Flint Creek Watershed Partnership
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To improve water quality, reduce flooding, & preserve/ restore wetlands, prairies and other natural features for future generations. http://ow.ly/pHLEy
Flint Creek Watershed Partnership’s goal is to educate while building partnerships for projects to improve water quality, reduce flooding, and preserve and restore wetlands, prairies, and other natural features for future generations. Funding for the Flint Creek Watershed-Based Plan was provided, in part, by the Governor of Illinois and the Illinois Environment Protection Agency through Section 31
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Location
Contact the school
Telephone
Address
459 W Hwy 22
Barrington, IL
60010
General information
We have to look back to see the future of Flint Creek Watershed. Thousands of years ago glaciers retreated and left rolling hills and low-lying wetlands. The land contained diverse wildlife living on prairies, savannas and wetlands maintained by fire. Slow overland water flows infiltrated into the soil before reaching small prairie streams with no conspicuous channels. In the 1830’s settlers came and cleared the savannas, plowed the prairies, tiled the wetlands, and stopped the fires. Settlers brought non-native species that invaded natural areas. Water ran unimpeded over roofs, roads and farm fields, picking up pollutants that ran into Flint Creek. The creek widened, deepened and overflowed; orange spotted sunfish, prairie chickens and fringed orchids disappeared.
The future involves restoring the health of Flint Creek and the lakes in the watershed by restoring some of the native systems that historically protected our water resources both above and below the ground. Prairies, savannas and wetlands purify water and allow it to seep into the ground, reducing flooding and filling underground aquifers. Citizens living in eight communities and five townships share the natural resources in the Flint Creek Watershed; together we can learn more about them to protect and care for the high quality resources still remaining and restore others that have disappeared.