River Shallows Project
Building Resilience in the River's Shallows Using the Power of Plants
Since 2015 Friends has installed thousands of native plants along riverbanks to create healthy homes for animals, stabilize river shorelines, and increase river and community resiliency against the impacts of climate change. From 2024 - 2025 thanks to a grant from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, we are now looking at the entire Chicago-Calumet River system's edges to find new locations and scale up this proven strategy that benefits our rivers and human and animal communities.
As part of this project, we will:
- Survey new river edge places where plants can thrive and have the biggest impact.
- Seek community input and share project information to incorporate local knowledge in future project plans.
- Work with engineers and habitat experts to prepare detailed plans for future projects.
- If planting directly in the water is not possible, investigate other ways to improve river habitat.
to help us understand how to best get people involved in the project and what information people want to know as we explore potential planting areas.
