This year, Prairie Rivers Network announced its new River Steward Award. This award recognizes those volunteers-individuals and groups-that stand out from the crowd, the ones that go the extra mile to protect and restore their favorite river or stream. In future years we will be asking people around Illinois to nominate volunteers they feel are worthy recipients of the title River Steward. There are many people in Illinois that are doing great things to protect their streams, and we cannot possibly know them all. We will need input from around the state to help identify them.

However, this year, the first year of our River Steward Award, we thought the choice was obvious. The first ever River Steward Award was given to a woman and a group that have demonstrated the strength, patience, wherewithal, and resourcefulness that it takes to be effective in protecting their local stream. We thank and recognize Jan Holder, President of Friends of Kickapoo Creek and the entire group of Friends as our 2005 River Stewards.

In early 2002, Friends of Kickapoo Creek was a small group of landowners concerned about the rapid development occurring along their creek, Kickapoo
Creek in McLean County. In just three short years, albeit tough at times, the Friends of Kickapoo Creek has grown to be one of the most effective an dynamic grassroots organizations Prairie Rivers has had the honor to work with. Their list of accomplishments is long and each one is certainly worthy of
mentioning. They quickly learned to delegate the tasks at hand, push the envelope, and stretch dollars to achieve their goals. Over the past three years they have been able to protect sections of land along the creek; they built public awareness of storm-water issues by working with citizen groups to mark stormdrains with medallions that say “Dump No Waste – Runs to Creek;” they stopped the construction of a dam at the headwaters of the creek – this land will now be protected; they developed a brochure and website; they regularly monitor the water quality of their stream as Stream Team members; they have
performed biotic surveys with IDNR along their stream this past summer; and they applied for not-for-profit status.

As part of our mission at Prairie Rivers, we strive to improve the effectiveness of small grassroots groups and help create new ones. Over the next few years we will continue to recognize more River Stewards like Friends of Kickapoo Creek. It brings us great joy to see, work with, and know people that truly change the destiny of Illinois’ rivers and streams for the better. If you know an individual or group that should be considered as a River Steward, check out our website for more information about how to submit a nomination. Or call Kim Erndt at 217-344-2371.