Prairie Research Institute

The institute has a combined total staff of more than 700 employees,[2] with facilities located on the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois, and field offices and research stations throughout the state.

Examples include impact and control of invasive carp,[5][6] Lyme disease vector ecology,[7] Illinois water supply quality and quantity investigations,[8] geologic carbon sequestration,[9][10] development of geospatial tools,[11] discovery and excavation of massive prehistoric settlements surrounding Cahokia in advance of new bridge construction,[12][13] persistence of estrogens in dairy farm wastewater,[14] electronics re-use to minimize electronic waste,[15] and monitoring atmospheric deposition of radioisotopes in North America following the Fukushima reactor incident.

[16][17] The institute is an important repository for many of Illinois' cultural and natural resource collections—whether archaeological, biological, and mineral.

[18] The INHS's biological collections include insects, crustaceans, molluscs, annelids, reptiles and amphibians, birds, mammals, algae, bryophytes, fishes, fungi, and vascular plants.

ISTC continues to be a catalyst for the development of more sustainable technologies, processes, and practices, and does this through an integrated program of research, demonstration projects, technical assistance, and communication.

[24] The Prairie Research Institute Library, formed from the merger of the State Scientific Survey libraries, holds more than 45,000 titles and 81,000 items on earth and atmospheric sciences, ecology, environmental science, environmental sustainability, natural resources, and natural history with an emphasis on the state of Illinois and the surrounding region.

In July 2008, the Institute for Natural Resource Sustainability was established within the University of Illinois to house four State Scientific Surveys (INHS, ISGS, ISWS, and ISTC).

The Board of Natural Resources was established to administer the Surveys, its members being the director of the new department, the president of the University of Illinois or designee, and appointed representatives of core disciplines of biology, geology, engineering, chemistry, and forestry.

[28] The Natural Resources Building, located on Peabody Drive in Champaign, was dedicated on November 15, 1940.

[31] In 1995, Governor Jim Edgar issued an Executive Order to restructure the state's environmental agencies.