After working for a decade to improve the water quality of the DuPage River, the Naperville-based Conservation Foundation is gearing up to tackle the Lower Fox River and Big Rock Creek watersheds in Kane and Kendall Counties and beyond.
“The section of the Lower Fox River that runs from Yorkville to where it spills into the Illinois River at Ottawa in LaSalle County is one of the highest quality and most scenic river segments in the state, with big sandstone bluffs and massive stone canyons,” said Brook McDonald, executive director of the Conservation Foundation.
“But this portion of the watershed remains vulnerable because most of it is unprotected by any conservation or preservation plan.”
The scenic river and its history will be the focus of the Conservation Foundation’s annual winter luncheon program, scheduled for 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at the Fisherman’s Inn, Main Street and Illinois Highway 47 in an unincorporated area between Batavia and Elburn. Tickets for the “Can We Save the Lower Fox?” program are $20 for Conservation Foundation members and $35 for non-members (includes one-year membership fee). Call 630-428-4500 to register.
Speakers will be Brian Reilly, a natural areas preservation specialist with the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission, and Ralph Frese, owner of a Chicago canoe company and a longtime organizer of river cleanups.
Though the majority of the Conservation Foundation’s 1,300 members live in DuPage County, in recent years the private not-for-profit group has expanded its efforts to Kane, Kendall and Will Counties and beyond.
McDonald said the group recently was asked by the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to look into possible land acquisitions along the Lower Fox in LaSalle County that would be used for nature preserves. The area faces threats from resort development, McDonald said.
The Conservation Foundation is negotiating with a LaSalle County landowner to acquire a 12-acre tract that is home to several endangered species of plants and fish and a cave where prehistoric artifacts have been found, McDonald said.
The Conservation Foundation hasn’t forgotten about the DuPage River. According to McDonald, the group expects to present final plans in late March for implementing an ongoing DuPage River watershed conservation program.
