Reporting by Christiana Freitag for the Chicago Tribune:
As sweeping changes to the federal Clean Water Act in recent years have weakened protections for wetlands, Illinois has become the first state in the nation to officially recognize a conservation tactic known as rewilding.
The Illinois Rewilding Law, which took effect last month, empowers the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to pursue projects that restore land to its natural state, said Illinois Rep. Anna Moeller, an Elgin Democrat and primary sponsor of the bill.
The law could encompass the reintroduction of keystone species that improve ecosystems, like beavers and bison. But officials and environmentalists say closing the federal gaps in wetland protection is their focus right now. Largely symbolic, the Rewilding Law is the first step toward enacting legislation with permitting powers, they say.
“Wetlands are hugely important for our water quality, for preventing flooding, for helping native species that are endemic to those areas,” Moeller said. “Once we lose them, they’re gone forever.”
Lindsay Keeney, conservation director at the Illinois Environmental Council, explained that restoring native ecosystems helps Illinois weather more extreme and frequent flood events.
“When we see removal of wetlands and native prairies,” Keeney said, “that’s where we see incredible flood damage, stormwater runoff and backup and a lot of damage to homes and human life and major flood events, which we’re seeing more and more of with climate change and more 100-year-flood events happening two, three or even four a year.”
Restoring wetlands is one of the most cost-effective strategies for flood mitigation in both urban and rural communities — far cheaper than building new wastewater treatment facilities or flood-control infrastructure, Keeney said.