6 Part Two focuses on the biota of the Fox River, especially the interrelationships between the dominant species in the bioregion—homo sapiens—with other fauna in and long the river. Jackson Halstead and Grace Daum examine the importance of two traditional interactions in the region: hunting and fishing. In both, titled “Hunting in the Fox River Bioregion” and “Fishing on the Fox” respectively, Halstead and Daum use these sports afield to examine the historical and ecological healthiness of the river and its valley. Jackie Zhang, in “Freshwater Mussels’ Essential Filtration of the Fox River,” highlights the transformation of native bivalves from economic resource and fashion accessory to environmental necessity. In their essays, “How River Otters Will Save Our Rivers” and “Invasive Species in the Fox River,” Christian Cline and Shanan Riley look at more recent arrivals into the Fox River bioregion. Cline argues that the “history of the river otter in Illinois is a telltale sign that ecological river improvement is possible in Illinois, and…they can also help us understand how to better protect, maintain, and observe the Fox River itself.” Conversely, Riley examines the history of invasive species throughout the Fox River ecosystem and how human intervention repeatedly reengineers modern ecosystems. Part Three focuses on the development and continued impact of industry on the Fox River. The first two essays concentrate on the industrial development of the Fox River, into a version of what Richard White famously called an “organic machine.” Simon Hoffman, in his “Paper Mills on the Fox River,” explores the dominant nineteenth and early twentieth century along the river while Halimat Sanusi’s “The History of Dams on the Fox River” provides the historical context for the energy necessary to power these industrial mills and other factories on the Fox. This industrialization, in turn, impacted species throughout the region. Likewise, Janelle Thomas uses the history of Fox River dams to make predictions for the environmental future of the region in “Fox River’s Bioregional History – Low-Head Dams.” In her essay “Safety of the Recreational Use of the Fox River near Hydraulic Dams,” Avery Hedican surveys the sometimes-morbid intersection of
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