Background

The West Fork of the North Branch of the Chicago River runs along the East edge of the campus.  There is over 1600 feet of stream and it is in a degraded state.  The banks are steep, bare mud, shaded by dense buckthorn and box elder.  The stream channel is clogged with log jams and brush.  Our plans for the stream are to remove all the buckthorn and much of the box elder; we will save the few quality hardwoods such as ash and maple.  The bank will be protected from erosion and planted to native grasses, sedges and wildflowers.  With these efforts we hope to create a free flowing, open stream with riffles and pools for diverse aquatic wildlife habitat.  The native plantings will help protect the bank from erosion and filter sediment going into the river.

Student Use

For the past two years members of the E-Team sampled a stretch of the stream for mussels during our fall survey with the Shedd Aquarium.  The Advanced Placement Environmental Science class has documented a baseline species list of invertebrates in the stream.  Loyola is a member of the Chicago River Network; a group of 20 schools that monitor the river.  Over 70 volunteers participated in a thorough assessment of the physical features, the chemistry and invertebrates in the river.  This data is standardized and shared with the other schools in the network.  Loyola will host the Friends of the Chicago River teacher training day for this group in June 2005.  Josie Elbert of our Science department will be teaching new teachers from the Chicago area in the “Rivers Curriculum” during the summer of 2005.

Funding

We have a major grant for the stream restoration through the IEPA Section 319 of the Clean Waters Act.  We have additional grants from the Scholl Foundation and a private gift  with additional grant applications pending.  We count on our volunteer time as part of our matching funds for the grants.

Get Involved!

Volunteers will be needed this fall to seed the river banks with native grasses and flowers.  We will be doing the mussel survey and will have fall and spring environmental assessment days.  The Chicago River Day is traditionally on the second Saturday in May.   A detailed list of events will be posted in late August.  Contact any member of the Science Department or e-mail Mr. Hayes at phayes@loy.org.