Michael P. Dombeck

MICHAEL DOMBECK (1948 – )

Conservation is nothing if not about choices—choices left for future generations.

–Michael Dombeck

 

Michael Dombeck is one of the most respected and renowned contemporary conservationists. From rural Wisconsin to the national scene and back home again to teach and mentor others, Dombeck’s influence as a leader and conservationist is far-reaching.  He dedicated a quarter of a century to managing federal lands and natural resources with an impact on nearly 500 million acres of public lands.  Dombeck is the only person to date to lead America’s two largest land management agencies—the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. He is most recognized for forging partnerships and crafting policies that integrated economics, science, and watershed protection to manage federal lands in the long-term public interest. Following his federal service, Dombeck brought his experience back to the classroom to share with students, early-career scientists, and a variety of national and local conservation organizations.

Dombeck grew up wandering the woods, lakes, and streams of rural Sawyer County where his parents owned a small country store. This exposed him to diverse members of the Moose Lake area east of Hayward, Wisconsin. Raised in the traditions of hunting, fishing, and trapping, he spent countless hours of his youth immersed in outdoor pursuits. By age 15, he began taking tourists fishing and later earned the nickname “Musky Mike.” His love of the outdoors, fish and fishing led him to pursue undergraduate and master’s degrees in biology and teaching from UW-Stevens Point and zoology from University of Minnesota. In 1984, he earned a PhD in Fisheries Biology from Iowa State University. His ground-breaking research on spawning habitat and early life history of Wisconsin’s state fish, the muskellunge, remains relevant and valuable.

Dombeck began his federal service in 1978 as a Fisheries Technician with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and gradually worked up the ranks to become a primary architect for integrating aquatic and fisheries protection and recreation policies on management of the 193 million acres of national forests across the United States. In 1989, Dr. Dombeck’s career took him to the Department of Interior where he once again climbed the ranks to become Science Advisor and later Acting Director of the Bureau of Land Management. In this role, he created a long-term vision for advancing ecosystem management, watershed protection, and watershed restoration. Always with an eye toward people and their roles, his weekly letter to employees ended with “thank you for what you do for the health of the land.”

In 1997, Dombeck returned to the USFS as Chief where he led the development of a national resource agenda for the agency focusing on watershed health and restoration, recreation, sustainable forest management, and a long-term forest roads policy including the controversial Roadless Rule in 2001 which protected 58 million acres of the most remote national forest lands from road building and other development.

After returning to Wisconsin from Washington, D.C., Dombeck took his experiences to the classroom as University of Wisconsin System Fellow and Professor of Global Conservation at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point from 2001 to 2010. Dr. Dombeck also served as the Executive Director of the David Smith Post-Doctoral Conservation Research Fellowship Program (2005 – 2021) training and mentoring nearly 100 post-doctoral, early-career scientists in conservation. The fellowship program emphasized leadership, creativity, and the power of positive working relationships.

Dombeck has authored, co-authored, and edited over 300 popular articles and scholarly publications including the books Watershed Restoration: Principles and Practices, From Conquest to Conservation: Our Public Lands Legacy, and The Business of the Conservation Nonprofit. Dombeck has earned numerous honors and awards for his achievements and leadership in natural resources including the highest award in career federal service, the Presidential Rank—Distinguished Executive Award. Throughout his career he remained focused on the critical importance of water, connecting people to nature, and keeping wild places wild.

Resources

(Special thank you to: UWSP History major Mason Holz and with the guidance of Brad Casselberry Director of UWSP Archives for the following resources.)

MD CV-updated Oct 2022

Speeches
From Commodity to Community: A Common Sense Approach to Understanding
Ecosystem Management (Speech at Penn State October 17, 1995)

Land Conservation (Roadless Speech) January 5, 2001.

A Gradual Unfolding of a National Purpose: A National Resource Agenda for the 21st Century (March 2, 1998)

The BIG TEN Public Land Conservation Challenges for a New Century: Where Do We Go From Here? (University of California, Berkley November 13, 2001)

 

Written Pieces

Into the Woods (April 21, 2001 by Phil McCombs)

Letter to USDA Secretary Ann Veneman, March 25, 2021

Wisconsin’s Forests: Destroyed, Now Reborn (January 5, 2023)

Conservation Leadership (Letter to All Employees, July 1, 1998)

Turning Back the Clock on Protecting Alaska’s Wild Lands (March 13, 2018)

Former Chief Dombeck inducted into Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame (April 26, 2023, by the US Forest Service)