Thursday lunch, I took the two youngest wading in the Kankakee River out to an island, mainly to beat the heat.
Toward the end, we found a lode of live mussels.
We found quite a few varieites, but these were the most common ones. If anybody knows what they are, please post below or e-mail me at outdoordb@sbcglobal.net.
I should know, because I once helped on a searching mission on a Fox River trib a few years back.
It was a good day to wade the river. It was down to manageable levels, though fast enough that I had to keep a hand on the youngest in the fastest water.
They mainly enjoyed splashing around in the water, picnicking on the sand bar and finding a good batch of shells.
The sand bar bothers me.
It keeps growing.
While that is nice for wading, making for something of a beach feel (other than the scattered goose guano), it is not a good sign for the river.
The Kankakee is being silted in. We know the origins of much of the problem, yet have done nothing substantial to change.
Dale,
The Kankakee County board, thru the Kankakee County Economic Alliance has been meeting and planning for a while now to address this issue.
J.R. Black and I are amongst those on the panel.
There are some things in the works to begin an educational initiative in the near future. From there we hope to go forward to finding ways to fix the problem.
It will take a lot of political will and money.