"Those who know" (scientists, ecologists, policy-makers) know one thing for certain: we don't know enough about natural systems in Illinois-how they are organized, how they work, how they have been (and are being) changed. Illinois is too big, and the budgets for public science have always been too small. One way to learn how Illinois ecosystems are changing is to spend more public money. Another is to make public science really public. That's the approach taken by the organizers of CTAP-the Critical Trends Assessment Program of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources(IDNR). Now entering its sixth year, CTAP began by amassing a baseline inventory, a "where are we now?" snapshot of the state that would (1) reveal the state of the state, ecologically speaking, and (2) serve as a benchmark to help us determine how Illinois ecosystems change in the future. There was no money for new field work, so CTAP's first-phase investigations took place not in the state's creeks and woods but in its libraries and labs. Illinois has closets full of data on environmental, economic, ecological, and geological conditions-fish counts, weather records, water quality samples, sedimentation cores, soil maps, natural areas inventories, endangered species lists, among others. Collected over the years, these old data were reconsidered in a new statewide context. (Also helpful were early accounts written by pioneers and settlers.) Completed in the fall of 1994, the first CTAP survey concluded that while conventional pollution has declined over the past 20 years in Illinois, in some cases dramatically, the state's natural systems seemed to be rapidly | declining as a result of fragmentation and continued stress. (See "Critical Trends" The Nature of Illinois, Winter 1994) FILLING IN THE BLANKS Unfortunately, existing data were found to be insufficient to assess ecological health statewide with much precision. For example, while the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has valuable data on criteria pollutants in water and air, the state lacks information on biological organisms in streams (including aspects of their habitats) beyond chemical pollutants. And this kind of data is needed for all of the major ecosystem types, not just streams. SATELLITE IMAGERY The first CTAP survey can be compared to taking a patient's temperature: essential information, but hardly enough on which to base a diagnosis. IDNR thus devoted CTAP's second phase to finding affordable ways to systamatically monitor ecosystems throughout the state. Satellites, for example, can cover more ground in hours than a hundred fearless naturalists in four-wheel-drives could cover in years. Drawing on satellite imagery acquired from 1991 to 1995, the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) compiled a Landcover Database. The images (which have a ground resolution of 93.5 feet [28.5 meters] on a side) are the basis of Illinois Land Cover, an Atlas, a county-by-county snapshot of the state's surface. The images reveal the current proportion of upland forests, bottomland forests, nonforested wetlands, grasslands, croplands, urban or built-up areas, and water; just as important, future images will reveal how each has changed ECOWATCH PROGRAMS Humans on the ground remain the essential | equipment of finer-scaled ecological research. But while only trained scientists can interpret data from the field, they do not necessarily have to collect it. CTAP's EcoWatch program enlists cadres of "citizen scientists" to do that essential work. High school science students and other interested volunteers are trained in the standard techniques needed to gather consistent, high-quality data, which can be used back in the labs by scientists to measure changes in ecosystem quality over time. A one year pilot project, RiverWatch, was successfully completed to rave reviews. (See"River Watching," The Nature of Illinois, Summer, 1996.) A second one-year pilot, ForestWatch is also aimed at high school science classes and volunteer groups. In years to come PrairieWatch and WetlandWatch programs will be developed along similar lines. Building a data base is like building any structure: You need the right tools. When INHS stream biologist Denise Stoeckel and her colleagues began developing RiverWatch protocols, they discovered that most existing monitoring programs chose invertebrates inhabiting gravel bottoms and riffles as indicator species. There is a problem with that, explains Stoeckel: "Prairie streams are usually soft bottomed. They don't have riffles. We had to develop a new system that would work in all types of streams." PLAN-IT EARTH Another resource tapped by Ctap is the energy and enthusiasm of Illinois' middle and high school students. CTAP's Plan-It Earth high school science curriculum gives kids a unique chance to learn basic science in a real world lab-and perhaps encourage new EcoWatch volunteers. |