Questions on Conservation: Richard Andrews

This series of articles ask long-time wildlife conservation leaders from Illinois a series of questions about themselves, changes in wildlife conservation during their careers, and what they feel are the biggest wildlife management changes and challenges today.

I met with Dr. Richard Andrews at his beautiful acreage devoted to conservation outside of Charleston. Dr. Andrews is best known for his long career teaching Wildlife Management and other courses at Eastern Illinois University. Many of his students went on to have notable careers as wildlife researchers, managers, administrators and educators in Illinois and around the nation. A lot of his students best remember his classes for the field trips, piling into the old Chevy Suburban parked down by “The Pit” and heading out to get some hands-on and up-close experiences at wildlife management areas in central Illinois. Many of Andrews’ students also traveled farther afield on his well-known summer field trips, and to work deer and turkey check stations throughout the southern half of the state. Numerous Illinois “wildlifers” formed their earliest roots in wildlife conservation through attending his wildlife management classes.

OIWJ Was being a wildlife biologist your first career choice? When did you know that you wanted to be a wildlife biologist?

ANDREWS No, I can’t say that it was. I grew up on a cattle ranch along the North Loup River in the sandhills of Nebraska, near the little town of Burwell. I enrolled in college at what was then the Nebraska State Teachers College in Kearney. Every semester they tried to sell me on the idea of getting a teaching certificate, saying I could always teach when I failed at everything else. But I didn’t, and got a liberal arts degree in biology. I had thoughts at that time of becoming a veterinarian but I didn’t have the dedication for that. Most of my college was paid on the GI Bill, but one of my jobs to make a little extra money was working at a package liquor store. I would see veterinarians stop in after working with livestock out on the ranches. They were dirty and tired, having driven hundreds and hundreds of miles that day. As I approached graduation in 1958, one of my biology professors told me about the Wildlife Unit at Iowa State University in Ames, where I was offered an assistantship and began my career as a wildlife biologist.

OIWJ Who were some of the early mentors in your wildlife career, and how did they influence your own career?

ANDREWS G.O. Hendrickson was the assistant leader at Iowa State University and he did a lot to keep the Wildlife Unit open during World War II, and suggested I work on diseases in pheasants. Milton Weller was teaching Animal Ecology at that time and was really good. I had a class with Paul Errington, who had gone to Iowa from the University of Wisconsin back in the 1930s, and he was important enough—as one of Aldo Leopold’s former students—that he made a hell of an impression on me.

When I went to the University of Illinois to get my doctorate, one of the Illinois Natural History Survey projects was working with the vet school to study leptospirosis in wildlife at Dixon Springs Agricultural Experiment Station in Pope County. I had taken an extra microbiology class and an immunology class at Iowa State when working on the pheasant disease project, and that was enough to get me the job.

I primarily worked with the College of Veterinary Medicine, but it was in cooperation with the Illinois Natural History Survey. While at Dixon Springs, I would meet with Glen Sanderson at times, but worked on my dissertation with Dr. Deam Ferris, a vet and microbiologist. I shared an office at Dixon Springs with a vet named Dr. Manford Mansfield, who also was a real good guy.

OIWJ When you began your career, what did you feel was the most pressing or urgent concern for wildlife conservation?

ANDREWS I don’t know . . . and I probably didn’t know then. Rachel Carson’s book ‘Silent Spring’ was published when I was in southern Illinois and that was my first real thought about pesticides or anything like that. That made a real impression on me. There was not really a lot of concern about things like habitat when I started. There still wasn’t a widespread concern among the population for overhunting or overharvest.

OIWJ What aspect or element of your own career are you most proud of, and why did you pick that?

ANDREWS If you are a teacher, the thing you should be most proud of are your students. George Hubert was one memorable student working with me on heartworms. Denny Kirkham was another memorable student, he later worked as an Illinois Department of Conservation biologist at Gibson City.

OIWJ What do you feel is the most urgent problem facing wildlife conservation today?

ANDREWS I am a bit out of the loop, but I would have to think loss of habitat probably as much as anything. That would have to be paralleled closely with the degradation of habitat and the environment in general.

OIWJ In your opinion, what was the biggest change occurring in the field of wildlife research and management during your career?

ANDREWS At the beginning of my career in wildlife management, the lion’s share of my students were rural guys who were hunters and fishermen. Over time there was a shift to students who were often from of urban areas, and an increase in the number of females, who were not necessarily interested in hunting or fishing. This was a positive change. One brilliant student who stands out was very interested in animals and wildlife, but vocal in terms of anti-hunting, and that was fine. The approach to studying something such as a wood thrush or monarch butterfly or flying squirrel is the same as studying any other wildlife. You must know what they want, how to evaluate the population, and then set up a plan. It was harder to do than she thought, but that experience was good for her—and good for me. I was fortunate to have several students like that.

Another big change I saw over my career, and something that went beyond those in the wildlife profession and into the general population, was increased awareness of the environment and of habitat, and the associated environmental factors.

Postscript: Dr. Richard Andrews passed away on September 6, 2017.

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Paul Brewer is a veteran Illinois wildlife biologist, beginning his career as a research technician with the Illinois Natural History Survey. After a long career as a district wildlife biologist, he retired as manager of the Wild Turkey Project in IDNR’s Division of Wildlife Resources. Paul continues to remain active in the wildlife field and in working with prescribed fire management, and enjoys managing habitat for wildlife on a small Hutton Township farm in Coles County. He is currently President of the Illinois Chapter of The Wildlife Society.