Environmental Progress - Spring 1996

"The Swamp: Wonders of Our Wetlands" Opens at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo

The Illinois EPA is providing funding assistance to this important "immersion" exhibit that encourages understanding and protection of these valuable ecosystems.

Brookfield Zoo opened this new $5 million, 14,500-square-foot exhibit on March 29, 1996. The naturalistic, mixed-species exhibit immerses visitors in the mystery of two unique American ecosystems -- a southern cypress swamp and an Illinois river scene.

The zoo's objective is to help people understand the many benefits they derive from wetlands and to encourage them to take steps to protect the environment.

Among the most productive natural systems, wetlands clean water, slow erosion, control floods and provide recreation.

Over the past 350 years, the continental United States has lost more than half of its original wetlands -- and some areas, like Illinois, have lost up to 90 percent.

Step into The Swamp

Guests entering The Swamp hear distant animal sounds, walk along a "squishy" path through a foggy mist rising from the water, and encounter a cypress swamp at sunrise. Snowy egrets and herons can be seen in the distance.

Beyond the egret's pool, foot-long salamanders show how they adapt to ever-changing water levels critical to a healthy, functioning swamp. Snakes, such as cottonmouths and canebeak rattlesnakes, inhabit different displays within The Swamp.

A boardwalk leads visitors into a sunlit atrium where towering cypress trees and their projections (known as knees) rise from the swamp to harbor a variety of animals, including American alligators, white ibis and wood storks.

Midway through the exhibit is Swamp Fest; here visitors can sit in a 14-foot johnboat and enjoy a video "boat ride" through the Atachafalaya Basin in Louisiana.

Welcome to Illinois

Exitinng the cypress swamp, visitors pass under a "Welcome to Illinois" sign and find themselves immersed in an Illinois river scene, where North American river otters can be seen sliding down a rock face and viewed underwater swimming in a stream. (The state is reintroducing river otters in central and southern Illinois.)

Across from the stream, two large maps highlight some of the many important remaining wetlands in Illinois. And an interactive display suggests how to help protect wetlands, such as disposing of hazardous waste properly, reducing home use of pesticides and fertilizers and supporting wetland protection laws.

The Swamp is the first in a series of major new exhibits for Brookfield Zoo. Construction was funded by the Regenstein Foundation, the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, the Chicago Zoological Society and many generous donors. Also, the Illinois EPA is providing funding assistance through Section 319 of the Clean Water Act.