Flint Creek/Spring Creek Watersheds Partnership

Our Mission is to educate citizens while building partnerships for projects to improve water quality, maintain water supply, preserve ecosystems and restore wetlands, prairies and other natural features for current and future generations

Picture shows 5 interns walking in the river, assessing water quality

Know Your Watersheds

Go places only the locals know. Join the Barrington Greenway Initiative with the Citizens for Conservation! Join RiverWatch with Barrington Area Conservation Trust! Become a Volunteer Lake Monitor!

Explore and Restore

Go Birding with Citizens for Conservation and Audubon through some of the lovely prairies of the Watersheds. Pictured are two Bobolinks in the Spring Creek Forest Preserve.

Native plants in restored detention basin

Tax Dollars at Work

From shoreline restoration to flood mitigation to stream channel maintenance to wetland restoration to detention basin retrofits, governmental agencies are important partners in protecting water quality and watersheds.

Upcoming Meetings

Monday, May 20, 6:30 PM Nine Lakes Watershed Partnership Presents Lake and Pond Management for Homeowners

Monday, May 20, 6:30 pm. at Lake Barrington Village Hall, 22860 N. Old Barrington Road, Lake Barrington. Post event social time at NO WAKE Bar and Grill, 90 Kazimour Drive, Lake Barrington

Learn the principles behind creating and maintaining a healthy and beautiful lake, including:
– Preparing a lake or pond management plan
– Management using algaecides, harvesting, dredging, aeration and biological controls
– Achieving ecological balance for the long-term health of your lake
– The future of our water resources
FREE to anyone interested in learning about the lifecycle of their lake!
Speakers include:
Mike Adam – Lake Co. Dept. of Health
Keith Gray – Integrated Lakes Mgmt
Faye Sinnott – FC/SC Watershed Partnership

BGI Events:
Sat., May 18 Sedge Planting at Spring Creek

Sedge Planting from 9 to Noon,  at Penny Road Pond. Healy Rd. & Old Sutton Rd., Barrington.

Learn about Sedges and how to plant them!  Sedges are a most useful family of plants, marvelously versatile, and of all shapes and sizes.  Come, learn what they do for our environment, as you learn how to plant them at Penny Road Pond!

WED., May 22, FC/SCWP Meeting at 10 AM: All About Drain Tiles at Lake Zurich Village Hall

Tom Huddleston will share some history on drain tiles, and then use the ongoing Rt. 59 project as a case study that will illustrate how drain tiles can aid in water drainage and how they can fail.

He will then broaden the scope to talk about today’s challenges of sufficient storm water storage in the context of today’s changing weather, and how understanding the geography of drain tiles can help our villages (and homeowners) plan.

All are welcomed.

WED., June 26, FC/SCWP Meeting at 10 AM; Dreamway Discussion at Barrington Village Hall​

Steve Zimmerman, from Applied Ecological Services (AES)  will present an overview of Barrington’s Dreamway Project.  AES has the responsibility for the design of the project, and Steve will describe some of the challenges presented by the site.  

The meeting will take place at the Barrington Village Hall, upstairs in the Board Room.  The Village Hall is at 200 South Hough Street in Barrington.

All are welcomed. 

SAVE THE DATE! September 12! 8 AM until Noon at Drinking Water 1-2-3

Join the Barrington Area Council of Governments and the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) presenting the MPC guide for local leaders to better understand and proactively address their area’s drinking water needs at Barrington Park District.
1.  Meet your water:  Understanding drinking water in NE IL: Sources, Treatment, Infrastructure
2. Your water’s keeper –  Utilities and Regulators:  Understanding drinking water management and laws
3.  Murky waters : Understanding drinking water challenges:  supply constraints, pollution, crumbling infrastructure, fragmented systems, climate change.

GREAT NEWS!

A $5,000 grant from the Barrington Area Community Foundation will allow three Barrington-area conservation organizations to collaborate on water-conservation activities and efforts, such as streamside planting at Flint Creek.

Conservation organizations awarded BACF grant to develop educational resources for water protection

BARRINGTON, IL – April 22, 2019 – Three Barrington area conservation organizations will collaborate to help Barrington-area residents protect local water sources, thanks to a $5,000 grant from the Barrington Area Community Foundation.
   Flint Creek/Spring Creek Watersheds Partnership (FC/SCWP), Barrington Area Conservation Trust (BACT) and Citizens for Conservation (CFC) will work together to create restoration demonstration areas, educational activities, native planting instructions, sample planting designs, online resources, and how-to libraries.
     Each organization will draw on its area of expertise for the initiative.  FC/SCWP will coordinate and lead efforts; BACT will develop the demonstration area along Flint Creek in Pederson Preserve in Barrington; and CFC will develop the schematic planting design, determine best native plants, and create homeowner designs.
     “The plan is to demonstrate attractive native plant arrangements – including sedges – for stream banks and lake shores, as folks don’t realize how much sediment, pesticides and herbicides wash off their lawns,” said Faye Sinnott, FC/SCWP’s coordinator. “Sedges can offer effective filtration and can be a subtle, strategic addition to lawns.”
     The three organizations will work together to assess their educational materials to determine what each group already has; they will then evaluate areas for improvement and create additional aids that will best help area residents with water-protection efforts.  Materials, including instructions, plant examples, graphic design documents, and supportive information, will become available on each organization’s websites.
     “We are extremely thankful to be working with CFC and FC/SCWP, who are sharing their expertise and assistance with this important project and which will benefit the entire community,” said BACT President Bryan Croll.
     “CFC is excited to be collaborating with FC/SCWP and BACT on this initiative, which is so important to Barrington’s water-quality conservation efforts,” added Kathleen Leitner, CFC president. “This is a unique step forward in helping our community advance its legacy of conservation engagement for the future decades.”

Flint Creek/Spring Creek Watersheds Partnership Members