Surveying the Future; David Thomas is Leaving His Post, but Not His Commitment

By Chris Young

David Thomas is retiring as chief of the Illinois Natural History Survey at the end of February, but don’t expect his involvement to end just like that.

Like many of the survey’s scientists, Thomas, who led the organization for just over a decade, will stay involved after retirement.

"I am going to stay in the Champaign area and I will stay involved in various environmental issues, and there are things I want to do for the survey," says Thomas, who recently turned 65. "I will be involved in fundraising for the survey’s 150th anniversary to be celebrated next September."

The Illinois Natural History Survey is the scientific research arm of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The survey also operates in cooperation with the University of Illinois and other state agencies.

Scientists conduct wildlife research to help guide biologists in game-management decisions; provide scientific support for projects of the Illinois Department of Transportation such as wetland mitigation; work with the Illinois Department of Public Health on issues like West Nile virus; and study agricultural pests for the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

Researchers study ways to control invasive species and work to understand how to best conserve those that are endangered.

The survey’s annual budget is around $16 million, with about $4 million coming through DNR. Much of that budget is federal money that is passed through various agencies, or competitive grants secured by survey scientists.

The organization has about 200 scientists and support staff.

"We’re by far the largest (of similar institutions in the United States)," he says. "If you put all the natural history surveys together, we are probably bigger."

A board of directors governs the survey. Members include representatives of the DNR director, University of Illinois and Southern Illinois University presidents and scientific experts of various disciplines.

The survey traces its history back to John Wesley Powell, the explorer of the Grand Canyon, who got the state of Illinois to appropriate $1,000 to survey the state’s plants and animals.

Stephen Forbes, the survey’s first head, studied the Illinois River starting in 1876, before the Chicago River’s flow was reversed, sending the city’s sewage downstream instead of into Lake Michigan. Forbes is considered to be the father of the study of modern ecology.

The information collected by Forbes and his colleagues is valuable to help guide restorations, like those ongoing along the Illinois River.

"Restorations are a major activity of the INHS," says Thomas.

But restoration is not a simple matter. The landscape has been altered significantly since the arrival of European settlers, and the Illinois River, for example, likely never will be the same – even with the most earnest attempts at restoration.

"We want to restore to a new productive ecosystem that will be different than anything in the past, but that will restore some of the processes that made it a dynamic system," he says.

Productive flood plains might provide habitat for rare species, filter water by removing excess nutrients and provide natural flood control.

Some processes are difficult to restore because the river has been constricted with levees and locks and dams installed to improve navigation.

"The reality is the river is in use now," he says. "But there is no reason we cannot make it a more productive system."

The survey is involved in _studying restoration efforts from north to south in Illinois, including the Cache River in southern Illinois and the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie restoration on _the site of the former Joliet Arsenal.

"What can we do?" Thomas says. "We can’t simply go back (to pre- settlement times)."

But researchers can try to target species especially in need of a hand, including upland sandpipers, a bird associated with prairies that is disappearing.

"In this 19,000 acres, what is this patchwork going to look like to benefit all these different species?" he asks. "It’s a challenge for ecologists. How do we make these productive systems, even though they never will be the same as those original natural systems?"

Despite all the work done by his predecessors, including Forbes, Thomas says ecologists still face challenges that will be exciting.

"There’s still an awful lot of research that is needed."

And some of those issues will be controversial.

Survey scientists took the lead on studying the detrimental effects of lead shotgun pellets on waterfowl, research that was unpopular although it eventually became irrefutable.

"The evidence finally became so overwhelming that eventually changes had to be made."

It also falls on survey scientists and staff to look to the future and try to anticipate issues and developments that will need further study.

Thomas says his retirement plans include spending time with his five grandchildren.

"I also plan to stay involved in major environmental issues," he says. "I don’t plan to stop doing any of that."

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