Chicago Water Week April 2-8, 2023

Improving Our Local Waterways

Lake Michigan, the Chicago River, and numerous surrounding creeks and wetlands are home to a wide diversity of aquatic life in our backyard. Join Shedd Aquarium Conservation staff to explore the innovative ways in which Chicagoans are working with partners to address threats to these environments and the animals that call them home.

Text Box:    From transforming applied science into impactful policy and creative use of technology, to mobilizing communities to act for animals, we emphasize the need to restore and preserve Chicagoland’s waterways for wildlife and people.

Chicagoland’s Waterways

Cleanups at sites along the Lake Michigan shoreline through the Alliance for the Great Lakes Adopt-a-Beach™ program as well as along the Chicago River. Volunteers work in teams, combing the shorelines for litter and recording data on their findings to support science-based litter prevention strategies.

More Than Just One Week

Chicagoans as well as others who enjoy our great lake continue to join together to protect our fresh water.  Keeping plastics out of our waterways are important to not only contaminate the water but our beaches as well as our aquatic habitats to protect our wildlife, fish, and birds.  Our local corporations and businesses such as restaruants are eliminating plastics such as single use plastics in an effort to protect our waters. 

Waste on Waterways