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Symposium Agenda
| 8:30 to 9 am | Registration |
| 9:15 to 9:35 am | Welcome Michelle Uting, Forest Preserves of Cook County Mark Templeton, University of Chicago and Forest Preserves of Cook County Conservation & Policy Council Dr. Mike Adkensson, Brookfield Zoo Chicago |
| 9:35 to 10:15 am | Keynote Iza Redlinski, Forest Preserves of Cook County |
| 10:15 to 10:30 am | Break |
| 10:30 to 12 pm | Session #1: Thinking Big Moderator: Dr. Meredith Cenzer, Forest Preserves of Cook County Mario Longoni, Purdue University Anastasia Rahlin, Illinois Natural History Survey Deanna Doohaluk, Conservation Foundation Becky Collings, Forest Preserves of Cook County |
| 12 to 1 pm | Lunch |
| 1 to 2:30 pm | Session #2: Going Deep Moderator: Dr. Katie Baughman, Forest Preserves of Cook County Ignacio Escalente Meza, University of Illinois at Chicago Dr. Kentaro Inoue, Shedd Aquarium Dr. Anthony Porreca, Illinois Natural History Survey Charles “Chuck” Rizzo, Forest Preserves of Cook County |
| 2:30 to 2:45 pm | Break |
| 2:45 to 4:15 pm | Session #3: Human Dimensions Moderator: Dr. Elisabeth Garner, Forest Preserves of Cook County Dr. Teresa “Terry” Horton, Northwestern University Antonio Del Valle, Forest Preserve District of DuPage County and Dr. Meghan Midgley, Morton Arboretum Andrea Flores, Lincoln Park Zoo Dr. Elisabeth Garner, Forest Preserves of Cook County |
| 4:15 to 4:30 pm | Closing Adam Bianchi, Forest Preserves of Cook County |
Presentation Information
Opening Remarks
Welcome
Mark Templeton, Conservation Policy Council
Dr. Mike Adkensson, Brookfield Zoo
Keynote
Local work, regional and global implications
Iza Redlinski
In this keynote, Izabella (Iza) Redlinski will explore how the Forest Preserves of Cook County uses monitoring, research and strategic partnerships to answer big-picture questions across Cook County and better understand individual species. As the Forest Preserves responds to a changing world, research creates opportunities to learn from the past, adapt to the future and work together to protect nature across Cook County.
Break
Session 1: Thinking Big
MODERATOR: Dr. Meredith Cenzer
Iterative Research to Action Shapes a Distinct Model of Community Led Arts Practice to Activate People in Nature
Mario Longoni
For 30 years Field Museum social scientists have worked at the intersection of cultural assets and nature, with a view to increasing the effectiveness of community action and connecting people to nature for quality-of-life. Turn of the century research into the role of art in community building ultimately informed the innovative Roots and Routes program. It brought together accomplished artists, community leaders, and their organizations with natural areas and the community engagement goals of land managers. Documenting the impact of this decade long initiative has allowed for new variations on this successful nature engagement model, with the emergence of location and community specific variations that clarify the essentials and the flexibility of the approach.
https://www.gatheringspaces.org/
Urban Biotic Assessment Program (UBAP): 20+ years of multispecies monitoring in the Chicagoland region
Anastasia Rahlin
Since 2005, the Urban Biotic Assessment Program (UBAP) has tracked bats, birds, herps, fish, mussels, insects, and plants across the Illinois Tollway corridor and adjacent Forest Preserves, building one of the longest-running multi-taxa monitoring geodatabases in the Chicago region. Much of our work focuses on monitoring state threatened, endangered, and declining species, and on translating survey data into management guidance for our partners. This talk will explore UBAP’s ongoing research initiatives: long-term Blanding’s Turtle monitoring, which has followed individual turtles across the Des Plaines River valley to understand how habitat fragmentation and barriers shape their movement and population connectivity; mussel movement ecology on the Kishwaukee River, where a decade of mark-recapture work is tracking how one of Illinois’s most diverse freshwater mussel communities is recolonizing habitat altered by bridge construction; metabarcoding work that uses environmental DNA to examine cryptic wetland bird and glacial lake fish occupancy, alongside pollen and fecal metabarcoding to reconstruct pollinator and bird diets; Marsh and Sedge Wren physiology research, which pairs blood chemistry with insect surveys across restored wetlands and glacial remnants to test whether wetland mitigation sites physiologically support songbirds compared to glacial wetland remnants; machine learning initiatives to map snags across forest preserves using satellite imagery and to automate the identification of vertebrates captured in camera trap photos; and remote sensing vegetation monitoring planned for future research to track habitat changes across Tollway corridors at the landscape scale.
https://ubap.inhs.illinois.edu/
Stream Restoration As A Tool for Meeting Waste Water Permit Compliance
Deanna Doohaluk
Urban watersheds poise multiple obstacles to achieving water quality and ecological resource goals. Their high population density and the proliferation of impervious surfaces combine to deliver high volumes of wastewater and stormwater along with their associated pollutant loadings to their surface waters. These loadings combined with the extensive physical modification of waterways leads to poor water quality, degraded ecological communities and an impoverished waterbody aesthetic.
Remedying these issues is both expensive and fraught with uncertainty. It is estimated that in the USA more than one trillion US dollars has been spent on wastewater water treatment alone since 1970 and abating pollution and the aggregate effects of multiple pollutants is not always well understood. Additionally the concept of watershed management, with it’s potential to develop more efficient solutions targeting multiple watershed issues , has not always lived up to its promise in practice.
In order to overcome these obstacles of the DuPage River Salt Creek Workgroup developed a comprehensive watershed monitoring program collecting water quality, physical and ecological data in the Salt Creek and DuPage River watersheds. The objective was to develop a dynamic data set that would optimize the delivery of public resources towards the goals of improving surface water quality and river ecology, both regulatory goals set by the government. The presentation will cover the design of the monitoring program, outline of the date analysis, the identification and implementation of projects and how the analysis is being integrated into regulatory oversight. www.Drscw.org/
Ten Years of Vegetation Monitoring in the Forest Preserves of Cook County
Becky Collings
This presentation will share what has been learned from the first ten years of a long-term vegetation monitoring program in the Forest Preserves of Cook County. Vegetation monitoring is a key method the agency is using to monitor progress towards its goal of restoring 30,000 acres to high-quality ecological health. The presentation will cover an overview of the protocol, how before and after data can be used to assess progress, site-specific case studies, and future direction for the program.
Lunch
Please connect with catering staff for any dietary restrictions provided during registration.
Session 2: Going Deep
MODERATOR: Dr. Katie Baughman
Understudied arachnids around us: The urban ecology and behavioral ecology of Opiliones
Ignacio Escalente Meza
To cope with predation pressure, animals have evolved defenses that can be morphological, chemical, and behavioral. Notably, some animals have multiple lines of defense. However, we still lack a clear understanding of why and how multiple defenses vary across species, what their costs are, or if defenses are effective in multiple contexts. To address these knowledge gaps, I will present four case studies of the common yet understudied arachnid group, Opiliones (“daddy long-legs”, “harvestmen”). The data is derived from projects that my research group has developed in the Forest Preserves of Cook County and the Chicago City Parks. First, we have surveyed the biodiversity of these arachnids to explore how climatic variation, forest connectivity, and urbanization influence species composition and abundance. Second, we studied how multiple species coexist in the same environments. We found that species differ in their morphology and in the microhabitats they use. For instance, some species have longer legs and tend to roost in foliage. Third, we explored how morphological and ecological variations at the species level might drive their use of defenses to escape predators. We found that some species are more likely to secrete chemical defenses, and, interestingly, all species examined are equally likely to voluntarily release a leg to escape. Fourth, when we compared locomotive behavior within a single species (Leiobunum aldrichi), females and males escaped at the same speed and used the same behaviors (flee and freeze), despite males being smaller and having longer legs. Overall, these examples illustrate the importance of surveying the biodiversity of often overlooked yet common animals within an urban ecology framework. Additionally, we have provided novel information on the diverse range of defensive strategies that animals use to respond to the predation pressure in nature.
What can six years of mark-recapture monitoring tell us? Assessments of freshwater mussel communities in the greater Chicagoland area and implications for future research
Dr. Kentaro Inoue
Freshwater mussels are among the most imperiled groups of animals worldwide, yet basic demographic information remains limited for many populations. Understanding how demographic patterns vary among populations and sites is essential for effective conservation and management. We conducted six years of mark-recapture monitoring (2020–2025) at three locations across the greater Chicagoland area to characterize mussel communities and estimate demographic parameters, including survival. Although apparent survival was relatively high across sites, we found strong site-specific differences in survival trends, highlighting the influence of local conditions on mussel population dynamics. Long-term monitoring provides critical baseline information for assessing population status and informing restoration efforts. In addition, the established monitoring sites and individually marked populations provide valuable infrastructure for future research on disease ecology, population genetics, movement, recruitment, and other aspects of mussel population biology.
Does fish habitat enhancement make more fish? An experimental evaluation of whole-lake fish habitat additions within forest preserve fishing lakes
Dr. Anthony Porreca
Adding fish habitat structures to aging lakes and reservoirs is a common fisheries management strategy for increasing the quality of recreational fisheries. While these added habitat structures are known to attract and concentrate fish within a lake, few studies have tested whether they increase the number or size of fish in a population. My presentation will cover the basic theory behind this management action and the outcomes of an ongoing experimental evaluation of whole-lake fish habitat enhancements added to fishing lakes within the Palos Preserves.
Integrating Health Assessment and Movement Ecology into a Long-Term American Kestrel Monitoring Program
Charles “Chuck” Rizzo
Session Description: American kestrel populations have experienced well-documented declines across North America over the past several decades, prompting increased attention to the factors driving this trend and the tools available to monitor it. Here, we present preliminary findings from a long-term kestrel monitoring program in Northeastern Illinois, (Cook County, Kane, Winnebago County) that has evolved from a nest box initiative into a multi-faceted research effort. Building on an established banding operation, the program now integrates health assessment — including investigations into neonicotinoid exposure and novel falcon adenovirus — with GPS-based movement ecology to characterize nesting survival, foraging range and seasonal dispersal. Together, these approaches offer a more complete picture of kestrel population health and habitat use, with implications for conservation strategy across the species’ range.
Break
Session 3: Human Dimension
MODERATOR: Dr. Elisabeth Garner
Building Momentum for Change: Human and Planetary Health
Dr. Teresa (Terry) Horton
Humans are dependent on a healthy planet. Unfortunately, human behavior has stretched the operating space of the planet to the limits that can sustain humanity and all life. Scientists have been warning about these limits for over 50 years, with minimal effect on our use of resources. Changing human behavior is hard, especially when the effects of change seem to be distant from personal experience. This talk presents recent evidence for the direct effects of the presence of nature on human well-being. The talk also addresses how this evidence could be used to motivate behavioral change through impacts on intrinsic motivation, goal setting, social influence, and the local environment.
Stewards and science: Leveraging volunteer networks to learn more about brush pile burning effects on oak ecosystems
Antonio “Tony” Del Valle and Dr. Meghan Midgley
Throughout the Forest Preserve District of Cook County and the Chicagoland area, brush pile burning is commonly used to remove woody debris produced during invasive species removal and tree thinning activities. Brush piles are often produced at high density in small management units undergoing ecological restoration, and there are concerns from the ecological restoration community about the effect of brush pile burning on regional biodiversity and interest in developing strategies for minimizing these impacts. To meet the needs of the restoration community and improve our ecological understanding of burn scar successional dynamics, we established a series of studies with staff, stewards, and contractors to 1) characterize short- and long-term effects of brush pile burns on plant and soil biodiversity; 2) identify the management choices that minimize or maximize these effects; and 3) evaluate post-burn strategies for mitigating brush pile burning effects on biodiversity. In this talk, we will highlight the roles of stewards in shaping the research trajectory and the discoveries that resulted from these studies.
https://mortonarb.org/science/staff/meghan-midgley/
Understanding tick abundance and pathogen risk in Chicago’s green spaces
Andrea Flores
Health risks from tick-borne disease are increasing in incidence, especially as the geographical range of many tick species expands due to land management and climatic changes. For six years, Urban Wildlife Institute staff have conducted annual tick surveillance to investigate the relationships between host communities, tick densities, tick-borne pathogens, and environmental conditions. We conduct tick drags in parks, forest preserves, and golf courses across urban gradients in Chicagoland. We found that more connected green spaces had more ticks and Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, was found even at our most urban sites. We will discuss trends found from long-term surveillance efforts and future management implications.
Interconnected: Building the future research agenda for the Forest Preserves of Cook County – examining interconnectedness across our mission
Dr. Elisabeth Garner
This talk will present a preliminary research agenda for the Forest Preserves that positions multiple levels of social and environmental interactions as interconnected and relational.
While responsiveness to social science and best practices for engagement and organization are not new to the Forest Preserves, we have a unique opportunity to reposition ourselves in the conversation and to help shape, test, and share that knowledge. As the research agenda takes shape, new projects are already underway such as diverse experiences of our trails and nature spaces, innovating participatory engagement in planning and decision-making, as well as developing processes to capture the cultural and economic value of the Forest Preserves for Cook County.
Closing
Adam Bianchi
Superintendent Bianchi will help wrap up the day, reflect on past research, summarize key points, and provide a call to action that envisions expanded integrative research efforts across disciplines and subjects in the Forest Preserves of Cook County.
Presenter Bios
Dr. Katie Baughman
Dr. Katie Baughman is the Wildlife Research Supervisor for the Forest Preserves of Cook County. In her current role, she participates in a variety of wildlife management and research efforts throughout FPCC’s 70,000+ acres of protected land. Katie has a PhD in Environment and Natural Resources from The Ohio State University, as well as a BS in Zoology and minor in Biotechnology from North Carolina State University. Her dissertation focused on examining how coyotes differ behaviorally and physiologically across Chicagoland’s urbanization gradient, as part of the long-term Urban Coyote Research Project. Prior to joining FPCC’s wildlife team, she also tutored and/or taught biology and environmental science courses as an adjunct professor for multiple local colleges and universities, including Waubonsee Community College, Elgin Community College, Aurora University, and Loyola University Chicago.
Adam Bianchi
With nearly 20 years in public land and natural resource management at the U.S. Forest Service, Adam Bianchi brings seasoned leadership, innovation and collaborative conservation to his 2025 appointment as General Superintendent of the Forest Preserves of Cook County, nominated by President Toni Preckwinkle and approved by the Forest Preserves Board of Commissioners.
Previously, as District Ranger for Colorado’s Dillon Ranger District in the White River National Forest, General Superintendent Bianchi oversaw 312,000 acres, including wilderness areas, reservoirs, 14 campgrounds and four renowned ski resorts. He led strategic planning to balance environmental protection with recreation, secured funding through creative partnerships, and helped guide policies for the broader 2.3 million-acre forest.
Since joining the Forest Service in 2008, General Superintendent Bianchi has served in California, Michigan and Colorado. An Iowa State University graduate, his accolades include the 2022 U.S. Forest Service Chief Honor Award and the 2023 Forester’s Ranger District of the Year.
Now overseeing more than 70,000 acres in Cook County, General Superintendent Bianchi leads efforts to preserve native habitats, foster community connections and promote equitable access to nature through hundreds of public programs and events.
https://fpdcc.com/about/general-superintendent-adam-bianchi/
Becky Collins
Becky Collings is the Senior Resource Ecologist for the Forest Preserves of Cook County where she leads a team of regional ecologists. Becky and her team monitor the flora and fauna of the Preserves and use this information to develop management plans, design ecological restoration projects and priorities, and measure restoration progress. Prior to working with the Forest Preserves, Becky worked as an ecologist at the Field Museum and the Michigan Natural Features Inventory. She holds a MS in ecology and natural resource management from the University of Michigan and BA in environmental studies from the University of Colorado.
Antonio “Tony” Del Vallé
Antonio (Tony) Del Vallé is an Ecologist at The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County. Tony formerly worked as a Research Coordinator at The Morton Arboretum in the Midgley Soil Ecology Lab. His current position with DuPage involves a mix of surveying plants to inform management, conserving rare plant populations, conducting ecological restoration, and applied ecological research. He holds a M.Sc. degree in Biological Sciences from Northern Illinois University and a B.Sc. in Wildlife Ecology from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Deanna Doohaluk
Deanna Doohaluk is a Watershed Project Manager with The Conservation Foundation and fulltime staff to the DuPage River Salt Creek Workgroup (DRSCW), Lower DuPage River Watershed Coalition, and Lower Des Plaines Watershed Group. She has over 25 years’ experience in water resource management in both the public and private sector. Ms. Doohaluk serves as project manager of the Master Plan for Salt Creek at Fullersburg Woods which includes the removal of the Graue Mill dam and the restoration of 1.25 miles of Salt Creek. She also worked on the development of the Nutrient Assessment and Reduction Plans (NARP) aimed at identifying phosphorus reductions by point source and nonpoint sources and other measures to improve the water quality in the Lower Des Plaines River, DuPage River and Salt Creek watersheds. Ms. Doohaluk has a Masters of Public Health in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina and a BS in Environmental Science from Mercer University, Macon, Georgia.
Ignacio Escalente Meza, Assistant Professor, University of Illinoisat Chicago
Ignacio is a behavioral ecologist and organismal biologist who studies the mechanisms of animal behavior. By integrating tools in biomechanics, communication, and physiology, he explores animal behavior through the lenses of ecology and evolutionary biology. Ignacio joined the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Illinois – Chicago (UIC) in 2022, where he leads the Behavioral Ecology & Biomechanics Lab as an Assistant Professor. Before UIC, Dr. Escalante was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, obtained his Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California – Berkeley, as well as a master’s and a B.S. in Biology from the Universidad de Costa Rica.
Andrea Flores, One Health Research Coordinator, Wildlife Institute, Lincoln Park Zoo
Andrea Flores is the One Health Research Coordinator at Lincoln Park Zoo’s Urban Wildlife Institute. She uses her research to understand how urbanization impacts human, wildlife, and environmental health. Major projects include exploring the abundance and impact of brown rats, surveying ticks in urban greenspaces, and collecting pollinator activity data in urban community gardens. Andrea and her team use the One Health concept to grasp health benefits and challenges, prevent human-wildlife conflict, and manage wildlife disease transmission in cities.
https://www.lpzoo.org/science-project/disease-risk-from-ticks-in-urban-green-spaces
Dr. Elisabeth Garner
Elisabeth Garner is in the inaugural position of Data & Evaluation Analyst with the Forest Preserves of Cook County. As an environmental sociologist, her research explores the differentiated experiences, roles, and responsibilities of natural spaces and landscapes, while facilitating data-supported decision-making on programmatic and organizational processes and priorities. In addition to the Forest Preserves, she has been a researcher and evaluator for a range of academic, governmental, and nonprofit organizations, including USAID, the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), Cornell University, and the United Nations. She also worked as a land use planner in Houston, Texas and as a resource development officer with Habitat for Humanity in the Boston area. Elisabeth holds a dual-title PhD in Rural Sociology and Women’s Studies with a Graduate Certificate in Survey Methodology (Penn State), and a Masters in Regional Planning (Cornell).
Dr. Teresa “Terry” Horton
Dr. Horton received her Bachelor’s of Science in Zoology from the University of Washington and her PhD in Biology (Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology) from the University of Utah. She is currently an Associate Professor of Research in the Department of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. As a human biologist, she combines the principles of biological anthropology, ecology, evolution, physiology, and psychology to investigate the mechanisms by which environmental conditions alter physiology and mental health. She applies her work to help generate public understanding of the reciprocal relationship between human and planetary health with the goal of affecting public policy and programs to improve the health of people and the planet.
Dr. Kentaro Inoue
Dr. Inoue is a conservation biologist at Shedd Aquarium studying freshwater mussels—one of the most imperiled groups of animals on Earth. His work aims to prevent extinctions by understanding how human activities and environmental change affect freshwater biodiversity. Combining field and laboratory approaches, he investigates the cause of mussel declines and develops conservation strategies to protect these species. His research spans freshwater ecosystems across North and Central America. Inoue has more than 20 years of experience studying freshwater mussels and other aquatic organisms. He received a B.S. in Wildlife Ecology and Management and an M.S. in Environmental Sciences from Arkansas State University, and Ph.D. from Miami University. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Technical University of Munich in Germany, he conducted research on freshwater mussels and fishes in Europe. He later worked as a research scientist at Texas A&M University, where he led a conservation genetics program focused on freshwater mussels in Texas, before joining Shedd Aquarium.
https://www.sheddaquarium.org/about-shedd/leadership/research-experts/kentaro-inoue-ph-d
Mario Longoni
Mario Longoni, cultural anthropologist, has spent over 25 years working with grassroots organizations, institutions, and regional networks to steward cultural and ecological heritage for the benefit of people and nature. He has focused on helping establish the Calumet National Heritage Area by facilitating both regional projects (like the traveling Calumet Voices, National Stories exhibition) and local quality-of-life efforts (from creating a Gathering Space at Beaubien Woods Forest Preserve in Chicago, Illinois to supporting youth gardens at Reese Park in Gary, Indiana). He is currently the Urban Waters Partnership Coordinator out of Purdue University NW, and in this new capacity, looks forward to working with all those who seek to use our shared heritage (scientific and vernacular) to care for the waters and people of NW Indiana.
Ignacio Escalente Meza
Ignacio is a behavioral ecologist and organismal biologist who studies the mechanisms of animal behavior. By integrating tools in biomechanics, communication, and physiology, he explores animal behavior through the lenses of ecology and evolutionary biology. Ignacio joined the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Illinois – Chicago (UIC) in 2022, where he leads the Behavioral Ecology & Biomechanics Lab as an Assistant Professor. Before UIC, Dr. Escalante was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, obtained his Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California – Berkeley, as well as a master’s and a B.S. in Biology from the Universidad de Costa Rica.
Dr. Meghan Midgley
Dr. Meghan Midgley is the Senior Director of the Center for Tree Science at the Morton Arboretum. As its director, Midgley leads more than 30 researchers who collaborate with colleagues worldwide to advance and share knowledge of trees and their ecosystems, addressing the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss. Midgley is also an expert in soil ecology, ecosystem ecology, terrestrial biogeochemistry, and global change. Her research focuses on plant-soil interactions, and she aims to understand how interactions among plants, microbes, and soil mediate ecosystem-specific responses to environmental changes in prairies, savannas, and forests. Her research goal is to translate ecological understanding of plant-soil interactions into effective techniques for restoring and managing natural and urban ecosystems. Midgley earned a B.S. in Environmental Systems from the University of California, San Diego. She holds a master’s degree in Environmental Science and a Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior from Indiana University.
Dr. Anthony Porreca
Anthony Porreca is an aquatic ecologist at the University of Illinois and the Assistant Director of the Illinois Natural History Survey’s Kaskaskia Biological Station. He conducts basic and applied research centered on the ecology and management of lake and reservoir fisheries. Specific areas of interest include fish habitat interactions, microchemistry analysis of fish hard parts, trophic ecology, and management of sport fisheries. Anthony received his BS and MS from Eastern Illinois University and his PhD from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Anthony is also an active member of the American Fisheries Society, serving on the executive committee of the Illinois Chapter of the American Fisheries Society and as an Associate Editor for North American Journal of Fisheries Management.
Anastasia Rahlin
Anastasia Rahlin is an Associate Research Scientist at the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS), Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she manages the Urban Biotic Assessment Program (UBAP), a multi-taxa monitoring and research partnership with the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority. Since joining INHS as an ornithologist in 2016, Anastasia has coordinated survey and research efforts spanning birds, herpetofauna, fish, mussels, insects, bats, and plants across the Chicago Tollway corridor and its mitigation lands, working closely with forest preserve district biologists, land managers, and nonprofit organizations. Anastasia’s research focuses on wetland and grassland bird ecology, including long-term wren nest studies, marsh and wet meadow bird energetics, and environmental DNA (eDNA) approaches to detecting cryptic wetland species.
Charles “Chuck” Rizzo
Chuck Rizzo is a Wildlife Biologist with the Forest Preserves of Cook County. Originally from Rochester, New York, and a graduate of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. After moving to Palatine, Illinois, he began his career with a five-year stint at the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, where he served as Wetland Bird Project Leader and contributed to the Canada Goose Project. He has since spent 25 years with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, building a broad portfolio of wildlife work that includes the Cook County Urban Coyote Project, turtle work, snake studies (including some work with the Massasauga Rattlesnake), and the Urban Deer Program. For the past 11 years, his focus has shifted primarily to avian work, encompassing wetland bird monitoring, banding and blood sample collection for heavy metal testing and health assessment, avian influenza testing, and the development of an American Kestrel Nest Box Program for the County. For the past 4 years he has also been a partner with the Illinois Zoological and Wildlife Health Management Residency Program.
Iza Redlinski
Iza is an ecologist with a broad lab and in-field experience, who started her career on large scale restorations, worked with urban ecology through community involvement and partnership building and now serves in a more administrative role in the Forest Preserve’s Department of Resource Management. There, she works to integrate work on the ground with research questions that the practitioners have about effects of restoration, streamline various administrative processes, grow the Seed Amplification Program and leverage the work FPCC does though strategic partnership building with local and regional players. In her free time Iza is a volunteer steward at one of the FPCC sites, mentor girl scout leaders and is an avid native plant gardener, helping to spread microhabitats through urbanized areas.
Mark Templeton, Conservation Policy Council
Mark N. Templeton is Clinical Professor of Law, Director of the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic, a Member of the Committee on Environment, Geography, and Urbanization (CEGU), and a Research Affiliate of the Energy Policy Institute at Chicago (EPIC).
Previously, Professor Templeton was a Trustee and Executive Director of the Office of Independent Trustees for the $20 billion Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Trust. He served as the cabinet-level Director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, leading the state’s efforts in energy, environmental protection, state parks, and water resources, while overseeing a staff of approximately 1750 FTEs and a $310 million annual budget.
From 2005 to 2009, Professor Templeton served as Associate Dean and COO at Yale Law School. From 2001 to 2005, he developed environmental and sustainability strategies at McKinsey & Company, among other projects. Prior to joining McKinsey, Professor Templeton was Special Assistant and Senior Adviser to the US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and an adviser to the US Delegation to the UN Commission on Human Rights. He was a Financial Analyst at Goldman Sachs from 1994 to 1996.
Professor Templeton earned an AB, magna cum laude, in Social Studies from Harvard College in 1994 and a JD from Yale Law School in 1999.
Professor Templeton serves as a board member of the Environmental Law Institute, a board member and Chair of the Finance and Investment Committee of the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, and Chair of the Conservation and Policy Council of the Cook County Forest Preserves. He has earned the rank of Shodan (first-degree black belt) in Shotokan karate.