| Fast Facts |
location
50 miles southwest of Chicago to confluence with the Mississippi
ecoregion
Central Tallgrass Prairie
project size
273 river miles; more than 250,000 acres
preserves
Spunky Bottoms, Emiquon, Lake Senachwine, Chinquapin Bluffs
public lands
Meredosia, Emiquon and Chautauqua national wildlife refuges; state fish and wildlife areas including Anderson Lake, Banner Marsh, Rice Lake
partners
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, The Wetlands Initiative
conservancy initiatives
Freshwater
natural events
migrations of songbirds, waterfowl and white pelicans, spring and fall; Havana Eagle Days, February | |
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Imitating natural processes from more than a century ago is the remedy to restoring a river too long regulated by man-made structures. |
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Spunky Bottoms.
© Tharran Hobson |
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The seasonal rise and retreat of water—a river’s pulse—was once the natural rhythm of large-floodplain rivers like the Nile, Amazon, Mississippi and Illinois before they were dammed, diked and otherwise tamed. When a river’s pulse disappears, the surrounding ecosystem suffers. This is what happened a little more than a century ago on the Illinois River, cutting east to west across north-central Illinois. Prior to that, much of its 273-mile-long floodplain was undeveloped, and the river could spread unhindered during floods.
For centuries the natural rhythms of the Illinois nourished generations of Native Americans with abundant waterfowl, fish, mussels, deer and rich soils. Early American explorers encountered a profusion of paddlefish, gar and sturgeon—ancient fishes that predate the dinosaurs. Migrating ducks visited by the millions. It supported more freshwater mussels per mile than any river on the continent. |
American white pelicans.
© Carol Freeman |
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Today 90 percent of the state’s population lives within an Illinois River basin that has lost 85 percent of its wetlands. Despite the ecological damage wrought by dams and levees, the National Research Council identified the Illinois as one of three large-floodplain river systems in the lower 48 with the potential to be restored to some semblance of their outstanding biological past. | |
To reverse the effects of more than a century of diverted flow and stifled rhythms, The Nature Conservancy is working to restore four Illinois River sites that will collectively offer a model of how mimicking natural ecological processes can resuscitate large-floodplain river systems. One of those sites is Emiquon. Once draped by canopy forest and carpeted with prairie and marsh, levees have created a floodplain of row crops here.
With The Nature Conservancy’s purchase of 7,600 acres spanning five river miles, Emiquon became the largest wetland restoration project in the country, outside of Florida. Our conservation plan aims to re-establish natural ecological processes on the Illinois in the hope that lessons can be applied to the restoration and management of other large-floodplain river systems around the world.
Learn more about The Nature Conservancy's work in Illinois. |
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| Conservation Profile |
targets
ancient fish like paddlefish and sturgeon, freshwater mussels, floodplain plants like decurrent false aster, red-shouldered hawk, river otter
stresses
habitat loss and degradation, altered hydrological regime, poor water quality
strategies
restore ecosystems, modify dam operations, engage community in natural resource management, protect water quality, acquire land, secure conservation easements, build conservation alliances, promote ecotourism
results
more than 7,750 acres acquired for restoration | | | | |
