Starved Rock State Park grapples with extensive flooding

UTICA — This year’s rainy summer has been particularly difficult for Starved Rock State Park, located along the water-swollen Illinois River in northern Illinois.

So there was plenty of work for a group of 220 volunteers who came to the park on Wednesday. The nonprofit Living Lands and Waters and agricultural company Archer Daniels Midland teamed up on the annual clean-up project.

The volunteers mainly worked on the campgrounds and trails, pulling invasive plants, picking up trash and trimming weeds at Starved Rock and nearby Matthiessen State Park.

With the riverside area of Starved Rock set to remain closed for the seventh consecutive weekend, park officials expect there will be more work to do when floodwaters recede. They plan on having to clear silt and mud from picnic and parking areas before they can reopen.