Wine at the Wetlands on May 22 at Nygren Wetland Preserve

From press release

Local and organic wines, delicious appetizers and live music will be some of the attractions at Wine at the Wetlands from 3 to 6 p.m., Saturday, May 22. The event is held to help the Natural Land Institute continue restoration of prairies, woodlands and wetlands at the 721-acre Nygren Wetland Preserve located west of Rockton at 3190 W. Rockton Road.

Jerry Paulson, executive director of the Natural Land Institute, says tickets are going fast. “We only have 300 tickets and expect to sell out quickly for the first event of our year-long celebration of our 10th anniversary of the Nygren Wetland Preserve restoration,” he said.

Tickets are available at NLI for $20 per person, $25 at the door. For reservations, call (815) 964-6666 or go to www.naturalland.org.

Paulson said the land conservation group acquired the Nygren Wetland Preserve in 2000, thanks to a gift from Carl Nygren in his will. “At that time, little of the original landscape had survived. Fields had been drained and streams straightened to counteract–with limited success–the area’s natural cycles of flooding. NLI immediately began restoring native wildflowers, grasses and trees to the land.

“During the past 10 years, great progress has been made. Sandhill cranes are hatching chicks in the restored wetlands, songbird numbers are increasing, and river otters have returned to Raccoon Creek. Five rare whooping cranes used the preserve as a migratory stopover last fall on their journey south from central Wisconsin,” Paulson said.

The Natural Land Institute is a not-for-profit land conservation organization based in Rockford. All proceeds go to preserving the precious woodlands, wetlands and prairies at the Nygren Wetland Preserve.