Watch him parse the sounds of the forest – bending his ear for the beat of a wing, squinting for each feathered clue – and it’s impossible to tell a line between work and play for him.

, a 91̽»¨ doctoral candidate at the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, has been working with Professor for the past few years, and his dissertation research focuses on changes in Western Washington bird communities because of localized deforestation and suburban development.

Yet as much time as DeLap has invested studying birds, it’s only one of his lifelong passions. The other is drawing.

And we’re not talking about doodling during a meeting.

DeLap started drawing as a small child. His father Tony DeLap is an artist and professor emeritus of fine art and architecture at the University of California, Irvine. DeLap initially followed his dad down that road, studying fine art at Pitzer College in California, and then at the Parsons School of Design in New York City.

His next stops, though, marked a gradual merging of his interests: studying scientific illustration at the 91̽»¨and then earning a master’s in wildlife biology from Colorado State University.

Now, as a 91̽»¨doctoral candidate, DeLap has found a perfect outlet for both passions at once. Not only does he get to study birds full time, but he’s also working as an illustrator for Marzluff’s upcoming book, “Subirdia” (Yale University Press, 2014) that will contain about 40 of DeLap’s drawings.

One of DeLap’s illustrations, for example, is a juvenile American robin with a tiny radio transmitter and antenna on its lower back. Among other things, the Marzluff lab studies the dispersal and survival of juvenile song birds like robins in suburban and exurban areas.

All the illustrations for Subirdia are being drawn freehand on a computer, although he also uses traditional ink and pencil to sketch. As a freelancer, DeLap draws wildlife and illustrations beyond birds and  offers freelance illustration services for other research and art projects.

All images © Jack DeLap

Traveling with , 91̽»¨professor of , the students explored forests of central and southern Oregon to consider how PNW forests have been dramatically altered by human activities in the last 150 years, and ways to possibly restore their resiliency to such things as wildfires.

For example, they visited the site of the 2003 B&B wildfire, so called because two different fires – the Bear Butte and the Booth – merged and together blazed across 90,770 acres in 34 days at a firefighting cost of $38 million. The class also got to explore dry forest restoration projects and a prescribed burn, as well as projects in moist forests harvested to create habitat for critters that depend on food-rich, sunny environments while retaining a few elements for animals that prefer older forests. They wrapped up with a visit to long-term ecological research sites, including a 200-year log decomposition study, and talked to the scientists who designed and maintained them.

At each stop, students met with a diverse spectrum of practitioners, stakeholders and policy makers, including silviculturists, scientists, tree sitters, a county commissioner and environmental advocates.

Dave Herman, a graduate student in environmental and forest sciences who was on the trip, took hundreds of photos, capturing a good taste of the Oregon adventure as the students camped alongside four rivers, swam and listened to a suspendered Franklin holding forth in the field and during fireside chats.

All photos © Dave Herman

The started work last August on a two-year project to  digitize those records and create an interactive geographic information systems map for the entire park. Eventually planners and visitors will be able to go online and pinpoint specific plants and collections within the arboretum, and access all sorts of historical details.

“People will be able to find an area in the arboretum, then zoom down and see which plants are there,” says , project manager and information technology librarian at the UW’s . “It will be really fascinating and educational to have all of that history linked to the plant records, and accessible online to everyone.”

One of the first tasks of the project was to begin surveying and verifying the geospatial coordinates of the 230-acre park, which decades ago was divided into 595 grid squares, each 100 feet by 100 feet. When those grid markers and coordinates are confirmed, they will be used to create a map that supports the geo-referenced database. Two- and three-person teams of students and staff have already been out surveying for the past couple months.

It’s a multitiered project, and Mehlin has been working closely with other partners at the 91̽»¨.

, director of 91̽»¨Botanic Gardens, is the principal investigator on the grant along with , a 91̽»¨professor of environmental and forest sciences. , a research scientist and engineer with the College of the Environment, has been helping coordinate the student survey crews and GIS mapping. 91̽»¨information systems engineer David Campbell is working on the searchable database and Web interface.

Others involved are helping with various projects, including digitizing the existing maps, as well as handwritten notes and histories attached to each of the park’s 10,000 “accessions,” plants that are part of the formal collection.  The 91̽»¨Botanic Gardens owns and manages the collection in the arboretum which is a City of Seattle park.

When completed, the searchable database will be a boon for environmental research, park management and visitors, Reichard said.

“The idea is that eventually you’d be able to get the coordinates of a particular collection, like our magnolias, and locate them on your cell phone or GPS unit,” she said. “We can start putting together virtual tours, and visitors can go from plant to plant.”

Awarded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the grant is expected to run through August 2014.