Prairie Rivers Network is partnering with Mike Jeffords, Susan Post, and Carolyn Nixon of the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) to expand their “Corps of Discovery” program throughout Illinois. This program trains individuals in photography, descriptive writing, and sketching with the goal of using these skills to create “a total aesthetic picture” of Illinois river and floodplain ecosystems as they exist today and into the future.

River Corps of Discovery volunteers have already been trained to record the rich diversity of the Cache River wetlands, the Nature Conservancy’s Emiquon Preserve along the Illinois River, Allerton and Lost Mound. Another round of training workshops begins April 16th at the INHS office in Champaign. The course consists of five all-day workshops which include skill-building activities; volunteers are not required to have prior artistic backgrounds or demonstrated skills, but must be dedicated and committed to using their training within the River Corps of Discovery program.

For more information on the River Corps of Discovery visit www.inhs.uiuc.edu/outreach/COD.html, or contact Michael Jeffords at Jeffords@illinois.edu or 217.333.5986. The deadline for registration and fee payment ($75) for the workshops closes March 15, 2009.