Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) and FREP cooperated in a Stream Inventory Project this summer to document the conditions of a number of streams within the Fox River Watershed.  Holly Hudson of NIPC supervised interns Mark Meyer of Lombard, a student at Augustana College; and Lori Hron of Naperville, a student at Purdue University.

The FREP Water Quality Committee prioritized which streams would be inventoried and created the 6-page data sheet that the interns have used to document each stream portion  or "reach" that they walked this summer. More information about this project will be available soon on this website and in the Fall 2002 issue of the Fox River News.

Below are some photos of the interns from a typical day of "creek walking" - this day at Blackberry Creek in the Bliss Woods Forest Preserve in Kane County.

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Mark & Lori with their equipment - in the
hip-waders		 Mark & Lori with their equipment - in the
hip-waders		 Mark & Lori in
Blackberry Creek		 Lori showing the device to record their location latitude & longitude Lori measures stream depth as Mark records the information on the 6-page data form
 
Lori takes bank measurements Lori takes bank measurements Lori takes bank measurements Lori takes bank measurements  
Mark & Lori run a tape to measure stream width Mark & Lori run a tape to measure stream width Mark & Lori run a tape to measure stream width Mark & Lori run a tape to measure stream width Mark & Lori run a tape to measure stream width


Lori and Mark will spend their final weeks of the summer at an office provided by LFR Levine Fricke in Elgin, as they enter their data into a computer.

The information they gathered will be made available to the public and those agencies, communities and organizations that can eventually take steps to help protect those streams that need to be improved.
Mark & Lori measure velocity with a floating bottle and stop watch Mark & Lori measure velocity with a floating bottle and stop watch Lori photographs the stream section, noting surrounding land use and vegetation.