Northeastern Illinois Regional Water Trails - Recommendations

Today, Openlands, in conjunction with the Illinois Paddling Council (IPC) and other partner organizations, continues to advance the recommendations of Northeastern Illinois Regional Water Trails Plan, many of which can be readily executed.

The plan categorizes stretches of waterways according to the difficulty (minor, moderate, or major) of implementation. For example, a “major” labeling may entail safety issues such as conflicts with motorized boaters or private landowner concerns. However, nearly 80% of the recommended trail mileage received a “minor” classification. This means that approximately 370 miles of waterways could easily be developed into safe, functioning water trails.

Also, of the 174 access and portage sites recommended in the plan, seventy-one percent are either already established or need only minor access or portage improvements, such as gravel screening for a path and coordinating signage.

Lastly, although the plan identifies thirty-nine site owners, eleven agencies control three-quarters of the parcels. Even modest coordination among these entities could have a wide-reaching impact on the plan’s realization.

Given the relative ease with which vast portions of the plan could be realized, we recommend the following actions:

• The regional water trails system should be coordinated across jurisdictional boundaries-recreation providers, dam owners, water management agencies, and other entities along each recommended water trail should work together to develop and manage a coordinated trail system.
• Municipalities, park districts, counties, and water management agencies should include water trails in comprehensive land-use plans and request that developers seeking approval for projects near water trail facilities follow suit.
• Owners of established and potential access and portage sites should make the improvements necessary to stretches with minimal obstacles (first priority stretches) as safe, functioning water trails as soon as possible. Second and third priority stretches should be included in long-term plans and capital programs.
• New water trails should offer a variety of paddling experiences, provide a level of connectivity that affords more options for more people, integrate with regional greenways plans, and present new opportunities for habitat continuity and other greenway benefits.
• The Illinois Department of Natural Resources should revise the Boat Access Area Development Program to emphasize water trail development rather than site-specific boat access. (Examples of specific changes are included in the plan.

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