Wild Mile

The Wild Mile is a fully floating eco-park, serving wildlife and humans alike. An ADA-accessible boardwalk is surrounded by floating gardens, which host native Illinois wetland species. This project restores critical habitat to urbanized waterways, while creating a community greenspace that can be freely used for recreation, education, and stewardship. Anchored using elastics, the park space rises and falls with the river's water level. The Wild Mile is a "living laboratory" - an ongoing experiment in new and innovative ways to restore habitat to urbanized waterways. Installed modularly, the in-progress park currently stands at 700 linear feet, and will eventually expand to an entire mile in length. The Wild Mile is the flagship project of the nonprofit organization Urban Rivers, which has a mission of transforming urban waterways into wildlife sanctuaries, and creating new and meaningful ways for city dwellers of all backgrounds to connect with nature.