Dr. Orie L. Loucks (1931-2016) was a noted ecologist, environmentalist, researcher, and
professor. He is known for his work as a professor of environmental science at UW-Madison
and at the University of Miami in Ohio, director of the Holcomb Research Institute, and
expert witness in the 1968-1969 trial against DDT in Wisconsin.
Orie Loucks was born on October 2, 1931 on the family farm near the town of Minden in
Haliburton County Ontario. The second son of Albert Vinton Loucks and Letitia Emily (Hunter)
Loucks, Orie developed an early love for forests and nature which he maintained throughout
his adult life. In 1949, he entered the University of Toronto, School of Forestry where he
earned a Bachelor's Degree in 1953 and a Master's Degree in 1955. While on campus he became
Managing Editor of the university's newspaper The Varsity, where he met Elinor Jane
Bernstein; the two married in October 1955, the same year that Orie was offered a research
position with the Canada Department of Forestry in Fredericton New Brunswick. During this
period Loucks applied to study plant ecology under John T. Curtis at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, which the Forestry Ministry allowed under the stipulation that Loucks
would continue his work mapping the biomes of the Maritime during the summers while taking
classes the rest of the year. Loucks earned his PhD in May 1960.
In 1962, following the death of John T. Curtis, Dr. Loucks assumed a faculty position at
UW-Madison and emigrated to Wisconsin, where he earned the rank of Associate Professor in
1964 and full Professor in 1967. On October 28, 1968, the Environmental Defense Fund and a
local group, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin, filed a petition with the
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to have the pesticide DDT declared a water
pollutant effectively banning its use in the state. Orie worked with these groups and other
UW scientists to present the petition at an administrative hearing that began December 2. He
was selected to testify last of 27 PhD's to summarize the petitioner's case. His skillful
testimony earned him a 'Page One Citation' from The Capital Times and he is credited with
assembling the pieces linking DDT to reproductive failure in wild birds. This successful
banning of DDT in Wisconsin in June 1969 was viewed as impetus for a nationwide ban three
years later.
In 1969, Dr. Loucks conceived the Lake Wingra Study (Madison, WI), which utilized a
multidisciplinary approach to obtain a complete picture of the inner workings of a lake
ecosystem and the impact of human activity. Continuing his efforts in ecosystem
preservation, in 1972 he worked with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the
International Joint Commission to negotiate the first Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement
between the United States and Canada. He continued to help shape the agreement and managed
to get a section on persistent and toxic substances added to the agreement when it was
amended in 1978.
In 1978 Dr. Loucks moved away from UW to the Holcomb Research Institute at Butler
University in Indianapolis. Working initially as Science Director of The Institute of
Ecology, he later became Institute Director beginning in 1983. In 1989 Dr. Loucks joined the
Miami University Department of Zoology, as Miami University's first Ohio Eminent Scholar,
where he was given generous latitude across the campus to form multidisciplinary teams. He
worked with Professor Ray Gorman of the Business School to develop a landmark course in
Sustainability. He used the course to co-write the text book Sustainability Perspectives for
Resources and Business with Dr. Gorman, and continued a program of groundbreaking research
on forest decline in the Appalachians and southern Ohio until his retirement from academia
in 2002.
Dr. Loucks was a prolific writer all his life and was invited to write chapters and essays
in more than 80 books. Of particular note are the chapters "In Changing Forests, A Search
for Answers" in An Appalachian Tragedy, and his own account of the DDT trial presented in
Chapter 7 of Patient Earth.
Most of this information is taken from an obituary written by Orie's son Eric Loucks
