Heidi L. Dunn

President
Malacologist/Aquatic Ecologist

      Ms. Dunn incorporated Ecological Specialists, Inc. in 1990 and is currently president of the company. She is dedicated to providing high quality service to all clients. Since 1990, she has successfully completed numerous projects involving fish, invertebrates, and unionid mussels throughout the midwest for management and regulatory purposes. She is active with several groups involved in management and protection of freshwater unionids; including the Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society (Treasurer; Chair-Guidelines/Techniques Subcommittee), Ohio River Valley Ecosystem-Freshwater Mussel Group, and Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee-ad hoc Mussel Committee.

      Ms. Dunn has been in the ecological consulting business for over 20 years. She has conducted faunal inventories, impact analysis, and licensing surveys in Missouri (Meramec, Missouri, Niangua, and Salt Rivers), Illinois (Embarras, Illinois, Kaskaskia, and Saline Rivers, as well as, smaller Wabash and Ohio River tributaries), Indiana (Mississinewa, Salamonie, Tippecanoe, and White Rivers), Kentucky (Rough River), Ohio (Muskingum and Little Scioto Rivers), Pennsylvania (Allegheny River), South Dakota (Missouri River), West Virginia (Elk, North Fork Hughes, Kanawha Rivers), Wisconsin (Chippewa, Mullet, St. Croix, Wisconsin, and Wolf Rivers), and throughout the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. She has also collected in the Green River, Barren River, and Licking River (Kentucky), Clinch River (Virginia), Duck River (Tennessee), and Chattahoochee River (Georgia).

      She is experienced with developing protocols for and conducting surveys, long-term monitoring, and unionid relocations, impact assessment, Section 7 (endangered species act) consultation, and regulatory agency coordination. Her primary interest is in large river and stream ecology, and her taxonomic expertise includes unionid mussels, aquatic oligochaetes, and fish. She completed her Master of Science thesis on unionid relocation and four years of monitoring in the Ohio River.