2025 - Gratitude and Reflection ❤️

Written By Urban Rivers

Thank you for an awesome year!

Year in Review - 2025

2025 was a big year for Urban Rivers. We installed a new garden at Bubbly Creek, experimenting with new designs and plant species. We installed a whopping ~5,000 Giant Floater mussels across two locations - by far our largest addition since the beginning of our mussel restoration work. We educated 29% more students than in 2024, and hosted 20% more community members at our free programs. We had over 1,000 attendees at our fourth annual Wild Mile Block Party, with 13 partner organizations joining us to table.

We’re so grateful to everyone who supported us this year, whether volunteering, donating, or just liking our Instagram posts! Thanks for an awesome 2025 - we can’t wait for what’s to come in 2026!

2025 Photo Contest Winners!

Thanks to everyone who submitted to our 2025 Photo Contest! We had some wonderful entries this year, but ultimately had to pick our favorites… Without further ado:

  • Winner - Wildlife (upper left): River Park - Red-necked Phalarope, Matthew Dolkart, IG: @thebirdherder

    “During a spring migration day in May, this rarely seen migrant dropped down at River Park for an afternoon to forage on insects floating on the surface. This sighting was significant as it was the first of its kind record of this species along the river. Also significant because it was super cute.”

  • Grand Champion (upper right) : Minus 2 Mallard, Matthew Dolkart, IG: @thebirdherder

    “River Park has a contingent of year-round Mallards, who are joined for the winter by Mergansers, Scaup, Gadwall and Goldeneye. The warmth of the river keeps these ducks warm while the air temps reach negatives.”

  • Winner - Landscape (lower left): Hibiscus moscheutos in October, Thom Valentino, IG: @tbtyh

  • Winner - People (lower right): Big catch of the day!, Kaitlyn Tran, IG: @kootlyntroon

    “This is from one of the community fishing events from the summer - it was a great way to learn fishing for the first time!

Giving Tuesday - YOU MET THE MATCH!

If you’ll recall from our incessant emails throughout November… our friends at Stantec and Open Water just matched donations for Giving Tuesday! Combined, they matched up to $11,500. This was our loftiest goal yet, and we are excited to report that WE MET THE MATCH! With your help, we raised just over $12,000 by midnight on Giving Tuesday, meaning that we made a total of $23,500!

THANK YOU for making this our most successful Giving Tuesday ever! We appreciate every single donation - at our scale, the success of a campaign like this really makes a difference. Of course, if you missed Giving Tuesday and still have some year-end cash floating around… it’s not too late to help us transform urban waterways into wildlife sanctuaries!

January Events Calendar

The usual winter schedule! Event descriptions and RSVP links can always be found on the events page of our website. Remember, the walking tour and s’mores night are subject to cancellation in the case of very poor weather - make sure to RVSP so we can keep you posted!

Office Insights

Though many river creatures retreat into hibernation or faraway migratory homelands for our chilly midwestern winters, many stay active! These true Chicagoans will be regular sights along the river all winter long. If you want to stay up-to-date on their lives, make a recurring donation of any amount, and we’ll add you to a special monthly newsletter of all our best wildlife camera content!

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Winter Wildlife ❄️🦫