The original watershed plan for Tyler Creek was completed in January 1996 by  Openlands Project with input and guidance from the City of Elgin, Village of Gilberts, Kane County Forest Preserve District, Kane County, and the IDNR.  Funding was provided by the IDNR Office of Realty and Environmental Planning. The plan provided a summary of watershed history, current physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the watershed, and an outline for establishment of a watershed greenway plan, general watershed protection guidelines, and recommendations for restoration/protection of specific sites of concern/interest in the watershed’s sub areas.  This plan is considered the current Tyler Creek Watershed Plan which is in need of upgrade.

In 1997, the City of Elgin completed the Tyler Creek Management Plan, which focused on stormwater management and natural resource protection in the lower 1/3 of the watershed within the municipal limits of Elgin (current as well as proposed city limits at that time).  This plan was born out of the City’s need to insure the creek through the lower, already developed, portion of the City would not experience additional degradation due to further development upstream following municipal expansion.  This plan identified stormwater management strategies for future development, stormwater retrofit projects, stream corridor restoration / stabilization projects, and wetland banks as part of a plan to improve water quality and reduce flooding. In 2000, the City took this plan a step further and prepared an EPA 319 grant application that included preliminary design plans and cost estimates for implementing several (12-13) of the projects identified in the 1997 Tyler Creek Management Plan.  To date, at least two of these projects have been implemented by the City of Elgin.

The original watershed plan has been revised to reflect current conditions as well as address specific criteria for watershed plans established by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.  These new criteria are designed to make watershed plans much more specific about the problems present in the watershed, the solutions or practices that could mitigate those problems, and identification of implementation costs and assigning of responsibilities to stakeholders to insure recommendations are put into practice.  The last criteria the plan addresses is establishing a monitoring program in order to track the effectiveness of the watershed plan over time.