Charles Schweighauser steered a canoe on
nearly all 210 miles of the Sangamon River, from the northern
source near Ellsworth to its confluence with the Illinois River at
Beardstown.
Along the way, the veteran University of
Illinois at Springfield environmental-studies professor interviewed
dozens of people in seven central-Illinois counties who depend on
the river for everything from drinking water to recreation to their
livelihoods.
In Springfield, he talked to local
environmentalists, as well as to commercial fishermen such as the
owners of Carters Fish Market on South Grand Avenue.
The result is a video documentary meant to
celebrate what Schweighauser calls “central Illinois’
best-kept secret.”
“The idea,” he says, “is to
celebrate the river, the people who live along it, and the people
who use it.”
Since starting the project in 1997,
Schweighauser has compiled more than 40 hours of video footage on
the Sangamon River. Still a work in progress, the film has been
edited to one hour and will be screened for the first time next
week during the presentation of an environmental program in
Decatur.
A final version of The Sangamon RivPlaceer: A Sense of will later be aired on regional public television
and made available to local schools.
The screening is part of an effort to raise
awareness of the importance of resource conservation, says Steve
John, acting executive director of the Decatur-based Agricultural
Watershed Institute.
Founded in 2003, the fledgling nonprofit
research group has already proved effective. Last year, AWI won a
competitive $1.3 million federal grant to help reduce nitrogen
discharges from local agricultural areas into the Sangamon River.
Such discharges may have far-reaching consequences, harming wildlife not only in the Midwest
but also in the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.
“We find ways to meet the needs of
farmers but also enhance the environmental quality of the
agricultural landscape,” says John, a former
environmental-planning consultant and Decatur city councilman.
In addition to the film, next week’s
program will feature dinner and a reading by Springfield-based poet
John Knoepfle.
Called “A Celebration of the Sangamon
River Watershed and its People,” the program is presented by
AWI and co-sponsored by the Decatur Audubon Society, the city of
Decatur, and the Community Environmental Council of Macon County.
The event will be held Wednesday, March 9, at
the Shilling Center at Richland Community College in Decatur. A
free seminar on “Sense of Place and Environmental
Stewardship,” featuring a panel of three UI professors, will
be held at 4 p.m. The dinner starts at 6 p.m. and costs $12 per
person. For reservations or further information, call 217-877-5640.
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2005.
