Illinois River Watershed Plan

Recreation Management along a partnership river demands close collaboration among diverse stakeholders and a thorough consideration of ecological context.

Under an on-call for the National Park Service, Biohabitats led a team with Design Workshop and Recreation Resource Consulting to provide technical support to a Recreation Management Vision Plan for the Illinois River in Arkansas, a 21-mile corridor within the 145-mile-long tributary to the Arkansas River. The Illinois River is a sizable watershed with a diverse partnership of recreation, agriculture, and resource protection stakeholders trying to solve water quality issues. Across the border 21 miles away in Oklahoma, the river becomes a beloved tubing destination with thousands of tubers on peak summer days. The Arkansas side of the watershed is anticipating increased visitor demand, so the watershed group is planning to safely accommodate increasing recreational use and interest in coming years.

Envisioned and led by the Illinois River Watershed Partnership with Prism Design Studio, the recreation planning effort struck a delicate balance between respecting the preferences of local landowners and recognizing that recreational use is increasing and driving the need for a management framework.

Biohabitats led the ecological planning, identifying ecological sensitivity in a compiled index that highlights certain reaches for special protection or development guidelines that focus on preservation of habitat and water quality. The team also launched a GIS platform for the watershed partnership, custom designing access and input portals to support future stages of the planning effort.

TAGS

• Analysis+Planning
• Assessment+Monitoring
• Conservation
• Ecological Restoration