Celebrate Arbor Day by planting a free oak tree. For the seventh year in a row, the Rock River Trail Initiative (RRTI) will distribute 10,000 trees along the Rock River corridor, Tuesday, April 18, through Friday, April 21, 2017. Chad Pregracke, President of “Living Lands and Waters’ One Million Trees” program, has graciously donated these 70,000 trees to the Rock River Trail Initiative and our river.
According to availability, each County will receive burr oak (left) and swamp oak saplings. Each sapling is two-to-four feet long, rooted. Trees will be distributed in Rock Island, Henry, Whiteside, Lee, Ogle, and Winnebago Counties in Illinois, and Rock, Dane, and Jefferson Counties in Wisconsin. Contact Whiteside County Soil and Water Conservation District Resource Conservationist Dave Harrison, USDA Building, 16255 Liberty Street, Morrison, IL. Call 815-772-2124, extension 3, for tree pick-up times.
Trees should be planted within sight of the Rock River or near the mouth of one of its tributaries. Trees are available–free of charge–for
- the public sector: city, county, state, parks, preserves and conservation areas
- private individuals on farms, residences, and businesses along the Rock River.
The Rock River Trail Initiative established a National Water Trail along the 320 miles of the Rock River, from its source above the Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin to its mouth at the Quad Cities in Illinois. This was achieved March 11, 2013, when Secretary of the U. S. Department of the Interior Ken Salazar and U. S. National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis made the designation including the Rock River Trail in the National Water Trail System. The Rock River Water Trail was the 10th trail in the Nation to achieve such a distinction.
Also in 2013, the Wisconsin and Illinois State Legislatures designated the Rock River Trail Scenic and Historic Route on roads adjacent to the Rock River’s course in both states.
The RRTI has recently completed q-sheets (turn-by-turn directions) and maps for a bike route and a hiking route along the Rock River. For all directions and maps go to Rock River Trail. Click on the icon/trail sign for National Water Trail, Bike Route, Hiking Route, or Scenic and Historic Route.
Enjoy traveling our “River of the Heartland,” and help us with our ultimate and ambitious goal of making the Rock River the cleanest tributary to the Mississippi River. Providing oxygen production, carbon sequestration, energy savings from shade, plus shore stabilization, filtration, and habitat by planting oak trees is part of that process.
Many thanks to all of the great folks who have helped so much, especially Chad Pregracke and Monique Dykman of Living Lands and Waters and Steve Rypkema of Ogle County.