Mother nature is getting a much needed push as the Illinois Department of Natural Resources continues it's efforts to restock the Rock River.

More than 1,000 northern pike poured into the river from the back of the truck. Roughly 4,000 pike were released today. The department hopes these sport fish will mature, and repopulate the area effected by last month's massive fish kill, just south of Oregon. More than 50,000 small-mouth bass were reintroduced to the river immediately after the kill.

IDNR Fish Biologist, Dan Salle says, "We're supplementary stocking different varieties of fish that we have available just to try and speed the recovery of the river, it's such an important environmental resource we want to get it back to shape as quickly as we can".

The Environmental Protection Agency is still looking into the cause of the fish kill. IDNR biologists estimate more than 72,000 fish, at a value of $272,000, were lost last month.