Education and Outreach: Streams and Rivers of LifeIllinois' 87,000 miles of rivers and streams are essential to our everyday life, providing drinking water, recreational opportunities, wildlife habitat. Rivers and streams are tremendous natural treasures, vital to our state's natural health, an inheritance from the past, and a legacy to protect for the future.Part of Prairie Rivers Network's mission is to educate individuals about flowing waters and all the life, including ourselves, that depend on them for survival. Drinking water: More than 7.7 million Illinois citizens rely on surface water, including rivers, for their drinking water. Recreation: Millions of citizens fish, hunt, paddle canoes, observe wildlife, and live along our streams. Here in Illinois, wildlife-associated recreation - including sport fishing, hunting, and birdwatching - contributed $1.9 billion to the state's economy in 2001. Wildlife: Illinois' aquatic communities are known for their species diversity with 188 fish, 57 mussels, 21 crayfish, and 353 species of sensitive aquatic insects (mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies). All are important in the wildlife food web, which includes river otters, smallmouth bass, beavers, kingfishers, canvasback ducks, herons, and bald eagles. Habitat: Illinois' rivers and streams are wildlife migration corridors, providing habitat, food sources, and nesting areas, as well as refuge along the nation's important migratory bird and waterfowl flyways. In the months to come, our volunteers and staff will add educational essays and links for you to learn more about Illinois' natural treasures, and help you connect to the strong outdoor legacy in our state. Be RiverSmart, Illinois!Learn how you can do simple things to improve water quality in Illinois by clicking here. Our rivers are closer than you think!Links to Illinois Department of Natural Resources Education Program:An educational guide to the "Streams of Illinois" poster. This is a fun look at some of the many species you can find in our streams.A lesson on the aquatic endangered and threatened species in Illinois. Learn more about the rare plants, fish, mussels, insects, and mammals that can be found in Illinois. Identify unique natural resources in your watershedMany Illinois Department of Natural Resources documents, such as Critical Trends Assessment Program (CTAP) reports, are useful in learning about our healthy waters, wildife and lands. You can also search the Illinois Natural History Survey collections and databases to find plants and animals that have been collected in your watershed, dating back to the 1800s. The fish, crustacean, insect, and mussel collection databases will allow search queries by stream, and these are extremely useful tools. Learn more about where you live and the wonderful wildlife in your watershed.Invasive SpeciesThe invasion of alien species is not only a theme from 1950's science fiction films, it is a reality in many of our rivers, lakes, and streams. Foreign invaders are battling for control of many river and lake ecosystems, and native species are left to struggle for survival in habitats they have lived in for millennia in balance with other native residents.For more information on bighead carp, round goby, zebra mussels, purple loosestrife, and the northern snakefish, vist the Illinois Natural History Survey and a multi-agency invasive species website. Two species on the Watchlist | |