2022: A Year in Review
2022 was a big year for Urban Rivers. Habitat was created, plants were planted, and the Wild Mile welcomed more visitors and wildlife than ever before. Growing like the swamp rose mallow on our islands, we are still just getting started. Here’s (some of) what we got up to in 2022, and what we’re looking forward to in 2023.
If you would like to support our commitment to creating habitat, you can donate and help transform urban waterways into urban wildlife sanctuaries.
Wild Mile
In a major step for our flagship project, we were more than excited to welcome the public to our first section of floating walkway; 400 linear feet of sustainably harvested Norwegian pine, completing the initial phase of the construction of the Wild Mile.
The Wild Mile boardwalk provides a unique, flexible access point to the Chicago River, and has created a place where folks can gather and learn, right on the river itself. People of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities are now able to explore and experience the gardens and the life teeming within them up close— boats not required! The park is open year round for all to enjoy.
You may have been one of the many folks able to come out last year. And if you haven’t yet been, let us be the first to invite you! We did a lot of fun & cool things last year, and there’s plenty more to come in 2023.
In our first year with the boardwalk, we had:
A smashingly successful block party to celebrate the Wild Mile in June
Over 30,000 visitors from July-December
288 students visit on field trips where they hopefully learned something
17 free summer workshops with over 220 attendees that showcased the potential of this unique public space
Bubbly Creek
Bubbly Creek- still bubbly, but now it has native plants in it! In 2022 we partnered with the Shedd Aquarium and the Chicago Park District to bring floating gardens to Bubbly Creek on the South Branch of the Chicago River.
Bubbly Creek was historically one of the most polluted sections of the Chicago River, a site for dumping just about anything that meatpacking industry could create. So gruesome that its description in the book “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair churned stomachs nationwide. Bringing life back into this section of the river will demonstrate our city’s ability to come together and revitalize something that was once written off. In an area of the river flanked by persistent heavy industry, to create a sliver of wildlife friendly space could have lasting effects, not only on the ecosystem, but on the way these rapidly changing areas are developed going forward.
In just our first year at Bubbly Creek:
6 new floating islands were installed
3,000 new plants planted, including swamp rose, sedges, rushes, and all other manner of native plants
Fish were found in greater abundance than up north
Species that require very specific habitat types were spotted, such as the Osprey and Northern Water Snake
Research
To understand the full impact of our floating gardens on urbanized waterways, Urban Rivers actively conducts and supports ecological research and collaboration throughout Chicago area waterways. This year, we collaborated with partners on several different research projects that span a variety of topics critical to observing the impacts of our work on water and wildlife.
In 2022, we did science things, like:
Introduce 1,487 juvenile mussels reared in DuPage County Forest Preserve’s Urban Stream Research Center
Spot 99 species of birds on the Wild Mile with the Chicago Ornithological Society (will you be the one to find #100?)
Plucked 7,214 pieces of trash out of the river, with data going to trash studies done at Loyola University
Coordinated research for 9 different projects covering every thing from birds to bats to bugs, and more!
Whats Coming in 2023
The Wild Mile boardwalk is so nice, we’ve got to do it twice! We will be expanding the boardwalk to double its current length in late summer 2023. This expansion, funded by the City of Chicago, will extend further north and will (eventually) add a second access point to the Wild Mile at W Weed St. The concept art above is a sneak peak at how lush the Wild Mile is “growing” to be.
On top of that, we received several major grants in 2022 that we will use to fund projects in the near future, specifically:
$342,400 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation ‘ Chi-Cal grant to bring floating gardens to a third location at River Park in partnership with the North River Commission and the Chicago Park District.
$100,000 from Google & $78,000 from 11th Hour Racing’s grant program (funded by the Schmidt Family Foundation) to support freshwater mussel research and habitat expansion.
And finally, to help foster development of this and future expansions of the Wild Mile, we are forming a new Wild Mile Community Advisory Board to gather informed, objective feedback about how to best operate the Wild Mile, and how we can best serve the people most immediate to us. If you live or work nearby, and are committed to the health and development of your community's public spaces and the Chicago River, we would love to have you join! The link to apply is here: https://www.urbanriv.org/wild-mile-cab
Visit the Wild Mile
If you were wondering where all sorts of things are going on in relation to the Wild Mile, we have a cool page on our website for that! Head to UrbanRiv.org/visit to see where our latest installations are resting, where to enter the floating boardwalk, launch a kayak, rent a boat, or spot some turtles (sunny days only, of course). Check in for the latest developments and the best ways to see all the sights the Wild Mile has to offer!
Urban Rivers in the News
The first big year of the Wild Mile and our gardens at Bubbly Creek has certainly NOT gone unnoticed by the media, with wonderful pieces from the Chicago Tribune, Fast Company, and our local FOX, NBC, and WGN stations, among others. This attention is a reflection both of the incredible possibilities of our work, as well as the enormous support provided by the City of Chicago and our partners to bring the Wild Mile and other projects to life.