Wednesday, September 14, 2022  

FREP Membership Meeting

and Program    1-2:30 PM

Location:   

Belding Lodge, Brewster Creek Forest Preserve, 

6N921 IL Route 25, St Charles, IL 60174   

Program: 

Blanding’s Turtles Local Recovery Efforts

Presenters:  Bill Graser, Forest Preserve Dist. of Kane County and Dan Thompson, Forest Preserve Dist. of DuPage County

The program will follow a short FREP business meeting

Bill Graser is a Wildlife Biologist at the Forest Preserve District of Kane County and has over 19 years of professional experience in wildlife research and management, primarily in Midwestern landscapes. Bill began his career as a technician in the research department at the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, and after completing his graduate work in the Chicago area, he began working at the Forest Preserve District of Kane County. At the District, Bill is responsible for all aspects of wildlife research, monitoring and management, but working with Blanding’s turtles is his favorite duty. He holds a AAS from Paul Smiths College, BS from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and MS in Natural Resource Management from The Ohio State University.

Dan Thompson is a wildlife ecologist with the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County. He has been with the District for 33 years. He has worked 12 years as a resource technician working on many habitat restoration projects and the last 21 years working closely with local DuPage wildlife populations.

Photos below by Bill Graser

The Blanding’s turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) is an endangered species in Illinois that has experienced population declines across much of their range as a result of habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation. Their survival in urban landscapes is also hampered by elevated levels of mortality and low nest survival resulting from high populations of human subsidized predators. Blanding’s turtles were once well distributed throughout NE Illinois, but populations are now mostly small and becoming isolated in an increasingly urbanized landscape.

The good news is that there are many local conservation agencies throughout the Chicago region working to bolster and study Blanding’s turtle populations throughout the Chicago area with the goal of securing and growing populations to ensure that they persist into the future. Bill will share information about the threats to Blanding’s turtle populations, their status in Kane County and how biologists, researchers and veterinarians are collaborating to inform conservation measures across the region.

Dan will present about long-term head-starting, which Forest Preserve District of DuPage County began in 1996. In the 27 years of this recovery effort the District has hatched out over 4,200 Blanding’s turtles and released around 4,000. The recovery process was slow and took nearly twenty years to see a significant increase in the population. Now due to the length of this recovery effort we are seeing some of our hatched head-starts reaching maturity and producing a third generation of turtles.

Upcoming programs & locations to be announced soon

Wednesday, October 13, 2022  

FREP Noon Network     Noon-1:30 PM

Wednesday, November 10, 2022  

FREP Membership Meeting and Program    1-2:30 PM

It’s Our Fox River Day will be September 17, 2022. This is the largest watershed event that demonstrates a unified effort for caring for our Fox River. I have written in this space before about the origins of this day, which is celebrated annually. Our friends and partners at Friends of the Fox River are spearheading an attempt to offer events up and down the entire Fox River in Illinois and Wisconsin.

The Fox River serves over 1,000,000 watershed residents every day. It carries the wastewater and stormwater from over 100 communities, and provides drinking water for over 300,000 residents. It also provides habitat for a diversity of plants and animals and is an exceptional resource for boaters, paddlers, anglers, hikers, and photographers. And it is the centerpiece for our Fabulous Fox! Water Trail.

The concept of IOFRD originated as a 200-mile cleanup to symbolize the need for a unified approach to protect and restore a watershed. IOFRD has evolved to include celebrations that go beyond the standard trash removal. It is intended to grow awareness throughout the entire Fox River watershed for the need to work collaboratively to protect and restore the health of the Fox River. So how will you help on Its Our Fox River Day in 2022? See https://friendsofthefoxriver.org/its-our-fox-river-day/ for more information and to sign up.

On a larger scale, last week, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the boldest federal climate bill in United States history. While the name is a bit of a misnomer, it does include the most comprehensive federal action to address global climate change to date. This new law demonstrates that we can scale up the kind of equitable, comprehensive climate investments we made in Illinois’ Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) at the federal level to deliver good jobs and provide economic relief.

According to the Illinois Environmental Council (IEC), thanks to CEJA, Illinois has a leg up on most other states when it comes to project readiness, and IEC will be working hard to ensure our state is taking full advantage of the new federal resources becoming available in the coming months. Interested in what the Inflation Reduction Act actually means for Illinoisans, for our watershed, and our global climate? Our friends at IEC Click Here and at Sierra Club click here offer more details on what’s in the bill.

Finally, I urge you to join us for our September 14 program on the state-endangered Blanding’s turtle. If you haven’t paid your FREP membership dues for our FY23 (notices went out in July), please do so. These dues are the primary income that sustains FREP.

It’s Our Fox River Day 

Join Friends of the Fox River on September 17, 2022, for the largest watershed-wide celebration of the year, It’s Our Fox River Day. This year we are anticipating over 100 events along 200 river miles involving over 1000 participants.

Check out their latest blog post to learn about all the wonderful things that are planned:

https://friendsofthefoxriver.org/2022/08/29/its-our-fox-river-day%ef%bf%bc/

Make sure your community is part of this unique experience. Friends of the Fox River (FOTFR) is here to assist you in your event’s development, promotion, recruiting, implementation and recognition.

To learn more, visit: friendsofthefoxriver.org/its-our-fox-river-day/, and find more resources in this IOFRD 2022 folder.

The Conservation Foundation Teams Up with Local Partners to

Promote a Clean Fox River:

Volunteers from Wisconsin through Illinois Keep Their Communities Vibrant

with ‘It’s Our Fox River Day’

The Conservation Foundation will again be hosting cleanups in St. Charles and Yorkville, both from 9:00-11:00am on Saturday September 17, 2022:

 The St. Charles cleanup will start at Ferson Creek Park (off State Route 31 in St.Charles, IL 60175) in partnership with the River Corridor Foundation of St. Charles and St. Charles Park District.

Register here for the St. Charles Cleanup.

Note - they are still looking for team captains for the St. Charles event.

To help, contact Jessica Mino  jmino@theconservationfoundation.org    815-708-5193

The Yorkville cleanup will start at Riverfront Park (201 E. Hydraulic St., Yorkville, IL 60560) in partnership with the Kendall County Outdoor Education Center, Yorkville Parks and Recreation, and the City of Yorkville.

Register here for the Yorkville Cleanup.

Over 200 volunteers supported these two cleanup locations in 2021, resulting in our largest Fox River trash collections to date.

Thank you to all who have already responded to the statements

for 2022-23 membership renewal. We are at 75% of last year's dues total now and just need a last push to finish out!

Indian Creek

Watershed-based Planning



Update - August 30, 2022

LAST CALL:

Public engagement webpage submittal period extended to September 20!

If you have not had a chance to visit https://engage.cmap.illinois.gov/indian-creek-watershed-basedplan yet, or have thought of additional input to enter, please take the time to do so now. Here you can share your insights and ideas for protecting and improving water and habitat quality in the Indian Creek watershed and adjacent Fox River via interactive maps, a quick poll, a short survey, and a comments forum.

Input is welcome from anyone with an interest – a stake – in the quality of the Indian Creek watershed and adjacent Fox River. You do not have to live, work, go to school, or have a business there to be a stakeholder! Perhaps you visit the area to ride your bike on the Fox River Trail or Prairie Path, hike the trails in Fermilab, or paddle on the Fox River. Maybe you’ve shopped at the outlet mall or unique local shops, dined at one of the many restaurants, enjoyed a festival, or went to hear some live music… then you are a stakeholder too!



Please get your submittals in by September 20!

On August 2^nd the Core Development Team met to continue discussion about the application for designation into the National Park Service’s National Water Trail System. The Team has approved access site signage.

Tom Slawski and Karen Ann Miller have been working on obtaining permission from each of the landowners of access sites and letters of support from others. Other Team members and Kane County Development Dept. staff are working on different sections of the Management Plan.

Tom and Karen met with three members of the National Park Service committee that reviews the applications on August 24^th and received compliments on our website and maps. Gilmore Marketing Concepts, Inc. continues to work on a marketing plan for the Fabulous Fox! Water Trail in Kane County. Kim Gilmore sent out surveys to a large number of our partners; interviewed a smaller number of partners and hosted a Summit with a couple of dozen partners on August 30^th.

Powerpoint presentations from Aug.10, 2022

Tour of the Urban Stream Research Center, Blackwell Forest Preserve, Warrenville   

  USRC Website

 Presenters: Everett Krause & Andres Ortega

Video of June 8, 2022 FREP Noon Network

Program: Kane County’s Countywide Drainage Mapping Initiative –

Where Does Your Water Go?

Presenter: Rob Linke  P.E., CFM Sr. Water Resources Engineer & Wetland

Specialist, Kane County Dept of Environmental & Water Resources

Chicago Region Trees Initiative (CRTI) August Newsletter

LINK

Includes new CRTI Urban Forest Data