While so many of us are hunkered down waiting out the corona virus, we have an extraordinary opportunity to do something to help the world together: turn out the lights.

There are many river reaches within the city limits including the Chicago River, the North Shore Channel, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the Calumet, Little Calumet and Rivers which provide critical habitat for birds of all kinds.

No matter where we are working from, Friends' staff is dedicated to improving and protecting the Chicago River system for people, plants, and animals and we hope you are too.

Friends was dismayed to learn that someone dyed the Upper North Branch a candy-colored green on Chicago’s northwest side on March 14.

Our office may be closed but our staff is still working hard to improve and protect the river for people, plants, and animals. Please be patient while we are working remotely and keep an eye out for information on Friends' events and programs.

Friends of the Chicago River is hiring and we are looking for a communications director, planning specialist, and director of community and strategic initiatives to broaden our outreach and our impact. Join our award-winning team.

Fifty days from now Earth Day turns 50 marking a half century of environmental activism that changed the way Americans treat ourselves and our planet.

Since 1790, the US has been gathering data about the characteristics of our population through the national census to guide policy, legislative, and fiscal decision making. This year, in 2020, the US Census Bureau will once again take on the huge task of updating the decennial census database. The accuracy of this information is critical to the work of Friends of the Chicago River and our environmental partners, who work every day to improve our watershed for people, plants, and wildlife.

These creatures are integral to our environment.

Friends of the Chicago River, along with many of its nonprofit partners and colleagues, appear to be the baby in the bathwater these days. New efforts to scrub corruption from the public system include classifying nonprofits as lobbyists, putting them under rules and regulations that result in reducing the outside, alternative voices that organizations such as Friends provide.