Prairie Rivers Network
Prairie Rivers Network is a non-profit organization, located in Champaign, Illinois. Their work goes on throughout Illinois as an independent, state affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation. The organization describes its mission:
"Using the creative power of science, law, and collective action, we protect and restore our rivers, return healthy soils and diverse wildlife to our lands, and transform how we care for the earth and for each other. We protect water, heal land, and inspire change."
History
The organization was founded in 1967 by Bruce and Patricia Hannon under the name Committee on Allerton Park. Initially organized to stop a dam project by the United States Army Corps of Engineers on the Sangamon River near Decatur, Illinois. The dam was opposed because the resulting reservoir would have flooded large parts of Allerton Park and adjacent lands. The effort to stop that project, that would have created the Oakley Reservoir, was ultimately successful and it was federally deauthorized in 1985.The organization changed its name in 1984 to Central States Education Center, and again in 1998 to Prairie Rivers Network.
PRN advocates for waterways and the health of riparian ecosystems throughout Illinois. The key areas of the PRN's work include pollution from industrial agriculture and factory farming, contamination from coal ash and coal mining, and working with communities and farmers on efforts to maintain and restore the health of soil and water.