Our rivers and wildlife were under attack this year, and PRN did its best to protect water, heal land, and inspire change in the face of these challenges. Your membership in PRN helped us succeed this year. Thank you!
The Trump administration proposed rolling back the Clean Water Act, and we couldn’t let that happen. Many of you responded to our call to write the EPA and oppose the rolling back of these clean water protections. If the EPA succeeds, wetlands and of streams in Illinois would lose critical pollution protections permanently.
Phosphorus pollution is one of the biggest threats to the health of Illinois rivers and streams, and with the help of the Illinois Sierra Club, we brokered a new agreement to require the largest sewage plants to reduce phosphorus discharges into our rivers and streams and to develop plans for further clean up.
In October, the Land and Water Conservation Fund expired, but we were hopeful that elected officials would reauthorize it. The fund is one of our nation’s most successful conservation programs that has, over the past five decades, secured billions of dollars for conservation and open space is no longer receiving funding.
We celebrated the removal of the Danville Dam. The journey has been a long one. The removals have been nothing short of controversial, resulting in contentious meetings and sometimes public shouting matches. This could not have been accomplished without the work of many. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the Illinois Natural History Survey, the City of Danville, and many, many others have worked for years to make this possible.
PRN and our partners defeated a dangerous effort by the Rauner administration to weaken Illinois’ strong floodplain regulations. Had the effort been successful, we would have seen more construction in floodplains and more flooding risks for vulnerable communities.
The Endangered Species Act came under siege with a number of pieces of legislation and a White House proposal that would eviscerate the Act. In its 45-year history, the Act has been credited with saving from extinction 99% of the roughly 1,600 species it has protected. It has worked. This is not a time to weaken protections, it’s a time to double-down on them.
We followed the story of the clear cutting along a mile stretch of the Salt Fork and its effects on residents of the Heather Hills neighborhood north of St. Joseph.
And finally, the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act was a bright spot in bipartisanship. With efforts in Washington and in Congressional district meetings and calls, five Illinois Members of Congress signed on as co-sponsors to the bill. You answered the call when we sent out an alert, and hundreds of you responded!
This was a year filled with heartbreak, but with your support, we have made gains in protecting our water, healing our land, and inspiring change across Illinois!
