WOODLAWN — The Army Corps of Engineers will drain the lagoon in Jackson Park next month.
As part of an $8.1 million restoration of the park, the Corps will drain the lagoon to remove invasive fish species and to rework parts of the shoreline.
Lauren Umek, the project manager for the restoration effort that will plant more than 1.3 million new plants over 140 acres of the park, said an exact timeline was expected Thursday with work expected to begin Dec. 1. She said the first phase would include removing invasive plants from the park over the winter.
Park advocates are doing their own preparations for the work to begin, with volunteers fencing off trees on Wooded Island that need special protections, like the burr oak saplings.
“It’s really the key tree for Wooded Island, it’s been there for 200 years since before the Columbian Exposition,” Jerry Levy, the steward for the island, said at the Monday night Jackson Park Advisory Council meeting.
The northern bridge to the island will remain closed as the Chicago Park District starts planning for replacing the bridge. The southern bridge to the island will also be closed during the project.
Stewards for the Bobolink Meadow have been left shuffling their feet as the 1,372 volunteers that came out to work days in the park from March to November helped get the park ready for the work.
“The things we can’t touch are where the Nike missile base was,” said Louise McCurry, who was re-elected president of the advisory council Monday.
In 1971, the U.S. Army removed a number of short-range missiles that could carry nuclear warheads from the meadow, but left residual contamination where the warhead building and underground oil tanks were that cannot be disturbed.
The five-year restoration project will skirt the area that now hosts butterflies instead of missiles.
Project work is being completed by Applied Ecological Systems with oversight by the Army Corps and the park district.
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