Manitou Creek Watershed Alliance

Manitou Creek Watershed Alliance Watershed planning has water quality components built into it. Wetland restoration and streambank stabilization are common projects.

Manitou Creek Watershed Alliance is an alliance between the Long Lake Improvement & Sanitation Assoc., Lake County Stormwater Management Commission, the Sierra Club, and the Manitou Creek Drainage District. This campaign was created by the Manitou Creek Watershed Alliance to promote natural solutions to watershed health ensuring that lakes, streams, and rivers are supportive of both aquatic life a

nd human recreation. Homes and businesses are constructing green infrastructure improvements on a regular basis. This campaign will provide information, events and tips both locally and from across the county on how we all can continually work to improve our waterways.

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03/24/2026

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I've been living at the bottom of your pond for two years. You've never seen me. I look nothing like what I'm about to become.

I'm a dragonfly nymph. Brown, flat, about the size of your thumbnail, with six legs, bulging eyes, and a hinged jaw that fires forward to seize mosquito larvae, tadpoles, and small fish. I'm the top predator on your pond floor. And I've been down here eating since the summer before last.

I breathe through gills inside my abdomen — I pump water in and out to extract oxygen. When I need to escape, I jet the water out hard and shoot forward. Rocket propulsion from an animal the size of a penny.

I've eaten thousands of mosquito larvae during my underwater life. I've survived fish, herons, diving beetles, and two winters frozen into the mud. I've molted over a dozen times, splitting my skin and emerging slightly larger each time.

This week the water temperature crossed the threshold. The trigger fired.

Tonight or tomorrow night I'll crawl up a reed, a dock post, or a rock that breaks the surface. I'll grip it above the waterline and stop moving. My skin will split along my back. Over the next hour or so, a fully formed adult dragonfly will pull itself out of my shell.

Wings crumpled and wet at first. Fluid pumps into the wing veins. They expand. They stiffen. By dawn I'm airborne — four wings, thousands of lenses per eye, fast enough to catch almost anything flying in your yard. The hunt success rate for dragonflies is among the highest of any predator alive.

The empty shell — called an exuvia — stays clinging to the reed. It's brown, translucent, split down the back. You'll find it this weekend if you look.

🐛 How to find one:

- Check reeds, dock posts, rocks, and plant stems that rise vertically from any pond, retention basin, or water feature in your yard
- The shells are fragile and grip tightly — don't pull them off. Photograph in place. Each one represents a dragonfly that spent years eating mosquito larvae underwater before emerging
- Look early in the morning — emergence happens overnight and the shells are easiest to spot when they're fresh and the light catches them
- Multiple shells on the same reed means multiple dragonflies emerged from your pond on the same night. In healthy ponds, dozens emerge in a single week
- The adult dragonfly you see patrolling your yard this summer eats enormous quantities of mosquitoes per day — and it started as the brown thing at the bottom of your pond that nobody noticed

I was hidden and underwater for two years. This week I become the fastest thing in your yard 🌿

11/23/2025
🌱Native plants' dead stems and leaf litter 🍁🍂are like the insect version of a college dorm - moths 🦋, caterpillars 🐛 , f...
11/14/2025

🌱Native plants' dead stems and leaf litter 🍁🍂are like the insect version of a college dorm - moths 🦋, caterpillars 🐛 , fireflies, and others 🐝all bunking together. Do your part, and help our little creatures have a home this winter!

Encourage your municipality or township to clean the streets in the fall before the rains washing through the dead leave...
11/12/2025

Encourage your municipality or township to clean the streets in the fall before the rains washing through the dead leaves send a phosphorus tea into the drains and out into our lakes and streams. 🍁🍂🍁

One simple way you can volunteer is to adopt a storm drain in your neighborhood! Check the drain BEFORE a rain event! Use a rake or broom to keep leaves and other materials clear of the drain. In winter, snow and ice can block the drain, so when possible, remove snow and ice to create a one-foot path along the curb leading to the drain. Pollutants from yards and streets accumulate in the snow and ice over the winter and then rush into drains and nearby streams during spring thaws.

Check this out!
11/06/2025

Check this out!

Frog baptism in Maine! Grayson Bell/Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards
10/28/2025

Frog baptism in Maine!
Grayson Bell/Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

It's a smooth landing for this red-throated loon in Finland. Erkko Badermann/Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards.
10/27/2025

It's a smooth landing for this red-throated loon in Finland. Erkko Badermann/Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards.

10/24/2025

😵

Of the streams the Illinois EPA assessed,
100% are too polluted to support fish consumption

10/23/2025

Shocking ! 😳
Of the streams the Illinois EPA assessed:
85% are too polluted to support swimming or direct human contact

Address

PO Box 156
Ingleside, IL
60041

Telephone

+18472390582

Website

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