In the center of urban landscapes lies a green wetland full of life. It teleports Chicagoans into a world of nature where they can encounter various birds, fish, beavers and even spot a dead racoon floating by. The Wild Mile is a 700-linear-foot space on the North Branch Canal of the Chicago River where natural cycles exist uninterrupted and humans connect with wilderness.

“People who’ve lived here for a long time view the Chicago River as that dirty, smelly thing you drive over and don’t get in,” said Maya Kelly, the Wild Mile’s operations manager. “Now there’s a whole new generation of people seeing what the river can be.”

Chicago nonprofit Urban Rivers creates green spaces, which are attempting to restore the waterway’s wildlife habitat. The Wild Mile is one of the four artificial gardens they have built on the Chicago River. Kelly said it is the first eco-park of its kind in the world, as it flows entirely from the gardens to the boardwalk.

“We build these floating gardens and parks as a way to bring back important wetland space in spaces that otherwise cannot be restored to the original state,” Kelly said.

The Chicago River is surrounded by large steel walls that were once part of important infrastructure for shipping and transportation. Even though the city no longer uses the walls, it cannot remove them.

Stephen Meyer, a field operations manager for Urban Rivers, said many cities around the world experience a similar struggle. They have channelized rivers with the water clean enough to start bringing back the natural habitat, but the walls get in the way. Organizations like Urban Rivers look for solutions and share their knowledge with each other.

On the east side of Goose Island, flowing pontoon mats filled with biodegradable materials, to which plants grab onto and grow into the river. Kelly said the system provides “not only excellent habitat up above, but excellent root habitat down below.” The team introduces only plants native to the Chicago wetlands.

Urban Rivers partners with various institutions to conduct research and measure the impact of the project. Kelly said she is excited to see how the Wild Mile project changes Chicagoans’ perception of the river.

“They want to support projects like this,” she said, noting that last year, the park had more than 50,000 visitors, 7,000 active program participants and 2,000 volunteers.

Meyer added that the park’s urban location gives more people the opportunity to engage with the space. With the world reaching its highest urban population thus far, it is important to connect city residents with nature, Meyer said.

“It’s been shown that when people have one of these meaningful experiences with nature, they’re more likely to support conservation everywhere,” he said.

Meyer said such environmental initiatives make cities more pleasant places to live and keep people “connected and drawn to the city.” After getting involved in the Wild Mile, Meyer’s family decided to stay in Chicago instead of moving to the suburbs.

“It made the difference for us that we got to experience nature here,” Meyer said.

The goal is for Wild Mile to expand, living up to its name by becoming a mile-long boardwalk, but this plan needs funding and community support. Kelly said simply visiting the site and spreading the word helps support the project and so does donating. For more direct engagement, Urban Rivers offers educational opportunities and a volunteer program, River Rangers.

Ben Howard has been volunteering at Urban Rivers for more than two years. During that time, he saw an increasing interest from the community.

“It’s really great to see communities blossoming into space,” Howard said.

Howard enjoys the opportunity to connect with nature, make friends and help the environment.

“Right now, so many bad things are happening,” Howard said. “It’s nice to have one thing where you can come and make a positive impact that you can really see day after day.”

Becoming a volunteer does not require any knowledge or experience, and participants can be as involved as they want. The team will teach volunteers everything they need to know to help restore Chicago’s biodiversity.

“We try to figure out what you can do to bring back that slice of native habitat,” Meyer said. “And then let the public have a meaningful interaction with that habitat.”

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