K. Douglas Blodgett Bio | The Nature Conservancy

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Freshwater: K. Douglas Blodgett

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K. Douglas Blodgett, Director of River Conservation, Illinois Chapter. © TNC

K. Douglas Blodgett

Director of River Conservation, Illinois Chapter

Contact Information

E-mail: dblodgett@TNC.ORG

Brief Biography

“It is imperative that we complete the shift from managing for ducks or fish to managing for ducks and fish, from agriculture or flood damage reduction to agriculture and flood damage reduction, from nature or people to nature and people.”

Doug Blodgett oversees The Nature Conservancy’s conservation action plan for the Illinois River, focusing on key strategies to conserve biodiversity and restore and manage functional floodplains. As director of river conservation for the Conservancy’s Illinois Chapter, these efforts involve management of model floodplain restoration sites along the Illinois—including the 2,000-acre Spunky Bottoms project and the 6,700-acre Emiquon Preserve. Doug is also engaged in work on other rivers that flow through the state such as the Wabash, Cache and Mississippi.

Among many roles, he serves as a liaison with local, state and federal agencies as well as non-governmental organizations to conserve and manage these river systems. Doug was appointed to the Illinois River Coordinating Council by the governor and is an official member of the Illinois River Team and Illinois River Working Group which he co-chairs. He also touches a number of other rivers worldwide through his fellowship with the Conservancy’s Great Rivers Partnership, which leverages the Mississippi River as a foundation for global exchange of science and best practices.

Doug earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in biology from Western Illinois University and joined the Illinois Natural History Survey in 1982. There he participated in biological investigations on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers with special interest in freshwater mussels, fishes and exotic species. For about ten years prior, Doug directed a field station for the Survey’s Long Term Resource Monitoring Program on the Illinois River as part of a multi-state, multi-agency Upper Mississippi River System Environmental Management Program.

Growing up in a small Illinois River town, Doug has fond memories of hiking, biking, boating, fishing, hunting, swimming and camping along the river and in its backwaters. He currently works from the Illinois River Program Office at the Emiquon Preserve and he and his wife Gayle live nearby. They have three grown children.