University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The upper Des Plaines River basin: an inventory of the region's resources

Illinois Deptartment of Natural Resources Office of Realty and Environmental Planning

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/14425

Description

Title
The upper Des Plaines River basin: an inventory of the region's resources
Author(s)
Illinois Deptartment of Natural Resources Office of Realty and Environmental Planning
Contributor(s)
The Nature of Illinois Foundation
Issue Date
1998
Keyword(s)
  • Ecosystem management --Des Plaines River Watershed (Wis. and Ill.)
  • Wetland ecology --Des Plaines River Watershed (Wis. and Ill.)
  • Natural resources surveys --Des Plaines River Watershed (Wis. and Ill.)
  • Natural resources conservation areas --Des Plaines River Watershed (Wis. and Ill.)
  • Environmental protection --Des Plaines River Watershed (Wis. and Ill.)
  • Des Plaines River Watershed (Wis. and Ill.)
Geographic Coverage
Illinois
Abstract
"Take a canoe trip down the upper Des Plaines River from just north of the Wisconsin border south to the Cook County town of Lyons, and you can see the history of urbanization in Illinois laid out like a diorama. As the river moves through parts of Lake, Cook and DuPage counties, farms give way first to bedroom suburbs, then to 1990s-style ""edge cities."" Along the crowded southern part of the upper Des Plaines, ""urban uses""-airport terminals to Toys 'R' Us-are ten times more concentrated than in Illinois as a whole and cover as much as 70% of the land. No other natural Illinois river runs through such an urbanized watershed; no other urban river still has so much nature left in and around it. The upper Des Plaines basin thus is uniquely situated to find answers to a new question about an old dilemma: If nature cannot be restored to its old place in Illinois' natural order, can it at least be admitted to a place in the new human one?"
Publisher
Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources
Series/Report Name or Number
Critical Trends Assessment Program
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/14425
Copyright and License Information
These documents are a product of the Illinois state scientific surveys and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and has been selected and made available by the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They are intended solely for noncommercial research and educational use, and proper attribution is requested.

Owning Collections

Critical Trends Assessment Program PRIMARY
Detailed assessments of 32 major watersheds in Illinois, conducted through the Critical Trends Assessment Program administered by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Includes contributions from each of the State Scientific Surveys which are now part of the Prairie Research Institute.