The restoration project moved more slowly than Warren's imagination had begun to allow. During the first summer after the settlement, teams returned to the lower basin to examine soils, survey elevations, record existing plant communities, and refine the hydrologic design. Regulators and technical reviewers asked questions about the historic drainage system, the disturbed conditions after the developer's work, and the ecological benefits the proposal would create beyond simply correcting the unlawful runoff. Every question led to another document, and some documents required another visit to the field before anyone could answer honestly.
Warren was tempted to call the delays proof that government people could turn a simple idea into an occupation. Casey did not defend every part of the process, because some of it was slow and frustrating. But she reminded him that they were proposing to protect part of the farm for decades and generate credits that other people might use to satisfy legal obligations. If the promises were going to mean anything, somebody had to check whether the restoration actually worked.
The first design was revised after reviewers questioned whether a proposed shallow berm would retain too much water near the western fence. Renata agreed that the issue deserved examination, and the engineering team changed the layout to avoid creating a new drainage problem for Abe Fisher. Warren had spent months accusing the developer of treating someone else's property as available storage. He was determined not to repeat the same mistake just because this time the project bore his name.
Abe came over one evening with the revised map and stood beside Warren at the fence. He followed the proposed water levels with a thick finger and asked whether the changes meant his pasture would remain dry after an ordinary storm. Warren said Renata's model showed no adverse increase, and that the final work would be monitored after construction. Abe nodded, then told him he had never expected the Puit family to become experts in wet ground after spending three generations trying to get rid of it.
"Neither did I," Warren said. "But I don't suppose anybody asked the ground what it wanted."
Abe laughed. "Careful. You're starting to sound like the people who charge by the hour."
The project agreement took another season to complete. Warren and Joan reviewed the conservation provisions with independent counsel, and Casey learned how a permanent stewardship fund could protect future maintenance from depending entirely on a single owner's willingness or ability to pay. The operator's financial plan reserved resources for monitoring, invasive plant management, periodic inspections, and eventual repairs to authorized structures. The family could not treat every future payment as free money, because the wetland would carry obligations long after Warren no longer walked its boundaries.