Big Rivers area assessment

Abstract

The Big Rivers assessment covers an area of 1,133,176 acres near the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. As well as including segments of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, the area also includes a section of Macoupin Creek -a large tributary of the Illinois River. Counties encompassed by the assessment include most of Calhoun, Jersey, and Macoupin counties, as well as portions of Pike, Scott, Green, Madison, and Montgomery counties. This area encompasses portions of three major Illinois drainage basins identified by the Illinois Environmental Protection Board: the Mississippi Central, Lower Illinois River, and Mississippi South Central basins. Three of the sub basins in this assessment area (Mississippi River [middle], Mississippi River [lower], and Illinois River) were designated as "Resource Rich Areas" because they contain significant natural community diversity. The Big Rivers Ecosystem Partnership was subsequently formed around this core area of high quality ecological resources. This assessment is comprised of five volumes. In Volume 1, Geology discusses the geology, soils, and minerals in the assessment area. Volume 2, Water Resources, discusses the surface and groundwater resources and Volume 3, Living Resources, describes the natural vegetation communities and the fauna of the region. Volume 4 contains three parts Part I, Socio-Economic Profile, discusses the demographics, infrastructure, and economy of the area, focusing on the five counties with the greatest amount of land in the area --Calhoun, Greene, Jersey, Macoupin, and Madison counties; Part II, Environmental Quality, discusses air and water quality, and hazardous and toxic waste generation and management in the area; and Part III, Archaeological Resources, identifies and assesses the archaeological sites, ranging from the Paleo-Indian (10,000 B.C.) through the Postwar Industrial (A.D 1946), known in the assessment watershed. Volume 5, Early Accounts of the Ecology of the Big Rivers Area, describes the ecology' of the area as recorded by historical writings of explorers, pioneers, early visitors and early historians.