The Northeastern
Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) produced a watershed inventory of the
Chicago Wilderness Green Infrastructure Vision Area, as approved by the
Chicago Wilderness consortium, for the Linking Watersheds 2005 conference.
There were two phases undertaken to complete this project:
-
Conducting a
comprehensive inventory of the Green Infrastructure Vision Area by
collecting information on the existence, date, type and status of
watershed plans
-
Using the inventory
information to create a map to be distributed at the conference to involve
more watershed groups in the area.
An extensive process was
used to obtain the information about watersheds and sub-watersheds in the
Green Infrastructure Vision Area. The rivers in the Chicago Wilderness
Green Infrastructure Vision Area are primarily in the Illinois River
Watershed. A list of agencies involved in watershed planning throughout
the region was identified, and a questionnaire with the information being
sought was distributed via e-mail. As follow-up phone calls were
completed, the list of contacts grew. Watershed plans already at NIPC were
reviewed, along with plans submitted by the various agencies and watershed
groups contacted. Information was also available from the internet, as
many web sites were useful in the information gathering process. Site
visits were also completed if information was available at a certain
agency or watershed group. Towards the end of July, the list of contacts
was exhausted, and a final list of approximately 180 watersheds and
sub-watersheds were identified from the individuals contacted.
The delineations used in
this watershed inventory are divided into two sections: watersheds and
sub-watersheds. In Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, ecosystem
partnerships guide planning efforts and implementation projects within the
watershed. In addition to having ecosystem partnerships for watersheds,
Illinois and Indiana have some areas where sub-watersheds have plans and
are very active. This is observed in more suburban/urban settings, rather
than in rural areas. In Wisconsin, however, comprehensive plans are
followed for the watersheds whereas sub-watersheds do not generally have
their own watershed plans, as the comprehensive plans completed for them
are what “govern” the watershed. Within the framework of the watershed
studies, many subwatershed-level storm water and flood land management
planning has also been done. Water resource issues are handled on both a
watershed and sub-watershed level with plan implementation activities
being shared by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, counties,
municipalities, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, the
Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, and land trusts.
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