The objective of the research is to connect the environmental meanings and values held by residents of the Lake Calumet region with the economic and environmental revitalization strategies currently under development through Lake Calumet Ecological Initiative. This Initiative, which is supported by federal, state, and city governments, as well as efforts from local environmental and cultural institutions, including The Field Museum, seeks to revitalize the environment, ecology, and economy of the Lake Calumet region which stretches from Southeast Chicago to Northwest Indiana. We hope to inform the policies now being developed so that a good balance can be achieved between protecting the riparian structure and promoting needed economic development. During the summers of 2001 and 2002, interns conducted intensive ethnographic research in the region’s community areas of South Deering, East Side, Pullman, and Altgeld Gardens, as well as Hammond, Indiana, to understand what assets and capacities local residents bring to the new revitalization efforts, including the symbolic and cultural meanings people embed in the changing landscape, activism around protecting the region’s ecology and promoting environmental justice, and the building of cross-cutting ties that bridge racial, ethnic, and class differences. Research in the area continues through early 2003.