CTAP is a broad-ranging program that includes land-cover mapping, educational activities, production of documents for ecosystem partnerships, and monitoring of ecosystem condition. Every component is supportive of the others and together they provide a holistic look at the state of Illinois ecosystems. Already, the program is able to document land uses from recent satellite data, and update this information as needed. The production of a land-cover atlas in compact disc format, in conjunction with Regional Assessments, gives ecosystem partnerships real tools to answer questions and set priorities for managing their own back yards. Educational programs, either through Plan-it Earth or indirectly through EcoWatch training volunteers, are getting a large number of Illinois citizens involved in understanding the environment around them. With this information they are better equipped to make decisions about the kind of landscape in which the wish to live. Ecosystem partnerships, Plan-it Earth, and EcoWatch have been successful in enfranchising the public to the environmental management decision-making process.
A major accomplishment of CTAP is the institution of standardized, statewide monitoring that permits comparisons across the state and into the future. The program has found several informative trends already. Our ecosystems are degraded, of this there is no doubt. The spread of non-native and invasive species, along with continued habitat fragmentation, appear to be major culprits.
The Ecosystems Program of Conservation 2000 is tackling some of the problems illustrated by CTAP data. It is providing technical and financial support to regional, citizen partnerships that wish to improve conditions in their own back yards. Recently, Marvin Hubbell, head of Conservation 2000, called for partnerships to monitor the effectiveness of habitat improvements supported by the agency's funding. CTAP professional and volunteer protocols are available for this, and with data on statewide and regional averages, standards for monitoring change already exist.
For CTAP to be successful in the future, the reports and data collected now must be used by state government and the citizens of Illinois in planning, management, and policy formation. One obstacle to this is getting the information out to those who need it and in a manner that is easily understood. CTAP is planning to produce a centralized data management system that would meet several goals:
* provide safe storage of both professional and volunteer data
* allow for retrieval of information for the purposes of sophisticated analysis
* run routine analyses
* put out simplified products such as charts, graphs, site photos, and textual descriptions of site conditions
* combine site data with land-cover data in a GIS format
* allow for the integration of quality-checked data from other sources such as that gathered by ecosystem partnerships.
This system would put all but the most sensitive of the hard-earned CTAP data at the fingertips of every Illinois citizen. That act would complete the agreement that government makes with it citizens to be forthright and forthcoming with information it gathers using citizens' tax dollars.
In a few months, an interim report on Phase II of CTAP, Critical Trends in Illinois Ecosystems, will become available. It will contain detailed reports of progress on land-cover mapping, regional assessments, educational efforts, and ecosytem monitoring. Included will be detailed discussions of methods used by professionals and volunteers. As a method for regionalizing the discussion of ecosystem condition, a chapter on each ISIS basin will be provided. This document will provide the first statewide assessment of the condition of multiple ecosystems in Illinois. At this point the state will know "where we are" and within a few years will begin to know the "whither we are tending" part of Lincoln's phrase.
Authors (in alphabetical order): Stephen D. Bailey (ornithologist), Alice Brandon (Quality Assurance Officer, EcoWatch), Connie J. Carroll (botanist), R. Edward DeWalt (aquatic biologist, and editor of this issue), James L. Ellis (botanist), Rhetta L. Jack (ornithologist), Greg R. Spyreas (botanist), William G. Ruesink (program administrator).
Acknowledgements: We thank the efforts of Michael Jeffords (PLAN-IT EARTH), Diane Szafoni (land cover mapping), and Susan Post (Regional Assessements) for providing details of their efforts devoted to CTAP. Thanks are extended to David Baker, coordinator of CTAP efforts in the Office of Realty and Environmental Planning, for providing a draft copy of the CTAP Phase II report and for lending some tables used in this text.
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