Repairs are finally beginning on damaged levees at the Sanganois Fish and Wildlife Area near the junction of the Sangamon and Illinois rivers.
The $2.6 million project will include repairs to the Barkhausen Refuge Levee, Coon Slough River Ridge, Chain Lake Levee, Woods Hole Levee, and White’s Levee as well as two access road embankments across Coon Slough.
Work is estimated to take 18 months to complete.
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URBANA – Gov. Rod Blagojevich is continuing to disect the state’s Department of Natural Resources.
DNR, already facing $14 million in budget cuts, has been stripped of its four scientific surveys — Geological, Water, Natural History and Waste Management, now known as the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center. The four surveys were transfered July 1 to U of I administrtion as the new Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability.
The state transferred about $15.8 million in funding for the surveys to the UI, about $2 million less than the surveys received last year, Shilts said. Budgets have been cut in response, leading to 10 to 15 layoffs.
he geological survey was able to preserve some positions by shifting operational costs from state funding to grants and contracts, he said.
“Right now we are operating pretty close to the edge,” he said.
However, workers who had gone without raises four of the last five years were given “significant” salary adjustments, he said.
Brian Anderson, recently hired as division director for the Natural History Survey, will also serve as acting director of the water survey until a new director is hired to replace Derek Winstanley.
Don McKay, former deputy director of the geological survey, will be acting director until a replacement for Shilts is found.
The state’s four scientific surveys were part of a 1996 reorganization of the state’s conservation agency into the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
Nick Severson of Kasson. Mn. hooked into muskie so hung it wouldn’t fit into his net — he and his brother had to drag the fish into the shallows, beach the boat and haul the fish onto shore.
The fish measured 31.1 pounds and 53 inches long — or just less than 4-1/2 feet — Severson said.
Click HERE to read the story from The Daily Journal’s sister paper, The Rochester Post-Bulletin.
5-bird daily bag proposed, local teal season promising
Illinois is proposing a higher daily bag limit for the north and central zones during this year’s early September Canada goose hunt.
The state’s five-goose daily bag limit recommendation to federal waterfowl managers includes the northeast, north and central zones. The daily limit would remain at two birds for the south zone under the recommendation.
“The Mississippi Flyway population of giant Canada geese has increased by more than 50 percent during the past 14 years,” said Sam Flood, acting director of the Department of Natural Resources.
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Poor conditions across portions of the prairie grasslands of the United States and Canada are partially to blame for an estimated 9 percent decline in breeding ducks according to a preliminary report by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
The report also notes however that the 37.3 million ducks surveied in May and early June remains 11 percent above the 1955-2007 long-term average.
Mallard duck numbers dropped 7 percent with 7.7 million surveied this spring compared to last year’s 8.3 million. Still, USFWS reports mallard numbers were similar to the long-term average despite the decline.
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Two of the area’s best anglers say that conditions couldn’t be better as the Kankakee River Fishing Derby enters its final days.
Jeff Dummer of Kankakee hold top spots in two derby contests with an 11-pound, 9-ounce northern pike and a 4-pound, 3-ounce largemouth.
Darrell Powers of Bradley holds second place with a at 12-pound, 11-ounce channel catfish. Aaron Prosise of Kankakee leads Powers by only two ounces.
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