Daily Herald opinion: Upgrading a ‘unique wetland classroom’: Volo project will provide long-awaiting upgrade to a nearby natural wonder

The idea of touring a rural swamp may not exactly have the ring of a day at the beach or a woodland hike, but a site nearby in the northern suburbs offers a rare chance to experience unusual plant and wildlife in scenes of historically significant natural beauty.

Indeed, the Volo Bog State Natural Area in Ingleside attracts tens of thousands of visitors a year to enjoy the sights and sounds, the textures and smells surrounding a lake created by a melting glacier thousands of years ago.

For three decades, lovers of the wetland area have applied for funding for improvements to make the area more comfortable and enticing for visitors. At last, it appears they are getting their wish.

As our Mick Zawislak reports, the state’s Capital Development Board has earmarked $5.1 million to replace a half-mile-long boardwalk, upgrade hiking paths and replace an existing observation platform with a structure that will provide a sweeping view of the attraction’s so-called “eye” — apparently so named, according to openlands.org, because viewed from above the pond has the shape of an eye with “five distinct layers of vegetation surrounding the ‘pupil’ ” that show various stages of evolution.

Part of a 1,500-acre site off Brandenburg Road west of Route 12, the Volo Bog is known as a “quaking bog,” because many of the trees and plants at the site are floating on top of the water. It is the only bog of its type left in the state.

A natural wonder such as this deserves to preserved, and since 1973 the bog has been designated as a Registered Natural Landmark by the National Park Service. And, it also deserves to be enjoyed.

“The old boardwalk is a piecemeal project with layer upon layer having been added over the past 100-plus years,” Stacy Iwanicki, longtime natural resources coordinator for the site, told Zawislak. “While charming, it does have its issues with its uneven and inconsistent surface, flooding and even coming apart in places during times of high water.”

She called the area “a unique wetland classroom” that will now be even more accessible and inspirational for the 90,000 students and adults who find that a walk in a very special park, however uninviting its name, can often outshine a day at the beach or a leafy woodland hike.