Opportunities From: Urban Rivers

Urban Rivers is often joined by large volunteer groups, usually at the Wild Mile. Sometimes these groups are from fellow nonprofits and sometimes from companies organizing volunteer days for their employees. When the groups want to divide up, with some volunteers helping pick up litter on kayaks and others helping in the gardens simultaneously, it's difficult for Urban Rivers staff to assist both groups at once. That's where regular Urban Rivers volunteers could be really helpful. 

Here is what you could do: 

In the gardens, the main tasks are making sure volunteers are weeding the right plants and that everyone is wearing a life vest and generally being safe if walking on the gardens. It would be helpful if you already have a pretty good eye for our weeds, but if you want to do this and are still inexperienced, just email stephen@urbanriv.org after signing up for a shift. We can usually meetup 20 minutes or so before the group arrives to go over the current needs in the gardens.   

OR (You don't need to do both)

On the kayaks, the main tasks would be making sure people are staying safe, answering questions, and getting people back around when they should be. It would be helpful if you've spent a lot of time out there volunteering for kayak clean-ups before. Ideally, you'd have taken one of the kayak rescue classes, but that's not required. 

Here are the up coming volunteer days that we could use help with:

Please note that all of these volunteer days start with a tour of the Wild Mile. If you want to attend that tour, you are more than welcome to, but if not, feel free to show up 30 minutes or so after the start time.

Feel free to drop by for just part of the time. 

Education is central to our mission to connect community members of all backgrounds to the Chicago River, and one of our most popular educational opportunities are field trips!

We offer free field trips to any school or youth group who asks -- Field trips always begin with a tour of the park (led by either staff or out docent-trained volunteers) before splitting into small groups for ~20 minute station rotations. This is where we need your help!

With so many students, we need help leading activity stations centered around ecology and nature. Stations can include seed bomb making, exploring aquatic habitat and macroinvertebrates, cleaning the river by picking up trash, and more. All stations are straight forward and fun to teach, so you can pick your preference!

If you love education, engaging students with the environment, or just want to hang out with some cool folks, sign up today! Most of our field trips occur in the Spring and Fall. We will update this opportunity with new field trip dates as they are scheduled. 

In addition to these field trips, we'll use this opportunity to post any public programs we might need help with. Monthly fishing events, partner events, etc... Please be sure to read the description of each event before signing up! 

If you have any questions, please feel free to email rangers@urbanriv.org or maddie@urbanriv.org

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April 1st:  Spring Break Fun Fest at Thatcher Woods *NOTE that this is offsite:https://fpdcc.com/event/spring-break-fest-2/ The station actvity will be Mussel Mania to promote awareness of the mussels that make thier homes in our area! Thatcher woods is very close to the DesPlaines River so this is a natural fit.

April 3st: North Park Field Trip at River Park. 8:30-10:30 AM. Stephen and I (Maddie) will both be there as well and will take care of materials. Will be doing Macro inverts and Microscopes. *Note that this is at River Park and not the Wild Mile. Volunteers can meet at the launch/dock on the west side of the river here.

April 4st:  Cultivate Collective Field Trip 930-11:30 AM. We will be doing Macros, Seed Pods and Nature Journaling- if there is time.

April 7: BEAVER CELEBRATION @ Wild Mile. Will need a general info tabling; and a beaver education tabling. We may also need help with S'mores.

April 9: Wilbur Wright Field Trip at Wild Mile. Activites: 22 students doing Seed Bombs and Macros. 2-4:30pm.

April 15: Daystar Academy. 35 students, + 4 chaperones rotating activities, probably macroinvertebrates, and seed bombs. 9-11am

April 18th:  Healthy Kids Day at YMCA: As part of their Water Works Water related career exploration programming for 16-24 yr olds, we will be tabling and doing a station activity on Buoyancy. The Tabling aspect should aim to highlight the careers that make up urban rivers; and also highlight the river rangers program The Buoyancy activity will relate to our floating wetlands and connect to swimming which is a big component of their program. *Note that this is at Lakeview YMCA  Volunteers will need to take materials to the location at 3333 N Marshfield Ave, Chicago, IL 60657

April 22:  North Shore Field Trip at Wild Mile. 20ish kids, Plant ID and Seed Pods. 12:30-2:30

April 26: Honeycomb Project Field Trip at Wild Mile; 15 kids and caregivers. Plant ID and Seed Pods. 10am-12

April 28:  Trinity High School Field Trip 10- 12. 20 students We will be doing Macros, Plant ID Nature Journaling.

May 2nd: BEAVER Festival 11-2 at Nichols Park fieldhouse. We will be doing the Lego Activity to get kids thinking about Beavers as engineers and our Work on the Wild Mile as similar. ***OFFSITE

May 3rd: Current Water Tour@ Wild Mile. General tour and Nitrogen Cycling activity. Joe and I (Maddie will be leading this)

May 24: Honeycomb Project Field Trip at Wild Mile; 15 kids and caregivers. Plant ID and Seed Pods. 10am-12

May 27: World Otter CELEBRATION @ Wild Mile. Will need a general info tabling; and a otter education tabling. We may also need help with S'mores.

As the demand for events on the Wild Mile grows, we are re-working our programs structure to include volunteer leadership! Events such as musical performances, workshops, and S'mores nights require supervision by someone familiar with setup, takedown, and safety procedures

We'll eventually be transitioning to entirely volunteer leadership for select programs, and feedback from our volunteers and community members will play a huge role in shaping our new structure. If you've been looking to connect with the community and take on leadership through Urban Rivers, this is your chance! No experience is required, but this opportunity will especially benefit from consistency. While in our transitional period, the posted shifts will double as training opportunities for Rangers less familiar with our events!

Wednesdays: S'mores Night or CatJam 

Thursdays: Wild Mile Workshop Series 

Saturdays: Small concert

Want to lead a program that doesn't exist yet? Email maddie@urbanriv.org - let's chat.

------ Special Events: ------------------------

The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum runs the Illinois Odonate Survey (IOS) to keep tabs on our dragonfly and damselfly friends, which flock to the Urban Rivers floating wetlands each summer. There's been talk in previous years of having the 3 major Urban Rivers floating wetland locations be valid observation sites that can be traversed in paddlecraft while monitoring. If some of our volunteers are interested in becoming IOS monitors at those sites, we want to support them.

Monitors generally work in teams of two. At the Wild Mile, it should be easy to provide kayaks and observation materials so it gets the required 6 to 8 observation sessions between Memorial Day weekend and September 15.  At River Park, we do have 2 kayaks, paddles, and life jackets in a locker, but that locker is on the top row and very hard to reach. Bubbly Creek might only be possible if a couple volunteers in the neighborhood have their own paddlecraft, but we should have some kayaks there for a while most Friday afternoons.

To become an IOS monitor, you simply need to fill out this form, and then sign up to attend one of these 4 zoom workshops:
Wednesday, March 18th, 6:00pm - 8:30pm
Sunday, April 19th, 9:30am - 12:00pm
Wednesday, May 13th, 6:00pm - 8:30pm
Sunday, May 24th, 9:30am - 12:00pm

To learn the specific ins and outs of monitoring at our sites by kayak, Mac (one of our wonderful volunteers), has offered to host both an in-person and virtual training session.  
Saturday, April 25th - 12:00 to 1:30 pm - In person at the Wild Mile
Tuesday, April 28th - 6:00 to 7:00 pm - Virtual (we will email the link to everyone who is signed up) 

Mac has also assembled these very accessible resources to help people get started identifying dragonflies and damselflies. 

Photo credit for that eastern amberwing: Thomas Valentino

Don't see an opportunity that fits with your schedule?
Do you have a very particular set of skills you want to bring to Urban Rivers?
Just want to find some additional ways to get plugged in?

There are often small jobs, especially around the Wild Mile, that could use an extra hand or two. It might be assembling furniture, shoveling gravel, or even swabbing the (goose) poop deck. Some volunteers have also found specific ways to regularly assist the Wild Mile's research and other missions. 

If you are interested in getting emailed whenever one of those small tasks comes up, just respond to this opportunity. In the "Response Notes" you could include the type of work you are interested in, since knowing what volunteers we have can influence what projects we start. You could also include general times and days of the week you tend to be free, since that could change when we schedule opportunities. If you are closer to our projects at Bubbly Creek on the Southside or River Park up north, let us know and we can add you to a list so you are sure to get an email if/when projects come up at those locations. 

Note, this is also the catch-all for logging some miscellaneous hours, such as water quality testing.

Did you know there are bald eagles in downtown Chicago? Help us spot all of the fantastic (and even some of the lame) birds on the Chicago River so we can have a better understanding of our ecosystem. 

Volunteers choose a weekly time to observe birds from one of our three garden locations. All you need is an hour, our monitoring worksheet, and an enthusiasm for birds - no previous birding experience required!

To help get you started and explain our birding process, click here to watch this brief 15 minute training video that explains the why/where/when/how of birding with us.

P.S. all birding resources are under the "Resources" section of the volunteer website for you to reference at any time.

There is so much of the Chicago River that we want to explore and share, and we need your help to do it! We have several types of cameras we work with, including Wildlife Camera Traps, 360 Camera, GoPro, and Drone, and currently have two key ways folks can get involved: 

Photo Observations: Help us review a backlog of photos and document your observations. This can be done in the Urban Rivers office or from the comfort of your own home — all you need is a computer. Here is a tutorial to get you started. 

Wildlife Camera Maintenance: Become a regular camera manager by showing up to reposition cameras, swap batteries, and offload and replace SD cards. This group meets here in the office (1440 N Kingsbury St.) every Saturday from 1-3 PM. On the first Saturday of the month, we'll sometimes meet in a coffee shop instead. While new volunteers are welcome to just start showing up, once per season we'll try to have a special onboarding/training Saturday for new Camera Crew volunteers. If you are registered for this opportunity here, you'll get a message when we schedule the next one.

No previous photography experience required! The most helpful contribution a volunteer can make is consistency, ideas, and a willingness to learn!

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to let us know: rangers@urbanriv.org.