Who We Are

Within Illinois there are many natural areas that have to be managed to maintain their biological diversity. Historically, management activities involved plant commmunities. In 1987, the Nature Conservancy created the Butterfly Monitoring Network to assess the effects of management on animals. The Chicago Academy of Sciences’ Notebaert Nature Museum has collaborated with this successful effort to explore the effect that habitat management has on butterfly populations. Based on this effective model, the Dragonfly Monitoring Network was created. Through this project we hope to be able to gain a greater knowledge of the distribution and abundance of dragonfly and damselfly species in the Chicago region and eventually to expand the network across Illinois and beyond.

In 2011 the Dragonfly Monitoring Network has been renamed to become the Illinois Odonate Survey and has been expanded to receive information from throughout Illinois, and to include one off species accounts.