Donald M. Reed

As Chief Biologist of the Natural Resources Planning and Management Division for the Southeast Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, Donald M. Reed has been a major force in environmental planning for wetlands protection in the seven counties of southeast Wisconsin. With Reed’s work in the mid-1970s, wetland sites essential to water quality maintenance were designated as primary environmental corridors and were given additional protection. He worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete the nation’s first Advanced Identification (ADID) project in 1983 for the Chiwaukee Prairie, prairie wetlands along Lake Michigan. A second ADID was completed in 1985 for all seven counties.

Reed has demonstrated that effective environmental management does not consist merely of planning, but with real world implementation. He is responsible for SEWRPCs Natural Resources Inventory and has contributed to advancing the art of regional wetlands delineation. He shares his enthusiasm for wetlands in training for numerous state and federal colleagues in wetlands plant identification, and he firmly encourages projects that avoid or reduce impacts to wetlands. Both developers and conservationists respect his straightforward opinions, and he has served as a consultant to government agencies and the private sector. Reed’s project-specific tenacity has preserved significant areas of rapidly growing suburban Milwaukee. Since 1987, Reed has served on the Board of Trustees of the Wisconsin Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

— Catherine G. Garra, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5