Jon Duyvejonck and the Channel Cat Talk: River Fish and Wildlife
Who is Jon Duyvejonck? Jon is a Quad Cities native who moved away briefly to get his master’s degree in biology from Illinois State University in 1978. He worked as a biologist for the Army Corps of Engineers as well as the US Fish and Wildlife until he retired in 2015. Since then, he has been working with conservation groups like River Action, Sierra Club, and Quad City Conservation Alliance on public outreach and environmental advocacy.
On this Channel Cat Talk, Jon is going to discuss a wide variety of topics related to the Mississippi River including the history of its development, how our community has used the river, and how we have affected it. This topic will relate to water quality issues, how they’ve improved, and how this affects fish and other native wildlife. He plans to discuss freshwater mussels and the button industry as well as current issues pertaining to our local endangered species. He will also cover river navigation practices, invasive species and the issues they create, river management, and recreation.
Jon’s event will occur on June 24 and 26th. All Channel Cat Talks take place on the Channel Cat Water Taxi on Tuesdays & Thursdays from 9am - 10:45am. The cost is $20 per ticket, or you can buy 3 and get one free. The seasonal pass for $200 allows you to attend any 13 talks out of the 24 available options. The boat launches from the Riverbend Commons, located at 2951 River Drive in Moline, IL. You can purchase tickets at riveraction.org/education; Space is limited so be sure to purchase tickets soon.
The Mississippi River is an incredibly important aspect of our community, it’s the foundation of our towns, it defines us, and it’s what makes our community so unique. A quote from Baba Dioum, a Senegalese forestry engineer, highlights the importance of environmental education, “In the end, we conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.” It is River Action’s greatest hope that we can encourage the environmental stewardship among our local community members so that we may foster the environmental, economic, and cultural vitality of the Mississippi River and its riverfront in the Quad City region.