Salt Creek

Water quite high again from all the rain lately. Spring growth seems a little slow, but likely due to all the burns and clearing. Saw a Great Blue Heron today.

Water seems not as silty as in past years and flowing nicely. So much clearing happening in all the woods to get rid of invasive species. They burned the brush collected and the area smells of smoke.
Not much in the way of sporing blooms, too much clearing and burning has happened.

So much work going on! Aside from the dam removal there is a large project to remove invasive species that have overrun the forest preserve. Large ares have been cleared and burned, and will be replanted with native species.I do wonder about runoff and erosion, but seems ok.

Water level is way down from last week. Ice is also off completely. The trails and woods have no more ice and snow, but everything is a bit of a muddy mess.

Water was very high and flooding the area! Lots of ice melt and rain. Trails were still pretty icy and snow covered so some melting still to happen. Measured off the bridge.
The tagged trees have to do with the dam removal and restoration project. Not normally in the water!

Ice on the shorelines so measured off the bridge. Water flow looks faster and less silty than normal, likely due to dam removal.

Water level at lower, banks are very muddy. Lots of spring wildflowers bursting out.

Water was very high, don’t see any signs of spring flowers yet.

Some snow cover on the trails, otherwise very wet. Very muddy shoreline, so had to resort to my cup method of water collection.

Water very high creek silty and muddy