We are supporting the Friends of the Chicago River’s annual Chicago River Day, which celebrates all of our area waterways. Volunteers come together annually to cleanup the riverbanks. Once again in Blue Island you’ll find us along the Cal-Sag Channel at Anne Street cleaning trash and clearing invasive brush.
Chicago River Day is Saturday, May 11, 2013 from 9am to noon.
Founder of the Illinois Paddling Council, friend of the Calumet Waterway Stewards and paddlers everywhere, Ralph Frese passed away in December 2012. The annual tradition of paddling the water trail named in his honor, The Ralph Frese River Trail, lives on. Bring your canoe or kayak and celebrate Ralph’s legacy on Sunday, April 14.
The Memorial Paddle will begin at 10:00 am with a short ceremony preceding a paddle on the Ralph Frese River Trail on the North Branch of the Chicago River from Willow Road to Linne Woods on Dempster in Skokie. An Empty Canoe ceremony will be conducted in which one of Ralph’s boats will make his symbolic last paddle as it is towed by Voyageurs on Ralph’s favorite canoe trail. All participants will receive a commemorative Mr. Canoe button.
Boat Launch from 10:00-noon at the Willow Road dam (Willow Road and Forest Way Drive in Winnetka). This trip is best for experienced paddlers. Please visit the Illinois Paddling Council webpage for their canoe and kayak safety checklist.
“Restoring Urban Waterways 101″ is a workshop organized by Friends of the Chicago River and its partners, including the Alliance for the Great Lakes, Illinois Paddling Council, Openlands, Illinois Water Trail Keepers, and the Calumet Waterway Stewards. This is a chance to meet people and organizations and learn about all that is happening in your community related to water and revitalizing the Calumet waterways. Workshop attendees will have the opportunity to learn about and sign-up for a variety of water-related activities ranging from restoration work and stormwater best management practices to river cleanups and stream assessments.
Who: Open to public for Calumet region residents
What: “Restoring Urban Waterways 101”
When: Tuesday, February 12th, 2013, 6:30pm-8:30pm
Where: Sand Ridge Nature Center
15890 Paxton Ave., South Holland, IL, 60473
Please contact Curtis Witek if you plan to attend at (312) 939-0490, ext. 21 or email him at cwitek@chicagoriver.org. Click here to download and share the event flyer.
It’s hard to believe it was only a year ago that Captain Mike asked, “why don’t we have a water trail?” and kicked off a new effort to promote the Calumet Area Water Trails and organize our first Little Calumet River Cleanup Day.
Are you ready to do it all again?
The Calumet Waterway Stewards will reconvene at our monthly location, the Blue Island Public Library, this Saturday, Nov. 17 at 9:15am to begin to plan our 2013 Cleanup Day. You don’t want to miss out, right? Good! Because EVERYONE is invited!!
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Blue Island Public Library
2433 York Street
9:15am
Learn about the Millennium Reserve and help plan a new waterway park along the Cal-Sag Channel at an open space meeting on Thursday, Oct. 25 at Memorial Park Field House at 6:30pm. Representatives from the National Park Service, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and local government will be on hand to answer questions and present their respective programs. Download and share the Open Space Plan flyer!
The City of Blue Island and the Blue Island Park District is considering a site at Ann Street and Stony Creek (where Friends of the Chicago River has been hosting an annual Chicago River Day event) that would be perfect for the paddling community. We want your voices heard, so we hope to see you there!
More goings on in Blue Island and the Millennium Reserve! Blue Island Blue Water is a collaboration between the City of Blue Island, Blue Island Park District, School District 130, and Metropolitan Planning Council, who has brought on a host of partners to tackle local stormwater issues. Blue Island Blue Water kicks off this week with a native plant demonstration garden at the Park District’s Tot Lot, a Millennium Reserve Roots program in conjunction with the Cook South Suburban Master Gardeners. That’s followed up by a Green Apple Day of Service at the Paul Revere Campus on 123rd Place, an initiative of the US Green Building Council’s Center for Green Schools. Lastly, rain barrels will be installed across the northeast neighborhood following a rain barrel blitz at Evangelical Community Church.
Visit Blue Island Blue Water to get involved!
For any of us that care about paddling and enjoying our waterways, stormwater should be a top concern. When communities flood, our waterways are at risk through what’s known as a “Combined Sewer Overflow” or CSO. In the event of a CSO, untreated waste is released into the water. One can imagine the impact that has on the quality of life for ALL! In order to help reduce the threat of CSOs, stormwater best management practices (BMPs) strive to keep water on-site with a mix of traditional and natural approaches. MPC has joined with CWS partner Openlands to host What Our Water’s Worth. Visit www.chicagolandh2o.org to learn all about the WOWW factor!
Green Drinks is a bi-monthly networking event that brings together folks of all stripes to learn more and network around sustainability themes. The Field Museum’s ECCo department has been organizing Green Drinks in the Calumet region, and they’re always a fun night out.
The next Chicago Southland Green Drinks will be on Thursday, Sept. 13th from 6 to 8pm at Flossmoor Station Restaurant and Brewery. Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) will host a panel discussion with regional stormwater and wastewater experts including:
ECCo has reserved the big room at Flossmoor so help us be sure we pack the house. This is going to be a great panel.
Sec. of Interior Ken Salazar learning more about the Blue Island Rain Barrel Initiative (photo: MPC)
Have you heard the news? Last winter, Governor Quinn announced the Millennium Reserve Initiative, bringing together Federal, State and Local partners and promising to focus on our region, dubbed the “Calumet Core.” One big announcement from Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar later and we now have a good idea what the Millennium Reserve will look like, with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) releasing their 12 model projects for the Calumet Core. We think it’s something that everyone involved in recreation, open space, environment, and economic development in the Chicago Southland can get excited about.
A number of initiatives go hand in hand with efforts supported in the past year by Calumet Waterway Stewards. These include several from CWS partners Openlands and the City of Blue Island. We’re also excited to see a new river volunteer stewardship effort at Kickapoo Woods lead by Friends of the Chicago River!
Read about each model project here and be sure to go out and volunteer!
Fay’s Point in Blue Island was the site of a recent hike in the Calumet Outdoors Series. The tour, led by our very own Jason Berry, combined industrial and architectural history, American Indian legends, French traders, waterways and rivers, wetlands, restoration, bird watching, frogs, bugs, snakes, green infrastructure, and active transportation.
Most of all, it featured May T. Watts, an inspiring nature writer best known today for her Finders series of field guides (which feature her simple and uniquely effective illustration style). Watts wrote the remarkable Reading the Landscape of America, which has been kept in print by her family. It should be on the bookshelf of everyone reading this.
The Fay’s Point tour was less of a hike and more of a reading. With centuries of accumulated history… well, let May Watts explain it:
There is good reading on the land, first-hand reading, involving no symbols.
The records are written in forests, in fencerows, in bogs, in playgrounds, in pastures, in gardens, in canyons, in tree rings.
The records were made by sun and shade, by wind, rain and fire, by time; and by animals.
As we read what is written on the land, finding accounts of the past, predictions of the future, and comments on the present, we discover that there are many interwoven strands to each story, offering several possible interpretations.
Interpreting this reading matter, in place, on the land, seeing living things in their total environment, is an adventure into the field that is called ecology.
Ready to read? The Calumet Outdoors Series offers a full roster of hikes, bike rides, and paddles each month. You can download the brochure here. Each event is offered free and hosted by the region’s many partners, but above all thanks goes to the strong efforts of Eric Neagu of Weaver Boos Consultants for organizing the series.
