. The Changing Illinois environment : critical trends : summary report of the Critical Trends Assessment Project. Man; Pollution; Environmental protection; Ecology; Environmental impact analysis. Streams and Rivers • Z3 The Illinois River A thousand years ago a succession of prehistoric peoples found an ideal habitat in the Illinois River valley below Peoria. Five miles wide in places, the valley was the site of a series of town centers scattered up and down its 100 miles. Remnants of this extensive and long-lived occupation are everywhere. By 1980 archaeologists had found evidence in Fulton C
. The Changing Illinois environment : critical trends : summary report of the Critical Trends Assessment Project. Man; Pollution; Environmental protection; Ecology; Environmental impact analysis. Streams and Rivers • Z3 The Illinois River A thousand years ago a succession of prehistoric peoples found an ideal habitat in the Illinois River valley below Peoria. Five miles wide in places, the valley was the site of a series of town centers scattered up and down its 100 miles. Remnants of this extensive and long-lived occupation are everywhere. By 1980 archaeologists had found evidence in Fulton County alone of roughly 3,000 village and burial sites, representing all the known eras of Native American culture in Illinois. Later lUinoisans also found the river a rich resource. From 1905 to 1915, more fresh- water fish were harvested from the Illinois River than from any other such river in the , except for the Columbia River in Washington state. In 1908 alone, nearly 25 million pounds of fish were harvested. In 1950, flocks of migrating mallards and lesser scaup ducks numbered two million along the Illinois, making it a hunter's paradise. Just after the turn of the present century, the Illinois briefly sus- tained a fleet of 2,600 boats harvesting mussels for the booming pearl button industry. Today's hunters and commercial fishermen cannot match those historic harvests. The long-term sustain- ability of the river's biological harvest was hampered by a succession of ecological injuries. They include: • Drainage of wetlands and the channelization of tributaries that began in the late 1800s. These changes sped up the rate at which water entered the Illinois River, enhancing its ability to carry off top- soil and pollutants from the land into the river. • Diversion of Chicago sewage and factory. Boat traffic—made possible by the deeper channel- generates bank-eroding waves and keeps sediments suspended, clouding the river water. pollution into the river beginning
Size: 2383px × 1049px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, booksubjecte, booksubjectecology, booksubjectman
