Will County News

Representative Larry Walsh, Jr. has introduced a Joint House Resolution  that would expand the Illinois Tollway System to include I-80 from Route 47 in Morris to I-294. Full text of the Illinois Joint House Resolution: " Authorizes the Illinois State Highway Authority to expand the Illinois toll highway system to include Interstate I-80 between I-294 at milepost 112 and Illinois Route 47 in Morris at milepost 154. The project will be completed in a manner that supports diversity involvement in the project work and economic development in the region ." I-80 through Will County handles traffic from the largest inland port in North America, the CenterPoint BNSF and Union Pacific intermodals, where shipping containers are transferred between trains and semi trucks.  Warehouses and Distribution Centers for companies like Wal-Mart, Amazon, IKEA, Home Depot, and more have built in Will County in the last two decades and have added to semi truck traffic in the area.  The

Prairie restoration workers and volunteers will plant over 10,000 pounds of seed at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in the coming months.    Restoration partners and Midewin volunteers are working to plant prairie seeds on 700 acres of new restoration land. Recently, the National Forest Foundation, the Wetlands Initiative and volunteers mixed the seeds of 175 different plant species tailored to each of Midewin’s different prairie habitats.  Beginning with the smaller quantities required, each seed species is meticulously weighed according to a “recipe” indicated for each habitat. Most of the larger quantities of seed will be mixed offsite and then broadcasted across the former soybean fields near Midewin’s Henslow Trail.  Members of The Wetlands Initiative’s Midewin field crew – Jim Conboy, Rachel Rohde, and Matt Taber mix the prairie seeds by hand in the Horticultural Building at the USDA Forest Service’s Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, 30239 S. State Rt. 53 Wilmington,