Photos by Pat Wadecki and Laurel Ross. Words by Stephen Packard. Land and biota acquired and restored thanks to the dedicated folks at McHenry County Conservation District and the wise voters who support their work.

The blue water of this graceful curve of Nippersink Creek was not here a few days earlier.

The two hills visible in the background are just where they were for most of 12,000 years, since the glacier left them. But they weren’t there a year ago. The material of those hills had been used to fill the former channel of the Nippersink. The water of this meandering stream had been diverted to a straight ditch.

It seemed like this wet prairie stream and those dry prairie hills were gone forever. The good farmers had needed all the farmland they could flatten and drain, to feed their families and feed the rest of us as well. But in recent years, residential communities have been replacing the farmland of eastern McHenry County. Paradoxically, development can be harnessed for conservation.

With development come resources, planning, and a constituency of people who care about nature. The first canoeists of the restored stream (left) and the lad showing us a fat mussel (below) are examples.

When the water was cut off from the ditch and redirected to its restored ancient channel, the Conservation District held a ribbon-cutting ceremony. There had been little fanfare beforehand. The District’s Ed Collins, who oversees this massive project, expected a few dozen people to show up, mostly family of the young people who’d done the hard work. To his amazement, 300 people came.

As the ditch water began draining away, the attendees were invited to wade in, find stranded mussels, and move them where the creek now flowed once again. Scores of folks were soon up to their knees in mud and water, saving some creatures that needed help. Ed returned the next morning to see how the place looked. Dozens of people were back out there in the mud, uninvited, unexpected, but very welcome, finding mussels large and small and transporting them to their new and very much improved home.

This wetland floodplain had never been the best place for farming, and it would have been even less the best place for a subdivision. The people who are choosing to live nearby — and paying the taxes there — want nature saved. Restoring the Nippersink is an achievement to celebrate.