getting their hands dirty Friday by replenishing Cowles Bog caught a break.

It wasn’t too hot, and mosquitoes weren’t a huge problem.

“We feel that it’s pretty important to get students outside and engaged in what’s going on in national parks,” said Naureen Rana, NPCA’s Midwest program manager.

Contact Bob Kostanczuk at 648-3144.