May 30, 2017 | Press Release
Monticello Mayor Larry Stoner will sign the National Wildlife Federation Mayors’ Monarch Pledge today at the Monarch Brewing Company in Monticello.

May 3, 2017 | Press Release
A coalition of environmental and public health advocates filed suit today to challenge a Trump administration rollback that could wipe out critical protections for cleaning up America’s leading source of toxic water pollution: coal power plant waste.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Press Contacts: Kim Knowles, Prairie Rivers Network, 217-344-2371 x209 Cindy Skrukrud, Illinois Sierra Club, 815-353-5123 Judith Nemes, ELPC, (312) 795-3706 Ivan Moreno, NRDC, 312-651-7909 Margaret Frisbie, Friends of the Chicago River, (773)316 6473 Un-Mucking Illinois’ Waterways: Court Settlement Should Reduce Algae Pollution in Rivers CHICAGO (January 19, 2017) – Environmental groups have settled long-running litigation against [...]

Each autumn, eastern monarch butterflies return to Illinois, dotting harvest-ready fields and cornflower blue skies with their iconic, graceful orange and black as they make their long journey back to their winter home in Mexico. Over the past decade, monarchs have become a much rarer sight in Illinois and across the Midwest as eastern monarch populations have plummeted by as much as 80% by some counts. Monarch butterflies rely on various species of milkweed during their 3000 mile migration each year from Mexico across the Midwestern U.S. to Canada, reproducing in multiple generations before a final generation makes its way back south to overwinter in Mexico and begin the cycle anew.  Milkweed and other native flowers that monarchs need to sustain their populations are in decline due to habitat fragmentation and aggressive weeding.