The Wild Mile will function as a public park, open-air museum, botanical garden, kayaker destination, classroom for the community, and provide habitat for native wildlife. The completed park will consist of floating gardens and forests with public walkways and kayak docks in the Chicago River. Possibly, otters too, which, have been spotted in the river. The design for Wild Mile brings an ecosystem into the river by adding an artificial shoreline, shallow water, and more textured vegetation to help attract pumpkinseed fish, catfish, frogs, butterflies, herons, and purple martins. establish a wide variety of artificial habitat installations.
create a community-operated floating trash bot.Through the project the organisation will: The project will create a robust ecosystem, as well as an enjoyable place for humans by creating floating gardens to reclaim this wasted space for plants and wildlife. The Wild Mile will be the first-ever floating eco-park of its scale in the world comprising a mile-long floating park located on the North Branch Canal of the Chicago River, a manmade channel along the east side of Goose Island between Chicago Ave and North Ave. Working in partnership with the City of Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development, community groups, large corporations, and local businesses the organisation has ensured thoughtful planning and acceptance of its flagship project ‘the Wild Mile’ as a long-term and cherished asset. Founded in 2013, this is a Chicago-based nonprofit working to improve the water quality of urban waterways and increase the natural habitat within their banks by turning urban riverways into urban sanctuaries.