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Amenities |
| Public Parking |
| Trails |
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Sedge Meadow |
Sedge Meadow is a living laboratory designed to provide scientists the research opportunities necessary to study the function of wetlands. These controlled, experimental wetlands have been constructed where abandoned farm fields and gravel pits once stood. |
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Location |
| Sedge Meadow is located in northeast Lake County in Wadsworth. |
| The entrance and parking area for the preserve are located on the south side of Wadsworth Road, east of Route 41 and west of the Des Plaines River Trail.
The entrance and parking area for the preserve's canoe launch (Wadsworth Road Canoe Launch) is located on the south side of Wadsworth Road, east of the preserve's main parking area. Fishing is available at the launch.
You can access the Des Plaines River Trail from either entrance. |
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History |
Wetlands Research, Inc. was formed in 1983 as a joint venture between the Lake County Forest Preserves and the Chicago-based Openlands Project to manage construction and research of the wetlands project. The project concluded in December 2012. |
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The Natural Scene |
Before restoration work began, the land had been drained for farmland, mined for sand and gravel and then abandoned. Most of the original wetlands had been destroyed. Today, the river, once obscured by weedy overgrowth, is visible through a rehabilitated oak grove. The prairies have been restored, and the wetlands are again functioning to provide flood control and improve water quality in the river. |
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