2005 Illinois RiverWatch Program
Friends of the Fox River was pleased to receive a generous $15,000 grant from Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and the Illinois River Coordinating Council in May 2005 to administer the 2005 Illinois RiverWatch Program. The grant enabled RiverWatch citizen volunteers previously trained by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ staff to collect stream data from Illinois streams and submit the data through Friends of the Fox River to the Illinois Natural History Survey. The data was then quality assured by Dr. R. Edward DeWalt of the Illinois Natural History Survey and a RiverWatch Quality Assurance Report for 2005 was released on January 31, 2006.
The 2005 RiverWatch grant also provided quality assurance for 2004 volunteer stream data collected by volunteers. The 2004 and 2005 RiverWatch data will be accessible through the Critical Trends Assessment Program and on-line data home page (then click on EcoWatch data link) later this year.
Friends of the Fox River is fortunate to have had the opportunity to administer the 2005 RiverWatch state-wide program. The program added valuable data to the Illinois Natural History Survey resources. Thank you to Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and his staff, the Illinois Department of Natural Resource staff, the Illinois Natural History Survey staff, and the dedicated veteran RiverWatch volunteers who made this endeavor successful.
Through continued support from Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, The National Great Rivers Research and Eduation Center in Godfrey, Illinois, will administer the 2006 Illinois RiverWatch Program. For more information about this year’s program, contact Vera Bojic, RiverWatch Coordinator, at 618-468-4870 or vbojic@lc.edu.
- Sue Bennett
- 2005 RiverWatch Program Coordinator
- Friends of the Fox River
- 815-356-6605
Updated: 2/24/06
