Sixteen hundred black-crowned night herons have come to nest in the marshes around Lake Calumet. I helped count them on a bitterly cold evening two weeks ago. The total more than doubles the previous high count recorded for this species in a single day anywhere in the Chicago area. The clouds of herons provide a very clear sign that the Calumet marshes, though surrounded by steel mills and garbage dumps, are still the richest wetland ecosystem in Illinois.
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Our visit began near the end of the day at the rookery at 122nd and Torrence. The temperature, according to the radio, was about 45. But a howling gale was roaring out of the north, and in the exposed situations in which we would find ourselves, the windchill was well below freezing. We would be looking into the wind all night, our eyes tearing as we counted the birds.
The sight at 122nd Street was extraordinary. We were a good distance from the row of cottonwoods that held the nests, far enough away that the four-foot wing span of the night herons looked almost small. They were in constant motion, flying to nests carrying sticks to add to the structures. The wind fluffed the gorgeous nuptial plumes of the great egrets as they sat on nests or perched on branches. Almost a century ago these delicate plumes were a hot item in the millinery market. Hunters sought out breeding colonies, attacking at night and killing every adult. Eggs and young in the nests were either destroyed or left to die. The new Audubon societies made protection of the egret their first big cause, and the national group still uses the egret as its symbol. I wonder how that first battle would turn out if it were taking place today. I can imagine the hunters hiring some well-connected PR firm like Hill and Knowlton to point out that plume hunters play a major economic role in many small rural communities near wetlands, and that ultimately the plumes also mean jobs, jobs, jobs for hatmakers, hatbox manufacturers, and thousands of retail clerks all across the nation.
So after all these years community and environmental groups can claim a victory. The only urban PCB incinerator in the country is no longer in business. Of course if the airport happens, the victory will be largely meaningless.
You would expect local environmentalists to be unanimous in their opposition to putting an airport at Lake Calumet, and they are. But getting support from beyond the Chicago area has taken some work. The initial reaction from elsewhere has generally been that this is a local issue, and besides it’s such a crackbrained idea it will die of its own stupidity before anybody turns a shovelful of earth.
