CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — In “The Jungle,” author Upton Sinclair described the Chicago River's Bubbly Creek as a "great open sewer."
But the Shedd Aquarium, Urban Rivers, and a number of volunteers have been working to change this narrative by installing a 3,000-square-foot wetland habitat to draw in wildlife and increase ecological health.
Urban Rivers Executive Director Nick Wesley said he hopes the habitat will be a catalyst for the local ecosystem.
"By focusing on revitalizing the ecosystem, you bring back things that you might not be able to see, or you might not notice before,” he said. “So you'll see a lot more wildlife in the area, you'll be, you know, kind of surrounded by native plants and pollinators and things like that"
This includes plants like milkweed, for example, which Wesley said attracts Monarch butterflies.
"So essentially, we're building an archipelago of these floating gardens that will sit in right outside canal origins and build habitats and bring back native plants to the area," he said.
He said this will hopefully show Chicagoans Bubbly Creek's environmental potential and added that he’s excited to see these habitats built on what he called “basically a dumping ground.”
"It really is a showcase for what a transformation we've done with our river system … so we see it as a real big point in the history of the river, showing that they can be this ecological connector," Wesley said.
The habitat in Bubbly Creek should be open next week.
Related
Related
Listen to WBBM Newsradio now on Audacy!