When people think of the original European settlers in northern Illinois, they might visualize caravans of covered wagons crossing the prairie.
However, “our history had nothing to do with covered wagons,” said Ralph Frese, founder of the Prairie State Canoeists Club. “It was the bark canoe and the Frenchman.”
French trappers used rivers as highways, what Frese called “trails through nature that leave no trace of your passing.”
One of the rivers in the area that retains much of the natural quality experienced by the original settlers is the Kishwaukee River, now threatened by McHenry County’s encroaching development.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources rates 74 miles of the Kishwaukee as Class A, one of the longest stretches of premium-quality waterway in the state.
The river is home to as many as 40 species of fish, including the endangered snail darter minnow and 20 species of mussels. The river otter, also an endangered species, lives in and along the Kishwaukee.
“Mussels are a sign of clean water,” said Jim Ditsworth, co-founder of the Midwest Voyageurs Canoe Club.
Ditsworth described the river as one of the finest medium to small rivers for canoeing and fishing in the state.
As the county continues to develop, however, maintaining the river in its current condition has become increasingly difficult.
“Some of the places where we live are so intensely populated it means more of an impact on ecologically sensitive areas,” said Mary Eysenbach, assistant director of the McHenry County Conservation District.
In an effort to control the effects of development on the ecosystems of Illinois’ rivers, the DNR passed out grants totaling $1.64 million last year to various organizations.
Of that, a total of $50,500 went to the McHenry County Defenders, the Land Foundation of McHenry County and the Openlands Project for educational projects to preserve the Kishwaukee.
This year, the department is accepting applications for another round of grants.
Gov. Jim Edgar has requested $1.7 million for grants from general revenue funds, and $1.25 million in capital funds from the sale of bonds for the state’s river ecosystems. The deadline for applications is June 30.
The Kishwaukee River Ecosystem Partnership Council, which was formed in 1996, will serve as an applicant clearinghouse.
The council, a cooperative of citizens, businesses, independent organizations and local government agencies, including the conservation district, reviews applications before forwarding them to the state.
“What this program is looking for, at this point of the game, is alternative systems” for preserving the river, said John Kremer, executive director of the Boone County Conservation District.
Kremer said a grant request should be for “something that would be innovative in terms of (river) bank stabilization.”
An applicant might develop a new system of stopping the erosion of the riverbank, or a home builder might devise a way of keeping sediment from flowing into the river when constructing new homes, Kremer said. A new system then could be used as a model throughout the state.
Many homeowners are unaware of their role in causing problems for the Kishwaukee. Efforts to maintain carpetlike lawns, for example, contribute to the pollution of the river.
Pesticides and lawn fertilizers “go right into a wetland system unless there is a buffer,” Eysenbach said.
The problem, he said, can be reduced with “native plantings between wetlands and lawns (that) serve as sieves or strainers (of pollutants).”
Sediment and fertilizer from agriculture are other potential hazards to river quality. Kremer said a simple solution is to grow “a greenbelt along the river,” between the water and row crops.
Another concern is the approximately 10 sewage treatment plants or other facilities that discharge waste into the Kishwaukee in McHenry County.
The McHenry County Defenders is trying to persuade the state Environmental Protection Agency to tighten regulations on those dumping waste into the river.
Kremer said that there is no single threat to the river. Rather, it is a combination of conditions. Most of the solutions are common sense, he said.
“We need to bring everybody together,” he said, “so we are communicating (and) all involved in protecting the watershed.”
