Resources

Cited Research

Pesticides

Pesticides and Wildlife: United States Fish and Wildlife Service Environmental Contaminants Program

Pesticides in the Nation’s Streams and Groundwater: United States Geological Survey

The Soil Biology Primer: United States Department of Agriculture

Attracting Beneficial Insects to Your Garden: University of Illinois

Outreach and Education Insect ID cards: "The Good Guys"; "The Bad Guys"; Illinois Natural History Survey

Colorado State University Extension:>
• Insect Control: Homemade Garlic Spray
• Insect Control: Horticultural Oils
• Insect Control: Soaps and Detergents

About Pesticides: United States EPA

Threats to Pollinators: United States Fish and Wildlife

Safer Lawn Care for Homeowners: Safer Pest Control

Mulch

National Wildlife Federation: What's wrong with using cypress mulch?

NPR: Battle Brews over Louisiana Cypress Mulch

Best of New Orleans.com: More unsettling news about the dwindling cypress groves

The Mulch and Soil Council: Which mulches come from natural forest products?

Colorado State University Extension Service: Mulching with Wood/Bark Chips, Grass Clippings, and Rock

Washington State University, Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott: Problems With Rubber Mulch

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA): Hard data about the dangers of cocoa mulch

Penn State University: About Artillery Fungus

Fertilizer

Duluth Streams.org: Lawn Fertilizer Doesn't Just Fertilize Lawns

Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium: Learn About the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico

National Wildlife Federation: What's wrong with using cypress mulch?

University of California: What's so great about grass clippings?

Texas A&M University: Why save your leaves?

University of Illinois: Spring Lawn Care Guide

Alien Earthworms

Tree of Life Web Project, Annelida Segmented worms: bristleworms, ragworms, earthworms, leeches and their allies Greg W. Rouse, Fredrik Pleijel, and Damhnait McHugh http://tolweb.org/Annelida

Gundale, M. J. 2002. Influence of exotic earthworms on the soil organic horizon and the rare fern Botrychium mormo. Conservation Biology 16:1555-1561.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources article on earthworms: Invasive Terrestrial Animals

Darwin, C. R. (1881), The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits, London: John Murray

Jones, C. G., J. H. Lawton, and M. Shachak. 1994. ORGANISMS AS ECOSYSTEM ENGINEERS. Oikos 69:373-386.

Hale CM, Frelich LE, Reich PB (2005) Exotic European earthworm invasion dynamics in northern hardwood forests of Minnesota, USA. Ecol Appl 15:848–860

Salt on the Earth (Chicago Wilderness Magazine, winter 2004), author Peter Friederici lays out the facts about road salt's effects on roadside plants.

Winter Salt's Effect on Soil (Park District of Highland Park Natural Areas Notebook, Jan./Feb. 2009.

Highway Deicing: Comparing Salt and Calcium Magnesium Acetate, by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies.

How Does Road Salt Work, from the Salt Institute, is a primer on how road salt works..

Dirt!

Diversity of soil communities: "the poor man's rainforest". Special issue: Biodiversity of Soil Organisms. Biodiversity and Conservation, 5, 1-34. Giller, P. S. (1996).

"What is Soil?" Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Taxonomic Bias in Conservation Research, J. Alan Clark and Robert M. May (2002), Science 12 July 191

The Soil Resource,"Origin and Behaviour", Hans Jenny(1980), , Springer-Verlag, New York.

The Natural Landscapes Project

Water Supply in Chicago

Northeastern Illinois Water Demand/Supply Plan: Ensuring Water to 2050. To be published in February 2010. Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and Northeastern Illinois Regional Water Supply Planning Group. Also available in print.

Regional Water Demand Scenarios for Northeastern Illinois: 2005-2050. Project Completion Report. Southern Illinois University Carbondale. B. Dziegielewski and F. J. Chowdhury, 2008.

Opportunities and Challenges of Meeting Water Demand in Northeastern Illinois. Prepared for the Northeastern Illinois Regional Water Supply Planning Group under contract to the Office of Water Resources, Illinois Department of Natural Resources. S.C. Meyer, H.A. Wehrmann, H.V. Knapp, Y-F Lin, F.E. Glatfelter, D. Winstanley, J.R. Angel, and J.F. Thomason. 2010.

VIDEO: Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) water supply plan. To view a WTTW Chicago Tonight video on water supply planning, click on the link below, scroll down to the article "VIDEO: CMAP water supply planning," and then click on the "more" button to activate the embedded video. Click Here for Video on Water Supply.

Wetlands and Mosquitoes

Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. Cronon, W. 1991. W.W. Norton & Company. New York.

Wetlands losses in the United States, 1780s to 1980s. U.S. Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Dahl, T.E. 1990, Washington, DC. 21 pp.

The Value of the World's Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital. Costanza, R. et al. 1997. Nature 387:253-260.

Functions and Values of Wetlands. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2001.

Finding Values in Wetlands. The Wetlands Initiative.

"Wetlands and mosquitoes: a review". Wetlands Ecology and Management, Dale, P. E. R. and J. M. Knight. 2008.

"Wetland management strategies that enhance waterfowl habitats can also control mosquitoes". Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, Batzer, D. P. and V. H. Resh. 1992.

"Characteristics of mangrove swamps managed for mosquito control in eastern Florida, USA". Marine Ecology-Progress Series, Middleton, B., D. Devlin, E. Proffitt, K. McKee, and K. F. Cretini. 2008.

Center for Disease Control, West Nile Virus Statistics

"Fishing Wisconsin FAQ: Insects and West Nile Virus", Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' Wet Site

"Wetlands 101", Environmental Concerns' Web Site

Indiana Wetlands Conservation Plan Fact Sheet, "Did You Know? . . . Healthy Wetlands Devour Mosquitoes"

"Use Protection, Avoid Infection: Mosquito-Borne Disease in Wisconsin", Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services

Downstream Impacts

American Rivers. 2004. Catching the Rain: A Great Lakes Resource Guide to Natural Stormwater Management.

American Society of Civil Engineers. 2009. Report Card for America's Infrastructure – Wastewater.

River Water

Hill, L. The Chicago River: A Natural and Unnatural History (Lake Claremont Press, 2000).

Rabalais, N. N., Turner, R. E. & Wiseman, W. J. Gulf of Mexico hypoxia, aka "The dead zone". Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 33, 235-263, doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolysis.33.010802.150513 (2002).

Alexander, R. B. et al. Differences in phosphorus and nitrogen delivery to the gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi river basin. Environ. Sci. Technol. 42, 822-830, doi:10.1021/es0716103 (2008).

Chicago River

Chicago Park District website

Chicago Park District: Fishing Chicago

Chicago Wilderness Magazine

Forest Preserve District of Cook County: North Branch Tail System

Friends of the Chicago River: Urban Canoe Trips

Friends of the Chicago River: Chicago River Day

Illinois Department of Natural Resources: Urban Fishing Clinics

Illinois Department of Public Health: Illinois Fish Advisories

Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program: PCBs and your Family

Changnon, S. A. and J. M. Changnon (1996). "History of the Chicago diversion and future implications." Journal of Great Lakes Research 22(1): 100-118.

Hill, L. (2000). The Chicago River: A Natural and Unnatural History Lake Claremont Press.

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (2008). Office of Public Affairs. Monitoring and Research statistics.

Schwartz, J. S. and E. E. Herricks (2007). "Evaluation of pool-riffle naturalization structures on habitat complexity and the fish community in an urban Illinois stream." River Research and Applications 23(4): 451-466.

Windy City Fishing: Chicago River Fishing Information

Drinking Water

Austin, John. 2006. "The Vital Center: A Federal – State Compact to Renew the Great Lakes Region".

Eng, Monica. 2008. "Chicago tap v. bottled water? ".

Great Lakes – St. Lawrence Cities Initiative. 2007. "Local investment in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence".

Natural Resources Defense Council. 2003. "What's on tap? Grading drinking water in U.S. cities".

U.S. EPA: Children and Drinking Water Standards.

U.S. EPA: Great Lakes Program Report on the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. 2007.

U.S. EPA: Human Health and the Great Lakes.

U.S. EPA: Watershed Academy Web. Introduction to the Clean Water Act.

Lake Levels

Arlan R. Juhl. Encyclopedia of Chicago, "Flood Control and Drainage".

Changnon, S. A. (2004). "Temporal behavior of levels of the Great Lakes and climate variability." Journal Of Great Lakes Research 30(1): 184-200.

Lofgren, B. M., F. H. Quinn, A. H. Clites, R. A. Assel, A. J. Eberhardt and C. L. Luukkonen (2002). "Evaluation of potential impacts on Great Lakes water resources based on climate scenarios of two GCMs." Journal Of Great Lakes Research 28(4): 537-554

Magnuson, J. J., K. E. Webster, R. A. Assel, C. J. Bowser, P. J. Dillon, J. G. Eaton, H. E. Evans, E. J. Fee, R. I. Hall, L. R. Mortsch, D. W. Schindler and F. H. Quinn (1997). "Potential effects of climate changes on aquatic systems: Laurentian Great Lakes and Precambrian Shield Region." Hydrological Processes 11(8): 825-871.

Mortsch, L., G. Sabila and P. Deadman (2008). "Response of vegetation communities in three Lake Huron fens to historical water level fluctuations." Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management 11(2): 167-181.

Southern Lake Michigan Regional Water Supply Consortium. Overview of Regional Water Supply

The International Joint Commission homepage.

Timmermans, S. T. A., S. S. Badzinski and J. W. Ingram (2008). "Associations between breeding marsh bird abundances and Great Lakes hydrology." Journal Of Great Lakes Research 34(2): 351-364.

Beach Closings

Alliance for the Great Lakes: "Welcome to Adopt a Beach."

City of Racine: "Remediation of Storm Water Entering Lake Michigan through the Installation of Native Wetland Plants."

Englebert, E. T., C. McDermott and G. T. Kleinheinz (2008). "Effects of the nuisance algae, Cladophora, on Escherichia coli at recreational beaches in Wisconsin." Science Of The Total Environment 404(1): 10-17.

Lake County Health Department: SwimCast Data.

U.S. EPA. Beach Monitoring and Notification: Beach Sanitary Surveys.

Whitman , R. L. and M. B. Nevers (2003). "Foreshore sand as a source of Escherichia coli in nearshore water of a Lake Michigan beach." Applied And Environmental Microbiology 69(9): 5555-5562

Whitman, R. L. and M. B. Nevers (2008). "Summer E-coli Patterns and Responses along 23 Chicago Beaches." Environmental Science & Technology 42(24): 9217-9224.

Recommended Books

Annin, Peter. The Great Lakes Water Wars. Washington: Island Press, 2006.

Hill, Libby. The Chicago River: A Natural and Unnatural History. Chicago: Lake Claremont Press, 2000.

Simon, Paul. Tapped Out: The Coming World Crisis In Water and What We Can Do About It. New York: Welcome Rain Publishers, 2002.

Wetzel, Robert. Limnology: Lake and River Ecosystems. San Diego: Academic Press, 2001.

Other Useful References

Friends of the Fox River fact sheet, critical issues, and resources

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Climate Change and Water

Alliance for the Great Lakes' Prescription for Healthy Beaches

Chicago Wilderness' Atlas of Biodiversity

City of Chicago Department of Environment's Shoreline Protection Project

Friends of the Chicago River Action Alert for Clean Water and Healthy Fish

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago Storm Water Management Plan for Cook County

USDA Forest Service Water Fact Sheet

Wetlands Initiative: Too much drainage, too much damage. Wetlands needed to reduce economic flooding disasters