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Just twenty years ago, visitors to Rockford were greeted by rolling farm fields and the canopy of elms and oaks that gave Rockford the nickname "The Forest City." Today, visitors are greeted with countless box stores and strip mails, cookie-cutter national restaurant chains and eight lanes of Chicago-style traffic. Unchecked urban sprawl on Rockford's east side and the encroachment of Chicago's west suburbs threaten farmland, open space and natural areas that are essential to the quality of life in Winnebago County. In response to this looming crisis, the Winnebago County Forest Preserve District has taken a leadership role in organizing the region's environmental efforts.
The Winnebago County Forest Preserve District partners with five non-profit organizations, which run environmental education programs at forest preserve sites. These partner organizations provide the majority of the education called for in the district's mission statement. These partner organizations are diverse, ranging from small, private environmental centers and a bird banding station, to a world-class arboretum and botanic garden. Each organization does an excellent job of providing quality programming to its audience. However, the district saw that each organization was struggling with issues of staffing, funding, public awareness and attendance. Tom Kalousek, executive director of the Winnebago County Forest Preserve District, explains, "Our county-wide environmental education program was fragmented. We saw each of our organizations working hard to get the support and awareness they needed to grow, and we realized there must be other organizations in our county that are struggling with similar issues." Two years ago, the forest preserve district hosted a meeting for all environmental education organizations in the county. The purpose was for representatives from these diverse groups to brainstorm ways they could work together to maximize effectiveness. From that session, stemmed an active collaboration of about eighteen groups providing environmental education programs to Winnebago County and beyond. Early in the organizational process, it became clear to the participants that they represented very diverse types of entities; some were non-profits, some were governmental, some were formal 30 Illinois Parks and Recreation
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and some were informal. Some did environmental programming exclusively, while others did it as a component of a larger mission. As the group discussed what the new coalition would look like, the questions of mission and geographic scope surfaced repeatedly. While the Winnebago County Forest Preserve District was the lead organization in that it served the citizens and visitors of Winnebago County; many of the other organizations had market areas that included three or four counties. As the participants examined the challenges facing environmental education, it became apparent that an underlying problem was the lack of awareness of environmental issues and priorities in the community. Katie Townsend, director of Outdoor Education for Rockford Park District, recalls, "We realized that we couldn't further the cause of environmental education if we didn't have a base of support for appreciating and protecting the environment. All of us were battling a certain public apathy when it came to the quality of the environment in our part of the state." The coalition decided to expand its mission to include all organizations that had environmental education, protection or advocacy as a major part of their mission. In the spring of 2002, the organization voted on an official name to reflect its broad geographic scope: Four Rivers Environmental Coalition. "We wanted a name that gave us a geographic identity, without limiting us to political boundaries," explains Lew Crampton, director of Burpee Museum of Natural History. "We chose Four Rivers because it encompasses the broad interests and audiences we all serve, and conveys that we work with natural resources that don't stop at county lines." The watersheds of the four rivers of north central Illinois (Pecatonica, Sugar, Kishwaukee and Rock) contain the habitats, natural beauty and resources that all groups are interested in improving. A primary objective for this fledgling organization is to raise the general awareness of and appreciation for environmental issues in the minds of the local residents. Through presentation and dissemination of environmental information. Four Rivers hopes to create a mindset that says, "We have something valuable here and we'd better protect it while we still can." The coalition's first publication was produced and distributed in fall 2002. The four-color brochure is a guide to environmental events and organizations to help residents and visitors discover the rivers, prairies, woodlands, wild flowers and wildlife that are in their own backyard. It lists dozens of environmental organizations that provide marvelous opportunities for individuals of all ages to explore the area's natural heritage. Color photos of beautiful, natural areas and native plants and animals entice the reader. The brochure includes educational programs that meet school curricula for Held trips, home school or scout troops. Adventures for families and individuals such as fossil hikes, wildflower walks or bird-banding tours are promoted as well. The coalition plans to produce the brochure seasonally. "We have two objectives with this piece," says Tom Kalousek. "We want to let the public know about all the great events and activities they can attend, but, even if they don't attend, they gain an awareness that there is an environmental movement here. We want people to realize that that we have environmental assets that are worth supporting." In April 2003, the coalition will sponsor an Environmental Expo in conjunction with a countywide Earth Day Celebration. The Expo will feature 25 coalition member organizations providing displays, information tables and staff available to answer questions. This event is open to the public at no charge to raise awareness of environmental programs and encourage people to get involved. A future objective of the Four Rivers Environmental Coalition is to secure additional funding that will benefit various environmental agencies and the coalition in general. Cooperatively applying for state and federal grants may help overcome some of the obstacles to providing formal and informal environmental education opportunities for all. The model for this funding strength is the Chicago Wilderness Society. In some ways, the Four Rivers Coalition will be the Chicago Wilderness Society of the West. Coalition leaders have had numerous meetings with Chicago
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Wilderness staff, and have received an endorsement to emulate its organizational structure and membership procedures. "We are about where Chicago Wilderness was eight or nine years ago," says Lew Crampton. "They already invented the wheel as far as designing a voluntary network of independent agencies that can cooperate to have more clout for obtaining funding and shaping the environmental future of a region." Like the Chicago Wilderness Society, the coalition's structure calls for task forces to carry out the work of the organization. The three areas that these task forces or committees will address are:
• Open Space Advocacy
Local experts in each area will chair the task forces, enlisting the help of numerous citizen volunteers to carry out projects and programs. The Coalition Steering Committee will approve task force initiatives, and outcomes will be reported in a series of community meetings to determine which specific issues the community feels are most important. These recommendations will be sent back to coalition leadership. Another important role of the Four Rivers Coalition will be to facilitate open space and environmental initiatives in the region. In March of 2002, Winnebago County received an $80,000 grant from the Green Communities program of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to implement a regional environmental visioning process.
The purpose of the Green Communities program is to support regions that are striving to unite all segments of their communities in developing a collaborative approach to dealing with local environmental concerns. Grant funds will be used to provide a professional facilitator to implement a community-based, environmental planning process. The Four Rivers Coalition will be an important vehicle for publicizing and organizing a series of community meetings to determine which specific issues the community feels are most important. With that information, a community survey will be developed to measure the public's understanding and support of environmental issues. The facilitator will then assemble the information and take it back to the community through a series of "town hall" meetings, at which the community will work together to design the final, long-range environmental plan for the future. The plan will include ways to collaborate to ensure broad principles of sustainability for the future, such as restoring critical ecosystems; using energy, land, water and other resources efficiently; and emphasizing environmental awareness. It will then be up to the Four Rivers Environmental Coalition, and its member agencies, to advocate, implement and sustain the plans and practices that will protect the region's environmental assets. This new coalition will certainly help to ensure quality of life for area residents and provide environmental leadership for decades to come. Jamie B. Johannsen is Director of Marketing & Community Relations for the Winnebago County Forest Preserve District. Photos by: Jamie B. Johannsen May/June 2003 33 |
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