Native grasses have been planted and are struggling to take hold in the former cornfields. Wild life has returned to these areas. While walking along the river banks one can see the results of increased beaver activity. Last spring a beaver track was discovered and the local naturalist, Gerald Schiefen, estimated its weight at seventy pounds. Coyote tracks can be traced through the snow on the wetlands.
Numerous deer call the area home, and migrating ducks and geese return to the area year after year.
In compliance with the reclamation plan, the upper part of the area has been seeded with switchgrass, big bluestem, Indiangrass, and grama grass. These recommendations have resulted from experimental wetlands reclamation sights like the one on Bear Creek in central Iowa. This reclamation area near Des Moines is a project of Iowa State University, Leopold Center, local farmers, the USDA, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and Pheasants Forever. They wanted to find the best way to reduce erosion and surface water contamination along Bear Creek. The researchers found that a three-zone vegetation approach worked the best.