Nearly two years after the DuPage County Forest Preserve District took out the Graue Mill Dam in Salt Creek, the La Grange Area League of Women Voters will return in June to the park and host a nature walk to show how the move has impacted the environment.
The free walk, now an annual affair, is a celebration of the waterway’s rebirth after ecologists argued the dam was killing the creek and won its removal in November 2023. The event always draws a crowd and organizers with the League of Women Voters see the tradition as a chance for concerned residents to see for themselves how the creek is returning to health.
The Graue Mill dam’s removal proposal was met with considerable controversy. Scores of locals signed a petition opposing the dam’s removal, claiming it had historic significance and it was beautiful. They threatened lawsuits to keep the dam. On the other side, DuPage County’s River Salt Creek Workgroup and environmentalists argued for the health of the ecosystem.
Certainly, the dam held an important place in many personal histories.
Nicola Germann, a science teacher, spent a recent evening on a bench overlooking the creek in the shadow of the mill. Two years ago, the scene of the mill would have been virtually unchanged from the one she first saw as a child in 1977. Her family had just moved to the area from Germany and they posed for pictures in front of the mill and the waterfall in their new home country.
Eight years ago, she recreated the photo—same mill, same creek, same dam.
But all the while, local scientists argued, year after year, upstream from the dam, the creek was changing. Fish were dying by the score; whole species were depleted. The dam trapped organic debris — trees, foliage — as the material piled up and decayed in the water, the water’s oxygen levels dropped. The creek, which feeds into the Des Plaines River, was dying.
Now, sitting on the bench, Germann sees no dam and the river is, of course, different.
She gets the heartache of local residents.
“I think change is hard,” she said. Germann said
When workers ripped out the dam, the water level dropped and arborists cut down trees, removing non-native species — even though some were old, mighty things.
“The whole thing looked like a nuclear bomb went off,” she said. Over weeks one winter, the small island of wilderness was torn asunder. The community, she explained, is in some ways still getting over the trauma of having that dam ripped away.
“When you change things so suddenly, in such a short amount of time, it takes time to make an adjustment,” Germann said.
Now, as the river reaches its second summer without the dam, the county has planted saplings along the bank and grasses flourish on once-submerged riverbank.
Ann Lee, of the La Grange Area League of Women Voters, said she wants the June walk to be an opportunity for residents to learn the creek may have changed, but the natural beauty of the site is still present. It may look different, but the beauty remains and life is returning.
Lee said visitors can already see what an improvement getting rid of the dam has meant for the waterway. The group toured in 2022 and in 2023 and again last year, after the dam was removed. Lee said it didn’t take long for the river and the riverbank to look healthier.
“It improves so quickly,” she said. “When we did the walk last year already you could see so much greenery around the creek.”
Besides the dam, the county also removed invasive plants along the riverbanks and planted native greenery.
It’s not just the river and riverbank that’s made a comeback. Lee said she’s seen the river get more use from people, too.
“You’ll notice a lot of fishermen there and there are more species of fish upstream and downstream,” Lee said. She said area bird watchers have reported species not spotted before along the shore.
But it is a changed space. Germann said the hardest things to see go were some of the trees and shrubs. Because the project was well-funded, clearing the undergrowth and established trees wasn’t handled by a handful of volunteers but by a crew of workers who had the manpower and the equipment to basically rip out whatever wasn’t native along that stretch of the waterway. The effect was jarring and they left the land with a muddy scar where dense foliage had been.
“A lot of the trees they cut down, I think, were here since the Native Americans paddled along in their canoes,” she said.
But bit by bit and month by month, green trickles back.
“Change is good, it’s just hard in the process,” she said.
But the people haven’t gone anywhere. Germann pointed out that the trail is as popular as ever and most evenings scores of people walk and jog along the creek. Indeed, in the years since the League of Women Voters started hosting the walks in 2022, the crowds have grown. Lee said they hadn’t intended to be annual but it’s become a tradition and they’ve grown so popular, the group has to cap attendance.
“It was full and we had to turn people away,” she laughed.
Germann said she’s hopeful the area will again flourish. She misses the old trees and the way things were but, as a science teacher, she understands how things like dams can affect ecosystems so she understands that argument.
“I’m going to trust the engineers and the scientists on this,” she said. “I’m going to give it time.”
This year’s event will be from 6 to 7 p.m. June 3. Registration for the free event is at https://my.lwv.org/illinois/la-grange-area.
Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.