2022 Avian Conservationist of the Year Awardee

Nomination for Roger Boyd by Cal Cink

I would like to nominate Dr. Roger L. Boyd for the Kansas Ornithological Society’s Avian Conservationist of the Year award. Roger’s significant contributions to bird conservation throughout his career extend not only from his teaching at Baker University, but also his field research on a variety of threatened species of plovers, terns, and passerine bird communities. His management efforts in preserving and expanding the Baker Wetlands Natural Area near Lawrence are also noteworthy.

Roger received his Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Baker University in 1969, his Master of Science degree in biology from Emporia State University working under David Parmelee in 1972 and his PhD in zoology from Colorado State University working with Paul Baldwin in 1976. He joined the biology faculty of Baker University as an Assistant Professor in the fall of 1976. He was promoted to full tenured Professor and was a full-time faculty member for 29 years before becoming full time Director of the Baker University Natural Areas and Senior Professor in 2005. He retired from Baker in 2018 as Emeritus Professor of Biology after 42 years of service to the university. The quality of his teaching is reflected in number of awards including the Distinguished Faculty Award at Baker University and Environmental Educator of the Year (1990-1991) from the Burrough’s Audubon of K.C. He was always an energetic and well-organized teacher who loved interacting with his students, particularly in the field trips that were an integral part of his courses. He inspired generations of students to appreciate the value of conservation and for some to pursue careers in related fields.

In addition to a full teaching load during his time at Baker, Roger devoted a substantial amount of time and effort to memberships in 18 national and state professional organizations including the American Ornithologist’s Union, Society of Wetland Scientists, Kansas Natural Resource Council, Kansas Academy of Science and National Audubon Society. He provided leadership in the Kansas Ornithological Society as both Vice-president and President and on the Board of Directors. He also served as KOS representative to the Kansas Non-Game Advisory Council and the Bird Records Committee. His breadth of interests is shown in his time on the Board of Directors of the Kansas Wildflower Society and even a term on the State of Kansas Water Board. Never really retired, he worked with the US Forestry Service in developing and constructing a walking trail on the Ivan Boyd Prairie east of Baldwin City in 2020.

During the summers Roger had an active research program that entailed garnering funding from Western Resources, Jayhawk Audubon, Kansas Nongame Wildlife Program, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to study shorebirds and terns and make habitat improvements at the Baker Wetlands. His dedication to research resulted in over 70 publications in scientific journals such as the Journal of Field Ornithology, Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, KOS Bulletin, American Birds, Wilson Bulletin, and Technical Reports of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He also served as Co-editor of the Winter Bird Population Studies in American Birds and the Winter Bird Count in the Kansas Ornithological Society Bulletin.

An important component of his research was hiring Baker biology students as field assistants and teaching them how to conduct scientific research, analyze the data and write up and publish the results. Roger typically included those students as junior authors and made it a point to bring students along to meetings of the Kansas Academy of Science and KOS to present talks or posters on their research and listen to others presenting their research. Roger received the Baker Distinguished Scholarship Award in recognition of his research productivity. He was a Research Associate in Ornithology at the KU Museum of Natural History and participated in research expeditions to China and Paraguay. He always took advantage of workshops and symposia to increase his research skills and learn from others.

With all his accomplishments, it is easy to forget his dedication to the task of preserving the Baker Wetlands and turning it into a conservation treasure for the state of Kansas. At the celebration of Roger’s retirement in 2018, he made sure we remembered the 50^th anniversary of the Baker Wetlands. When Baker University acquired the property in 1968, all but 45 acres of the floodplain had been drained and tilled for pastures and crops. ,In 1970, with Clinton Dam under construction, Dr. Ivan Boyd, Roger’s father, decided that the area was unlikely to flood and began the process of reseeding native prairie plants and converting the area to native prairie. When Roger took over its management in 1990 he consulted with U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologists and determined that much of the property contained heavy wetland clays and could be restored as wetlands.by reversing drainage structures. The restoration began in 1991 and hundreds of man-hours later in 1995 it was completed with six impoundments and water control structures in place. Roger constructed a boardwalk for easier public access.

In 2013 construction of the eastern leg of the South Lawrence Trafficway was started and Roger and his son Jon worked with KDOT and contractors to design new wetland pools, and over 310 acres of wetlands were added with 70 acres of prairie, and 30 acres of woods. This increased the total protected area of the Wetlands to 927 acres. Roger and Jon didn’t drive the heavy equipment to create the depressions for the pools, but they did help put in the control structures and gathered hundreds of pounds of wetland plant seeds to sow around the ponds, conducted controlled burns on the prairies and used tractor mowers to control brush. They also collaborated with KDOT to allow construction of the Discovery Center, secured endowed funding for equipment for maintenance and personnel to maintain habitats and facilities. The red tape and hurdles along the way with city and county governments were frustrating, but they worked through them all and most of their dreams for the Wetlands were realized.

I hope you will agree that Roger is well deserving of the Conservationist of the Year award.