India, Oct. 17 -- Wetlands don't often get second chances, but Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin did. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources describes its history as a change from wetland to wasteland and back again. The marsh now covers about 32,000 acres, and huge flocks of geese stop there each fall. It was the result of decades of work by people determined to restore the land.

The marsh basin took shape when glaciers from the last Ice Age gave rise to it. The DNR says people have lived near it for a very long time, with nomadic hunters arriving as early as 12,000 years ago. The changes began in 1846 when the town of Horicon built a dam to power a sawmill. The water rose nine feet, and the marsh became Lake Horicon, which people of th...