MEDIA ADVISORY
DECEMBER 1, 2004

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: LORI ARTIS, 618-468-3220

CONGRESSMAN COSTELLO TO PRESENT NATIONAL GREAT RIVERS RESEARCH AND EDUCATION CENTER WITH $540,000

GODFREY - Congressman Jerry Costello will present the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center with a check for $540,000 at 1 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 3 during a special ceremony, which will take place in the President's Office (Erickson 101) on the campus of Lewis and Clark Community College.

The National Great Rivers Research and Education Center is the product of a unique educational partnership between Lewis and Clark; the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences; the University of Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences; the Illinois Natural History Survey and the Army Corps of Engineers; and is in affiliation with the Nature Conservancy, Illinois Rivers 20-20, Illinois Natural History Survey of Alton, and the Great Rivers Land Trust.

The money presented to the partnership will be utilized for further planning of educational and research projects such as Waterfest and the Teaching Teachers community outreach programs that the center sponsors each spring. The planning money will also be used for the Center's annual research internship program, an International research project taking place through the Missouri Botanical Gardens, the development of an Ecotourism Academic program, the national Great Rivers symposium which the center will host this April and the further development of a Web-based resource library containing more than 100,000 cataloged river resource citations.

In its third year of operation, the Great Rivers Center is currently housed on the campus of Lewis and Clark Community College with plans to build a permanent center located near the Melvin Price Lock and Dam in Alton.