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World Water Day is an opportunity to spotlight the fact that many women and girls in crisis zones worldwide must trek miles every day just to reach clean water. And as they make this difficult journey, they often face the threat of sexual violence.

CHICAGO - The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) and the Active Transportation Alliance will launch the Earth Day Rideshare Challenge next month to increase awareness and appreciation by encouraging commuters to consider an alternative form of transit.

The new challenge encourages companies and their staff to participate in a free, team-based carpooling and vanpooling competition for Chicago-area employers by logging on to www.drivelesslivemore.com and tracking their trips. The website features a unique, interactive trip-tracking calendar, which can rank competitors and display statistics, such as greenhouse gases prevented, fuel and money saved, and calories burned. The Earth Day Rideshare Challenge begins April 8 and runs through Earth Day, April 22.

"Ridesharing is a great option for commuters who don't have easy access to transit or safe cycling routes to their job," said Richard Kwasneski, Chairman of the Pace Board of Directors. "Getting involved in ridesharing saves commuters money and is easy to do using our free, online matching service at www.PaceRideShare.com."

The Earth Day RideShare challenge will offer employers the tools to organize their workforce and participate in a fun competition that can encourage environmental and social change.

"Drive Less Live More has proven to be a groundbreaking program for the Chicago region," said Joe Costello, RTA Executive Director. "We're very excited how this contest has engaged our transit riders, companies and their employees to leave their cars at home and choose an alternative form of transportation,"

Challenge participants must register at drivelesslivemore.com, and then either create a team or join an existing team for their employer. Each team competes for the highest percentage of carpoolers and vanpoolers among similar-sized organizations.

Teams will find everything they need at the website to prepare their teams including: easy sign-up process, automated trip logging and team ranking, posters, and online resources. Team members can also choose to sign up as an individual participant, track their trips and be eligible to win prizes.

The companies with the highest percentage of employees who log rideshare trips at the website during the challenge win?and all teams will be publicly recognized!

A company wins if it has the highest percentage of employees logging an eligible commute to work in its category during the challenge time-frame. The winning team receives public recognition, a virtual winner's certificate, and the satisfaction of being the healthiest and greenest workplace in northeastern Illinois.

The RTA's transit system makes a significant impact on the region's environment by saving approximately 150 million gallons of gas annually. And as saving money continues to be on everyone's mind in this economic climate, the drive less live more challenge is another means to encourage travelers to see the value in public transportation and other alternative methods of greener travel.

Learn more by visiting www.drivelesslivemore.com. For all your travel plans, visit www.RTAchicago.com.

The RTA provides financial oversight, funding and regional planning for the three public transit operations in Northeastern Illinois: The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) bus and train, Metra commuter rail and Pace suburban bus and paratransit.  For more information, visit www.RTAchicago.com.

The Active Transportation Alliance is a non-profit, member-based advocacy organization that works to make bicycling, walking and public transit safe, convenient and enjoyable. We advocate for transportation that encourages and promotes safety, physical activity, health, recreation, social interaction, equity, and resource conservation. The Active Transportation Alliance is supported by more than 7,000 members, 1,000 volunteers and 35 full-time staff. For more information on the Active Transportation Alliance, visit www.activetrans.org or call 312.427.3325.

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Volunteers will be asked to help with the following:  bundling trees in newspaper, dipping roots in water, placing trees in bags, and/or tying. Participating children must be supervised.  Volunteers are asked to wear warm and comfortable clothes that can get dirty.  Trees will be distributed in April to individuals, families, schools, park districts, businesses and organizations throughout 10 states.  The goal of the MillionTrees Project is to grow and plant 1 MILLION trees.

Tree wrapping events will take place from 9am to 5pm Thursday, March 28^th through Sunday, March 31^st in the North Hall of the QCCA Expo Center in Rock Island. The QCCA Expo Center is located at 2621 4th Avenue, Rock Island. Registration is not required, but recommended, especially for groups of 10 or more.  Volunteers can come and go as you please; stay for one hour, a couple hours or all day.

Volunteers, including families with children, are invited to take part in the tree wrapping event. "Wrapping 100,000 trees takes a lot of work" said Chad Pregracke, founder and President of Living Lands & Waters.  Pregracke adds, "It's a great venue to help the community and educate people on why trees are important."

Trees provide shelter and nut-bearing hardwoods are a viable food source for wildlife and migratory birds.  Slow-growing hardwoods like oaks have a harder time re-establishing themselves without help, and are often crowded out by faster growing species, like cottonwoods, willow and silver maples. Re-establishing hardwoods helps increase biodiversity, reduce erosion and run-off and improve water and air quality.

Anyone interested in volunteering may contact MillionTrees Project Coordinator, Ashley Stover at Ashley@livinglandsandwaters.org or at 309.737.5913. More information on the MillionTrees Project can be found at www.livinglandsandwaters.org/get-involved/million-trees

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Washington, D.C. - Congressmen Dave Loebsack (IA-02) and Aaron Schock (IL-18) led a group of 21 Members of Congress in calling on the President to include support for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP) in its 2014 budget.  This program supports navigation infrastructure improvements and ecological restoration on the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS).   The UMRS is the only river basin in the United States recognized by an act of Congress as both a nationally significant commercial navigation system and river ecosystem.

"Ensuring that the locks and dams on the UMRS are capable of providing effective traffic flow is critically important to the competitiveness of our agriculture and manufacturing industries, and ultimately the consumer," the Congressmen wrote in a letter to the President.  "NESP has a real opportunity to be a model for constructing navigation infrastructure, and we look forward to this potential being realized for the benefit of the region and the nation.  We are hopeful that you will recognize the importance of NESP to the economy and ecosystem along the UMRS in your FY14 budget."

A copy of the letter can be seen here.