Q&A with Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients Chris and Wendy Evans
Chris and Wendy Evans met in 1998 at Au Sable’s Pacific Rim Campus. Wendy also took courses at the Great Lakes Campus in 1997 and with Au Sable’s then-East Africa Program in 1997. Chris now serves as a Forestry Extension and Research Specialist at the University of Illinois, while Wendy cares for the family’s small farm and restoration prairie plot in southern Illinois and leads nature study groups for local homeschoolers. “Both of them have a real gift for getting other people excited about creation care and enabling them to feel comfortable and at home in the natural world,” wrote their nominator, Laurel Stoltzfus. Together they are recipients of this year’s Au Sable Distinguished Alumni Award.
What were your takeaways from your time at Au Sable?
Chris: I grew up in eastern Kentucky in the Appalachians. I’d never really been outside of that. It was my first time on an airplane, first time outside of the east. It was eye-opening to learn about the ecology of the area and meet a bunch of people interested in ecology and conservation.
I took away that conservation and concern with creation was a very Christian thing, and important to a lot of people. I had both of those realms in my life but they weren’t connected as strongly. I came away understanding that this is a viable way of living and thinking.
Wendy: It was interesting to spend a concentrated amount of time learning about the science with Christian professors. The level of expertise and love for creation and God that I saw in my professors carried me through graduate school where Christianity was not often seen as a viable way to be.
What was your journey like from college graduation to where you are now?
W: I graduated from Dordt University (Iowa), and after Chris was finished with undergrad at Murray State University (Kentucky), we got married and moved to go to Iowa State University. I got a masters in sustainable agriculture.
C: At the same time, my undergrad was in wildlife biology. But when I was a senior, I took a class in dendrology, the study of trees. I fell in love with the plant side of nature. I got my masters in forest ecology. I got a job with the University of Georgia as an extension specialist, working on invasive plant and insect species.
Eventually we came back to Illinois where we bought our little farm. I had a series of jobs, with nonprofits doing conservation forestry work and as a contractor with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources helping them write the Illinois Wildlife Action Plan. For the last 10 years I’ve worked at the University of Illinois as an extension forestry specialist.
What kind of research do you do?
C: I mostly research forest health issues. Illinois lies within the Central Hardwoods region, with oak- and hickory-dominated forest ecosystems. What are some of the management practices that are needed? And what can we do to maintain forest health and diversity of ecosystems? I help landowners who have forests meet their goals. I do anything from researching the use of prescribed fire, to developing management techniques to control invasive species, to dealing with problematic diseases with trees.
You’ve cultivated a five-acre farm for over 15 years. What’s going on there?
W: We’ve raised beef, and currently have sheep, pigs, and milk goats. We have some pasture we rotationally graze. We have often raised a garden.
We have four kids total and I’ve homeschooled all of them all the way through. The youngest is now 12. We’ve been very involved in our homeschool co-ops. They often need a science teacher, or a person who’s willing to lead hikes and teach people about forests and so on. That’s been me.
How does homesteading fit in with your vocation to care for creation?
W: A lot of it goes back to soil health and biodiversity and nutrient cycling, all things we learned about extensively in graduate school. The more we do with these things, the more deeply I understand how they work together and how we can implement that on our farm. We are taking care of a small area of creation but doing it thoroughly. We also have a beautiful area that’s a native prairie pollinator area.
“It’s been really amazing to see over the years how we’ve changed that system through planting trees, prairies, creating wildlife habitat, and managing it for diversity. It’s not even the same place anymore. It’s been a transformative process for the land we own and also for our family.”
C: When we bought our property about 18 years ago, it was just a monoculture of pasture grasses. It’s been really amazing to see over the years how we’ve changed that system through planting trees, prairies, creating wildlife habitat, and managing it for diversity. It’s not even the same place anymore. It’s been a transformative process for the land we own and also for our family.
Our kids have grown up seeing this change and seeing us work on the property and working with us on the property. They help burn our prairie and rotate our animals through the pastures. It’s not only what we’ve done to the land that has been really amazing. It’s how it’s been part of our kids’ lives as well to understand our role and responsibility to better the land.
What are lessons you’ve learned in caring for the land that might apply to readers stewarding less land?
C: One lesson is, just don’t wait. Start taking care of your land now. If we wait for the perfect ideas and timing, 15 years will go by and you haven’t done anything. Get on the ground and make changes.
Second, it doesn’t really take a lot of land to make a big difference. A small amount of native plants in your yard, or reducing your lawn, can be huge. We’ve seen everything from foxes, bobcats, coyotes, groundhogs, possums, raccoons, to all kinds of different birds utilizing our land. It’s really amazing the diversity. It can make a difference and provide a lot of habitat.
W: Plant a tree this fall!
Chris, you offer a lot of classes through the University of Illinois Extension program. What do you teach?
C: One of the initiatives I’m most excited about is our Beginning Forest Landowner Program. We’re targeting folks who have either purchased land recently or have never engaged in that part of their land but are interested in managing it.
We build a cohort of landowners that go through this yearlong course. It’s everything from how to identify trees to understanding your options as a landowner in deciding what you want to get out of your forest, whether healthy forest or income or some mix. Our goal is that by the end of the year, these landowners have the confidence, connections, and some of the skills available to them to start to manage their forests the way they want to. One of the most satisfying things is hearing from our graduates from that program: “I’ve got a forest management plan for the first time in my life.” “We did a prescribed fire on our property and we wouldn’t have been able to do that without you.”
I’m also a chainsaw instructor. We show people how to use chainsaws safely and effectively, the same thing with herbicides. I do prescribed fire trainings and teach at a bunch of other conferences as well.
How do you understand “conservation” after working so closely with the land all these years?
W: That’s been a disagreement in conservation circles ever since we’ve been in it. Do we keep humans away and keep the land pristine or integrate humans in management? There’s a lot of public land in southern Illinois. It’s really important to us to teach our kids how to use wild lands without abusing them. We hunt and fish with them, mushroom hunt, collect paw paws and persimmons. We’re very into wild food. It’s a way to cultivate a love for public land, and our own land too. We have a lot more influence with people who love the land intimately rather than loving it from a distance.
I remember one of the first things I learned at Au Sable: You need to learn the names of the animals and the plants. You need to become their friend. You need to know them well. Then you’ll love them in a real way and be an advocate for them.
I remember one of the first things I learned at Au Sable: You need to learn the names of the animals and the plants. You need to become their friend. You need to know them well. Then you’ll love them in a real way and be an advocate for them.
C: I agree completely. If you look at the land in the world, particularly in North America, pristine habitats are a very small fraction. It’s not enough to maintain our native species and wildlife. If you look at the working lands in our landscape—farmers’ properties, agricultural land—it can still be a working land for timber and crops, but now it’s a working land that has ecological value, with buffers to prevent erosion, wildlife habitat, and native species incorporated. That’s where we can start having influence in our landscape and making a difference for our ecosystems and native species.
I’ve been an appointee on the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission—a board that protects the highest quality, best ecosystems left in the state in perpetuity. It’s protecting the best we have left and improving the rest.
How have you grown in your faith as you’ve deepened your relationship with creation?
C: The more I understand about creation and our role in protecting, managing, stewarding the land, the more it’s deepened my faith. They’re integral to each other.
You pray all the time and the natural world prays with you.
W: Au Sable influenced me to see the plants and animals as friends. They’re also co-worshippers. We had a drought here this summer, which ended a couple days ago. To go out in the rain and listen to the soil sucking up the rain and see the flowers all bending their heads, it’s almost as if they’re praying in gratitude. You pray all the time and the natural world prays with you.
What does being a couple doing this together add to your work?
C: It enables it. It’s a journey that we travel together as a couple and even with our kids as a family. To me it’s the most important aspect—doing it together.
Anything else you want to share with the Au Sable community?
C. I just think it’s fun that we met at Au Sable and our daughter, Laurel, went to Au Sable after us. Our oldest son is also considering it. We’re passing it down to a different generation.
W: I just encourage everybody to go outside as much as possible. Take your kids outside. Take your dog outside. Just get outside.
