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Illinois lawmakers urged to ‘step up’ and ‘fight like hell’ as EPA moves to cut wetlands protections

After the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday it is redefining the scope of the nation’s bedrock clean water law to limit the wetlands it protects from pollution and destruction, environmental groups are urging Illinois legislators to establish safeguards. The state has already lost 90% of its original wetlands to urban development and agriculture. The Trump administration’s action builds […]

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Rollback of federal clean-water rules leaves most Illinois wetlands unprotected | ChicagoLIVE

Illinois Environmental Council policy manager Cate Caldwell explains how the rollback weakens the Clean Water Act and why advocates are pushing for new state-level protections. A live look at what happened today, what’s happening now, and what’s coming tonight—no script, just real news Watch to the full video here.

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Illinois is making ‘rewilding’ an official conservation strategy

A new law in Illinois formalizes efforts to reintroduce native keystone species like bison and beavers in the state, which advocates say will help other species recover. Next year, “rewilding” will officially be a part of the conservation approach in Illinois. A new state law explicitly includes the concept as part of the Illinois Department

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As Data Centers Proliferate Across Illinois, Communities Grapple with How to Supply the Necessary Water

Computing facilities require lots of water to operate, putting the burden of allocating resources on municipalities. “We are concerned about the planning of the explosion of data centers, and if these far-out suburbs are actually accounting for that,” said Iyana Simba, city government affairs director for the Illinois Environmental Council. “How much of that was

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How Big Ag thwarted wetlands protections in Illinois and Iowa

Two years ago this week, the Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. the Environmental Protection Agency significantly limited the agency’s ability to use the 1972 Clean Water Act to safeguard the nation’s wetlands from pollution and destruction. The decision determined that wetlands — waterlogged habitats that help filter water and sequester carbon — must be

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Monarch butterfly license plates finally available in Illinois

After seven years in the making, the state has unveiled the monarch butterfly decal license plate. Proceeds from the decals will benefit the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Monarch Habitat Fund, which fosters habitats that support the beloved orange butterflies’ migratory journey south to Mexico each fall. The organization has a goal of adding 150

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Illinois environmentalists push for state action to protect wetlands after Supreme Court ruling rolls back federal rules

Across the country, marshes, swamps and bogs quietly soak up flood water and filter pollutants. Ecologists agree they are one of the best natural defenses against climate change. But after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, more than half of the country’s 118 million acres of wetlands, according to estimates from the environmental firm Earthjustice, will

Illinois environmentalists push for state action to protect wetlands after Supreme Court ruling rolls back federal rules Read More »

Jen Walling Opinion: What Illinois can do since Supreme Court gutted federal protection of wetlands, waterways

The Supreme Court last week restricted the EPA’s ability to protect America’s waterways and wetlands. Illinois can’t afford to sit back and do nothing to protect both in our state, the head of the Illinois Environmental Council writes. Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois Legislature must act immediately to

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A federal bill with bipartisan support could bring 20x more money to Illinois conservation efforts

That manatees still swim along Florida’s coast, grizzly bears still roam the west and bald eagles still fly in North American skies is due, in large part, to the Endangered Species Act of 1973 — once described by the Supreme Court as “the most comprehensive legislation for the preservation of endangered species enacted by any nation.”

A federal bill with bipartisan support could bring 20x more money to Illinois conservation efforts Read More »

Jen Walling: Pritzker should extend national climate leadership to nature-based solutions

Illinois is beautiful. Anyone who argues otherwise hasn’t experienced Shawnee’s Garden of the Gods at sunset, the rolling hills near the Apple River, the Mississippi River viewed from the top of the bluffs, waterfalls from Waterfall Glen in the suburbs to Ferne Clyffe in Shawnee, or Lake Michigan at sunrise. In his next term, Gov.

Jen Walling: Pritzker should extend national climate leadership to nature-based solutions Read More »