2010 Promising Projects — Protecting the Environment

The County has had a Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program which aims to permanently protect farmland from development since 2003. In 2010, the County made one of its first forays into appropriating general fund dollars towards its PDR farmland preservation program. Funding is being sought from area foundations over three years while a specially appointed task force studies all available funding options and can devise a plan for permanent, long-term funding of the County’s PDR program.

Although a long term PDR program is clearly beyond the scope of local philanthropic sources, providing some seed funding while in search of a more permanent solution be devised did win Frey Foundation support. Thus, three years of interim funding was awarded and project organizers hope it will demonstrate the existing program’s effectiveness.

Asian carp (a generic term for three species of non-native carp) have been moving up the Mississippi River and into its tributaries since their accidental introduction into the natural habitat in Arkansas in the 1970s and are wreaking havoc on the native ecology with their voracious appetites which enable them to compete against, and ultimately displace, native species. If established, they may decimate the Great Lakes sport fishing industry valued at $7 billion annually. Recent evidence suggests the carp are poised to invade Lake Michigan through the Chicago Area Waterway System.

The electronic barrier in the Chicago Area Waterway System does not provide a physical or hydrologic separation. Also, studies indicate it will never be 100% effective and carp are already in the Illinois River. Therefore, the likelihood of carp moving into the Great Lakes is much greater and less dependent on an episodic (flood) event such as would be a connection to the Great Lakes basin via the Maumee River watershed. A more urgent response is needed.

To solve the issue cited above, two groups – the Great Lakes Commission and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative – are spearheading a second, complimentary effort to that of the Corps, which will specifically focus on Asian carp and the Chicago canal systems.

The Foundation’s support for this effort is one of its first grants directed at issues encompassing the entire Great Lakes basin.