Mission
At Prairie Rivers Network, we protect water, heal land, and inspire change.
Using the creative power of science, law, and collective action, we protect and restore our rivers, return healthy soils and diverse wildlife to our lands, and transform how we care for the earth and for each other.
Protect Water
Water is life—connecting, sustaining, and inspiring us all. At Prairie Rivers Network we protect water from the ravages of pollution and restore the beauty and power of naturally flowing rivers. We hold polluters accountable, advance policies to allow river ecosystems to thrive, and promote practices that keep our waters clean and abundant.
Heal Land
Land and water form a system on which the entire community of life depends; to care for land is to care for water. Too often, human activity degrades land and water and imperils this community. At Prairie Rivers Network, we advance practices and policies that return health to our soils and increase biodiversity. We work with people to restore the lands along and between our rivers, repair the earth that provides our food, and ensure that animals have the habitat needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world.
Inspire Change
We are part of an interconnected whole. Our community includes all parts of the Earth: soil, water, people, plants, and animals. At Prairie Rivers Network, we elevate and uphold the cultural values and understandings needed for all life to flourish. We use the images and voices of people to tell compelling stories of resistance and renewal. We educate and empower people to act. And we lead collective efforts to create new ways of restoring our rivers, healing our lands, and caring for our neighbors.
History
Prairie Rivers Network was established in 1967 under the leadership of Bruce and Patricia Hannon as they engaged others to oppose the construction of the Army Corps of Engineers’ Oakley Reservoir on the Sangamon River near Decatur. Oakley Reservoir would have put hundreds of acres of Allerton Park, a locally cherished natural area in Central Illinois, underwater and flooded thousands more adjacent acres. This group of concerned and dedicated citizens incorporated as the Committee on Allerton Park as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization. They battled the dam for many years halting its appropriation progress in 1975 and deauthorizing it at the federal level in late 1985.
In 1973, the group realized that a locally focused effort could not stop the Oakley Dam which was part of an overall national program. They formed a sister organization under the same board called the Coalition on American Rivers (COAR) to organize opposition to similar Corps dams and other projects throughout the Midwest. As a 501 (c ) 4 organization, it was able to lobby in Washington and at the state level.
Under the leadership of John Marlin, the first paid Executive Director (1973-1983), these organizations brought together people that crossed political and social boundaries to protect rivers from federal water resources projects that threatened most of the nation’s rivers in the 1960’s and 70’s. Aided by hundreds of volunteers, including University of Illinois students, the COAR helped citizen groups around the Midwest organize and offered constituent support to like-minded politicians. They also joined Washington based organizations in testifying before Congress and taking the message to individual members of Congress.
By the late 1970s, the political climate had changed and the Congressional attitude toward water project became more balanced as the public became aware of their environmental and economic shortcomings. The collective effort of concerned citizens stopped dozens of dams, reservoirs, and other environmentally costly water projects that would have permanently altered the habitats of most of the nation’s rivers including the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. The COAR became the Central States Resource Center in 1979.
In 1984, the Committee on Allerton Park was renamed Central States Education Center (CSEC) to reflect the group’s continuing and increasing statewide focus on a number of issues including solid waste. Central States Education Center changed its name to Prairie Rivers Network in 1998 to more accurately reflect our focus on issues that impact Illinois’ rivers and watersheds. In 2007, Bruce Hannon retired as President of the Board of Directors after nearly 40 years of service.
Since its inception, PRN has consistently used grass roots organizing and advocacy to protect the rivers and streams of Illinois. From the successful opposition of dams proposed in the 1970’s that would have permanently altered the flow of our rivers, to our current efforts to ensure full enforcement of the Clean Water Act to reduce water pollution and protect fish and wildlife habitats, PRN works with local citizens to advocate for the protection of our rivers at the federal, state, and local level.
With the support of our members and partners, Prairie Rivers Network has grown to become the statewide leader in river protection, conservation, and restoration.
View our 40th Anniversary History Booklet.
View a multimedia presentation of the Middle Fork
of the Vermilion River saga that started it all.
