FREP Downstream - Feb. 10 Noon Network on Rusty Patch Bumble Bee

January 26, 2021

President's Message

Almost a year ago we were in a pre-pandemic world. FREP was able to host our screening for the One Earth Film Festival live and in-person, but we were one of the last before they had to take it all virtual. And we’ve all been in our virtual Zoom-meeting world ever since.

It is time to think about One Earth Film Festival again, along with our annual Fox River Summit, which was cancelled in 2020. Both events will be all virtual for 2021, but they will happen, and it may be easier for many folks to attend since you won’t have to worry about travel.

The Fox River Summit 2021 will be Thursday, March 11, 2021 as a one-day event embedded within the week-long Wisconsin Lakes and Rivers Convention supported by the UW Extension Service. Click on this link for information about the whole convention. You may sign up for just Thursday to catch our Fox River Summit.

Go to this link to see some of the program details. Learn about soil health, what the Fox River looked like 100 years ago, the water quality and the TMDLs in both the Wisconsin and Illinois parts of the river and more. All from the comfort of your couch!

And One Earth Film Festival (OEFF) will continue to be all virtual too. We’ve moved the screening from our usual Monday night to a new day. It will be on Saturday, March 13, 2021 at 11 AM. Our film is Kiss the Ground narrated by Woody Harrelson.

See this link for more information about the film, and plan to join us for OEFF online on March 13. We will have some facilitated discussion after the film, as we did when in person, but you won’t be anxious to get home as you were when we did it in person on a weekday evening. Remember the goal of OEFF is to inspired people to action! Visit their website at oneearthfilmfest.org and watch our website page and next Downstream for details on obtaining tickets to the screening.

There’s lots we can do and learn while we’re waiting to get this pandemic under control – so let us get connected and do it!

Jeff Mengler

FREP President

Our next activity:

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

FREP Noon Network Program

Noon to 1:30 PM Via Zoom

please email Becky at foxriverinfo@comcast.net for the link

Program:

The rusty-patched bumble bee and other native bees

– what’s all the buzz about?

Speaker: Jason Robinson, PhD, Associate Entomologist

Illinois Natural History Survey

The rusty-patched bumble bee was recently listed as federally endangered. It has been recently discovered on various conservation lands in our region. There are many citizen efforts underway to search for and identify this species of native bumble bee.

Why is it endangered?

What habitats within our watershed has it been found?

What does it look like, and how can we help?

Photo credits from USFWS Top: Kim Mitchell Lower: Susan Day/UW–Madison Arboretum

FREP Membership News

2021 FREP Activity Dates:

Plans are being made for our 2021 Meeting Programs and Noon Networks, and we will be announcing more soon. Save these dates:

Thursday, March 11. 2021 Annual Fox River Summit - Virtual

Our 8th annual Fox River Summit in 2020 had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. This 2021 event will be done all online as a one-day event within the week-long Wisconsin Lakes and Rivers Convention. We are currently working on our speakers and some breakout discussion topics for the Fox River Summit Day within this larger week-long conference. Speakers for March 11th. $20 for one day. Registration Link

Saturday, March 13, 2021, 11 AM-- We will once again be co-sponsoring a film for the One Earth Film Festival. This year it will be a virtual event and we are screening a wonderful film Kiss the Ground. Watch our FREP film festival webpage for screening and ticket details soon.

Wednesday, April 14, 2021 FREP Noon Network Noon - 1:30 PM Via Zoom

Illinois Conservation Update

Speaker: Jack Darin, Executive Director of Sierra Club, Illinois

For many years Jack Darin participated in FREP's annual Conversations About Conservation with our Legislators. It is time to connect with Jack again and have him speak on current issues and environmental legislation in Illinois. Jack is always tuned in to what is happening in Springfield and across the State. We welcome his insight and advice on the latest happenings in our state capitol.

Thursday, April 22, 2021 Earth Day -- working on joint partner events.

Wed., May 12, 2021 FREP Membership Meeting & Program 1 PM Via Zoom

The 4th Conservation Movement

Speaker: Ed Collins, McHenry County Conservation District

How often have we wished over the many conservation battles we have fought across the years that we could find the key to dissolving the pieces of culture we are part of that see nature only as a resource to exploit? Yet we have struggled to find something deep enough, transformative enough, to rewrite the chapter of human experience that supports such a perspective. I believe that has now happened, not in a way we would have expected or chosen, but it has happened nonetheless. The world is in metamorphosis and we are discovering that the change we wish for the future begins within and not without. Now we must have the courage to weather the storms that bring the gift hidden within its winds.

Wed., June 9, 2021 FREP Noon Network Noon - 1:30 PM Program TBA

Other News in the Watershed:

Fox River Corridor Plan – Online Visioning Survey

McHenry County, the City of McHenry, and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) hosted two public visioning workshops last week where more than 40 participants shared their ideas, goals, and vision for the future of the Fox River and its communities from Burtons Bridge to Johnsburg.

If you were unable to attend one of the virtual workshops, you can still share your ideas about potential strategies and actions that the plan should consider, as well as help us understand your vision for the Corridor, though an Online Visioning Survey. It should only take about 8-10 minutes or so to complete the entire survey. You can access the survey here:

https://engage.cmap.illinois.gov/fox-river-mchenry/survey_tools/visioning-survey.

We look forward to your input!

Visit the project website https://engage.cmap.illinois.gov/fox-river-mchenry to learn more about the project and how you can get involved!

Please contact Kelsey Pudlock at kpudlock@cmap.illinois.gov or 312-386-8631 with any questions.

Soil & Water Conservation District Soil Erosion & Stormwater Webinar Series

February 11 & 18, 2021