Special Contributors

Prairie Rivers Network thanks the following individuals for their extraordinary contributions.

Jason Lindsey

Jason Lindsey (website, email) is one of the premier nature and wildlife photographers in the Midwest. His award winning work has been published in books, magazines, posters, annual reports, advertising, cards, and calendars. Chicago Review Press published his new book Windy City Wild: Chicago's Natural Wonders. This fine art book explores the natural areas and wildlife of the Chicago region.

His images have been featured in Backpacker, Illinois Audubon, Chicago Wilderness, Patterns, U magazine and Illinois Steward. His images are used by many national environmental organizations including the Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife Federation, Prairie Rivers Network, Illinois Environmental Council, and American Rivers. Lindsey's images are also used by the National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife, The Chicago Field Museum of Natural History, Illinois Department of Tourism, PBS, Harry N. Abrams, University of Illinois Press, Oxford Press, and Walking Stick Press. He currently has two traveling exhibits entitled "Illinois: Embracing the Wildness of Home" and "Windy City Wild: Chicago's Natural Wonders."

Jason's images are used throughout this website and he has graciously made a large number available for display in the Prairie Rivers Photo Archive.
 

Ralph Frese

Ralph Frese, owner of "The most unusual canoe shop in the U.S.A.," has earned the respected title of "Mr. Canoe," but many know he's also a conservationist, historian, orator, collector, bibliophile, and an extraordinarily energetic septuagenarian. Ralph is a fourth generation blacksmith, whose blacksmith shop is part of the Chicagoland Canoe Base at 4019 N. Narragansett Avenue, Chicago.  For more information, point your browser to: www.chicagolandcanoebase.com

Ralph has been building canoes since his mid-twenties, and has built both authentic birchbark models and fiberglass replicas.  He is also founder of the Des Plaines Canoe Marathon, an annual event for over forty years.In 1973, Ralph built two 21-foot early Algonquin birchbark canoes and re-enacted the 1673 Marquette and Jolliet expedition from the Great Lakes, the Illinois River, and down the Mississippi River--a journey of over 3,000 miles.  In 1976, he re-enacted the 1682 LaSalle journey from Montreal to the Gulf of Mexico.  Each of these enormous undertakings demonstrated the role of rivers in our history.

While he is a passionate conservationist of all streams, he has diligently worked to save the lower Fox River for future generations.  The Fox's bluffs and box canyons host an amazing diversity that can be found no where else in Illinois, and paddling the lower Fox is a real treat, especially if you know its treasures. Ralph is also working to establish a National Canoe Museum.  He would start it with his collection of historic and unique canoes.  He is looking for space in the Chicago area, perhaps near the historic Chicago portage.

An ardent reader, Ralph once revealed one of his favorite quotes--from Thoreau's "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"--which demonstrates his love of canoes and streams:

"Other roads do some violence to nature, and bring the traveller to stare at her; but the river steals into the scenery it traverses without intrusion, silently creating and adorning it, and is free to come and go as the zephyr."

Ralph Frese contributed many photos to the Photo Archive.
 

Theodore Gray

Theodore Gray is a co-founder of Wolfram Research, Inc and the priciple author of the Mathematica Notebook system.

Theodore designed and implemented the Prairie Rivers website.
 

Jeremy Davis

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Jeremy created the graphic design for the Prairie Rivers website.