As part of its Clean Water Forever campaign, Prairie Rivers Network is working to affirm and protect public access to the rivers of Illinois. Working with partners, we are promoting a bill (HB4708) in the Illinois legislature that would protect, for Illinois residents, the full range of access rights that they enjoy under federal and state law—access rights far broader than those commonly recognized by state agencies and law enforcement officers around the state. Those access rights for boating, fishing, swimming, tubing, and the like are explored in detail in an extensive legal study by PRN supporter and former board member Eric Freyfogle, a long-time professor of property and natural resources law at the University of Illinois College of Law. The article can be freely downloaded and shared.
