RiverWatch
Background
About
| Mission | Background
| Funders | Network Groups
With less than 20 percent of Illinois
streams officially monitored, there is a great need for citizen
involvement in the protection of our waterways. RiverWatch, a
sub-program of the former EcoWatch Network, was established in 1995 by
Illinois Department of Natural Resources in an effort to pair
volunteers with state scientists to create a network of stream
monitoring. Through RiverWatch, volunteers are trained as Citizen
Scientists to conduct biological monitoring of wadeable streams and
identify long-term trends in water quality. At its peak, the program
had more than 1300 volunteers collecting data on over 400 sites
throughout the state. After several successful years, the program
funding was curtailed in 2004.
Fortunately, thanks to a generous
grant from Illinois Lt. Governor Pat Quinn and the Illinois River
Coordinating Council, Friends of the Fox River was able to administer
the program for the 2005 monitoring season with assistance from Sierra
Club, The Conservation Foundation and Prairie Rivers Network.
In February 2006, the program was
transitioned from Friends of the Fox River to its permanent home at
the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center (NGRREC).
NGRREC partnered with the Office of Lt. Governor Pat Quinn to secure
funding for the 2006 monitoring season. A $50,000 grant from the
McKnight Foundation in 2007 and 2008 allowed NGRREC to further expand
and improve the statewide monitoring effort.
