In The News
Native Mollusks Are Key to Freshwater Ecosystems. Here’s How One Group is Helping Build Mussel Mass on the Chicago River
WTTW Chicago / Patty Wetli / January 30th, 2024
In our most successful mussel-hunting season to date, our staff and volunteers found five gravid female Giant Floater mussels! Producing over 27,000 young, these mussels were a huge help to our ongoing effort to bolster native mollusk populations in urbanized stretches of the Chicago River.
New summer program for students tours Chicago pollution hotspots
Chicago Sun Times / Indira Khera / June 23rd, 2023
We host dozens of school classes, summer camps, and youth groups on the Wild Mile during the summer season, teaching the social and ecological impacts of Chicago River’s industrial history.
Wild Mile block party returns sunday to celebrate the chicago river’s floating garden
Block Club Chicago / Jake Wittich / June 22nd, 2023
Our second annual Wild Mile Block Party frew a crowd of over 850 people, and drew attention from local news outlets!
Meet ‘Chonkosaurus,’ The viral chicago river snapping turtle
NBC News / Brahmjot Kaur / May 12th, 2023
An especially hefty common snapping turtle was spotted by Joey Santore, a popular local content creator. Chonkosaurus rapidly rose to internet stardom - but this local celebrity has been a Wild Mile regular for years!
New Research underscores the initial benefits of floating wetlands in urban waterways
Association of Zoos & Aquariums / April 11, 2023
A new study published in Science of the Total Environment, co-authored by Urban Rivers staff, showcases the tangible ecological benefits of floating wetlands like the Wild Mile.
Are Floating wetlands making a difference In urban rivers? Chicago researchers say the ecosystem life rafts are working
WTTW News / Patty Wetli / March 31, 2023
Chicago’s floating gardens are one of a handful of similar projects that explore the impact of floating wetlands on urban ecosystems. In recently-published work, a group of researchers say that these rafts are indeed having measurable positive effects.
How Floating Wetlands Are Helping to Clean Up Urban Waters
Yale Environment 360 / Susan Cosier / November 22, 2022
As cities around the world look to rid their waterways of remaining pollution, researchers like Urban Rivers are installing artificial islands brimming with grasses and sedges. The islands’ surfaces attract wildlife, while the underwater plant roots absorb contaminants and support aquatic life.
NFWF Awards $1.7 Million in New Conservation Grants to Benefit Wildlife and Improve Access to Greenspace in the Chicago-Calumet Region
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation / November 16, 2022
Chi-Cal Rivers fund partners announced Urban Rivers as one of six projects selected to receive grant funding to improve and enhance waterways in the Chicago-Calumet region.
Here’s How A Local Group Is Reviving The Chicago River’s Freshwater Mussels
Block Club Chicago / Xuandi Wang / November 10, 2022
Urban Rivers has helped reproduce more than 1,500 mussels, which improve the water quality by filter feeding and removing pollutants.
Shedd Aquarium, Urban Rivers to bring over 3,000 square feet of floating wetlands to the South Side
Chicago Tribune / Jordan Anderson / October 29, 2022
Urban Rivers and the Shedd Aquarium are creating 3,000 square feet of floating habitat in Bubbly Creek — one of the most infamously degraded stretches of the Chicago River.
Wild Mile, Chicago's first floating eco-park, opens near Goose Island
CBS Chicago / October 12, 2022
The Wild Mile, Chicago's first-ever floating eco-park, officially opens
OM’s Doug Voigt transforms a 17-acre formerly industrialized human-made branch of the Chicago River into an eco-park that serves people, wildlife, and the environment
Global Design News / September 12, 2022
Doug Voigt and his design team at SOM partner with Urban Rivers to create a new 17-acre floating eco-park called “The Wild Mile”—a new environment for habitat, education, and recreation on the Chicago River.
Urban Rivers and SOM Construct a Floating Urban Sanctuary in the Chicago River
Architectural Record/ Ilana Herzig / August 8, 2022
Realized by local nonprofit Urban Rivers, with support from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and the city of Chicago, the 400-foot portion of the planned Wild Mile reintroduces flora and fauna to the previously industrialized channel while fostering public access and education.
The Wild Mile’s First Stretch Is Ready, Bringing Floating Gardens, Paths And More To Chicago River’s North Branch
Block Club Chicago/ Jake Wittich / July 13, 2022
The Wild Mile is an ambitious project to turn a 1-mile stretch of the Chicago River from North to Halsted into a floating, wildlife-first educational park.
From industrial waste to floating wetlands, how Chicago’s Wild Mile is reinventing the urban river
Fast Company/ Nate Berg / July 6, 2022
The first 400 feet is installed of what’s being called the Wild Mile—a grassroots reinvigoration of a stretch of the river that has been off-limits to nearly all forms of life for decades.
MTN DEW® Awards $200,000 to 40 Nonprofit Organizations That Champion the Great Outdoors
PR Newswire/ January 18, 2022
Urban Rivers was one of 40 non-profits selected by MTN DEW Outdoor Grants based on their efforts to protect and preserve the outdoors and how they help people get outside.
Time Out Chicago Best of the City Awards 2021
Time Out Chicago/ Zach Long & Emily Krupp / December 7, 2021
Urban Rivers awarded Green Star 2021 by Time Out Chicago Best of the City Awards.
Not just ‘this thing that you dye green and you drive over’: Nonprofit hopes to connect residents with Chicago River’s wild side
Chicago Tribune / Talia Soglin / August 9, 2021
The conception of the Chicago River as something purely industrial or even unclean is something that nonprofit Urban Rivers hopes to challenge with a project called the Wild Mile: an ambitious plan to construct a mile-long walkway on the North Branch of the river.
Great Lakes Now Presents Episode 1019: Looking Up and Out
Great Lakes Now/ Zach Long & Emily Krupp / October 27, 2020
Urban Rivers co-founder Nick Wesley talks about the impact of floating gardens in urbanized river systems.
14 Ways to Volunteer in Chicago for Every Kind of Person
Thrillist/ Max Plenke / June 3, 2020
If you have a graphic design or science background -- like ecology, biology, or horticulture -- Urban Rivers is looking for volunteers to help with virtual lessons about the Chicago River until their River Ranger program (where you kayak the Chicago River for research) reopens post-quarantine.
Floating trees and trails will transform North Branch canal into Chicago’s newest eco-park
Curbed Chicago/ Sara Freund & Jay Koziarz / January 2, 2020
A modular plan for the Wild Mile, an eco-park along the Chicago River’s highly polluted North Branch Cana, is getting $1.4 million more in city funding so designers can implement a two-block floating boardwalk.
Shedd Kayak Trips Encourage Paddlers to Explore and Restore Chicago River
WTTW News/ Nick Blumberg / July 9, 2019
The Shedd Aquarium’s Kayak for Conservation program takes kayakers on a mini-river tour, including a stop at the Wild Mile, to get people involved in Shedd’s conservation efforts and shows that the Chicago River is a living ecosystem.
North Branch’s Wild Mile Gets A Blast Of Green As Shedd Aquarium Helps Add New Floating Island
Block Club Chicago/ Hannah Boufford / June 27, 2019
Shedd Aquarium and Urban Rivers collaborate in the building of the latest floating wetlands apart of the Wild Mile.
Meet the remote-controlled, trash-collecting robot you could soon use to help clean the Chicago River
Chicago Tribune/ Javonte Anderson / May 22, 2019
In an effort to attack the river’s pollution, Urban Rivers, a Chicago-based environmental nonprofit, plans to dispatch a remote-controlled, trash-collecting robot — Trashbot — near Goose Island.
Urban Rivers wants to bring the largest aquatic park in the world to Chicago
WGN Radio/ Pete Zimmerman / April 25, 2019
Justin speaks with Nick Wesley and Phil Nicodemus of Urban Rivers to talk about their vision for the Chicago River, the importance of maintaining the habitat of the Chicago River, why we need to find new ways to engage the rivers in our region, what makes the Chicago River unique, the innovation behind the “trash robot” and their goal of the Wild Mile, a mile-long floating park located on the North Branch Canal of the Chicago River.
Designs unveiled for world’s first floating ‘eco-park’ planned for Chicago River
Chicago Sun Times/ Nader Issa / February 7, 2019
Planners unveiled the first renderings of the “Wild Mile Chicago” park, that would include new wildlife, recreational and educational additions to the river’s North Branch.
Chicago's 'Wild Mile' Is a Habitat Made Almost Entirely From Scratch
Wired/ Leslie Nemo / August 9, 2018
The city's manmade North Branch Canal is polluted and lacks natural habitat. Enter 80 coconut-fiber “islands” that host wildlife and filter the water.
Experimental islands create new habitats to transform the Chicago River
WGN9/ Erin Ivory / July 13, 2018
The task of cleaning up the Chicago River is a massive one, so Urban Rivers and the Shedd Aquarium have honed in on one particular stretch to see if they can turn a mile of Chicago’s murkiest channel into a thriving eco-park.
A 'wild mile' on the Chicago River? It might be closer than you think
Chicago Tribune / Patrick M. O'Connell / June 22, 2018
The gardens are the beginning of a vision to turn the old industrial channel on Goose Island’s eastern edge into a “wild mile,” an eco-park of floating plants, wetlands, kayak piers and public walkways.
Pilot A Trash Robot To Attack River Pollution
Forbes/ Jeff Kart / May 2, 2018
Chicago nonprofit Urban Rivers wanted to fight trash on a floating garden installed along the Chicago River. So they built a remote-controlled, floating, trash-collecting robot.
You Could Drive This River-Cleaning Trashbot From Anywhere
Popular Mechanics / Avery Thompson / April 3, 2018
Chicago non-profit Urban Rivers is designing a robot that lets anyone, anywhere in the world, help make their river cleaner.
Six Ways You Can Help the Chicago River
WTTW News/ December 16, 2017
There are many ways you can help reduce your environmental impact and clean up the Chicago River, including volunteering with organizations like Urban Rivers.
These Floating Gardens Could Attract Turtles and Otters to the Chicago River
Chicago Magazine / Jamison Pfeifer / May 17, 2017
Urban Rivers raised nearly $30,000 to transform the half-mile stretch of river near Goose Island.
Floating islands (gardens): Another advance, Chicago River dreams
Chicago Sun Times/ Dale Bowman / October 10, 2016
Urban Rivers is a new group trying an innovative habitat idea on the Chicago River system.
Urban Rivers Works To Restore The Chicago River’s Ecosystem
NPR / Worldview / June 9, 2016
Josh Yellin, Zachary Damato and Nick Wesley, the co-founding members of Urban Rivers, join us to tell us about their latest effort to restore the ecosystem of the Chicago River.