12/1/2008 - Leonard's Dam on Forked Creek in Wilmington, Illinois. Credit: Nate Caswell, USFWS

12/2/2008 - Randy Stowe with BioTechnical Erosion control breaches Leonard's Dam on Forked Creek in Wilmington, Illinois. Credit: Nate Caswell, USFWS

12/2/2008 - Randy Stowe with BioTechnical Erosion Control works to break up Leonard's Dam on Forked Creek in Wilmington, Illinois. Credit: Nate Caswell, USFWS

12/3/2008 - Th completed project on the former site of Leonard's Dam in Wilmington, Illinois. As the new stone accumulates biological material, it will begin to look more like a natural riffle. Credit: Randy Stowe, BioTechnical Erosion Control

Leonard's Dam is located in Wilmington, Illinois on Forked Creek less than a half mile above its confluence with the Kankakee River. Built in the early half of the 20^the century, in a time when our collective consciousness was just beginning to turn toward thoughts of conservation, the dam isolated the entire Forked Creek watershed. Nearly 100 miles of stream habitat was disconnected from the Kankakee River, a vital source of mussel and fish recruitment. Unlike many old dams, such as mill dams, that once served vital roles, Leonard's Dam was built strictly for private recreational purposes. The dam was built by Art Leonard, a wealthy resident of Wilmington.  According to Bud Lombardi, one of the landowners involved in this project, Mr. Leonard wanted his daughter to have a place to paddle her canoe, so he built the dam to create a small impoundment.  Another version of the story is that he built the dam to enhance the beauty of Mrs. Leonard's gardens. Whatever the reason for building the dam, the end result was decades of habitat fragmentation for Forked Creek.

Like many areas surrounding urban centers, the human population in once-rural portions of Will County in northeastern Illinois is rapidly expanding.  As development accelerates, local watersheds are subjected to ever-increasing pressures that lead to water quality and habitat degradation.  Prairie Streams, a community based watershed initiative, was formed in 2002 to work on behalf of Forked Creek and other watersheds in this area.  Working closely with Openlands, a non-profit organization seeking to preserve open spaces in northeastern Illinois, and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), Prairie Streams developed a Watershed Plan that identified fish passage as a top priority.  The group assessed restoration opportunities in the four watersheds and identified removal of Leonard's Dam as one of the projects that would have the greatest benefit to Forked Creek.

In 2005, Prairie Streams, IDNR, and Openlands approached the Village of Wilmington about removing the dam, and the Village supported the project.  An evaluation of the possible alternatives resulted in partial removal of the dam being the preferred option.  In 2006, Steve Pescitelli with IDNR contacted Carterville NFWCO to discuss removal of Leonard's Dam, and we submitted a proposal to the Service's National Fish Passage Program (NFPP).  The Service was able to contribute more than $55,000 to the project, while cash and in-kind contributions from Openlands, IDNR, and the Village of Wilmington totaled more than $33,000.  Of course, no project would be complete without a few speed bumps along the way. After a bit of wrangling with land ownership, historic preservation, and permitting issues, the project was finally ready to get underway in December 2008.

The contractor prepared the site on 1 December, and began breaking up the dam the following day. Once the dam was breached, it took only a few hours for the impoundment to drain completely. Even before the project was complete, two riffles above the dam were exposed, giving the stream a more natural appearance. The dam was lowered 2-3 feet, and the concrete rubble was used to partially fill the scour hole that was present at the base of the dam. Additional rock was then added to finish filling the hole and reinforce the dam abutments which had been left in place. As the new stones accumulate biological material in the coming years, we anticipate that the site will take on the appearance of a more natural rock riffle.  The project was completed on 3 December, and additional adjustments and access site reseeding will take place in spring 2009.