FORMER FOREST-SERVICE CHIEF TO DELIVER ROTHENBERG LECTURE

Mike Dombeck, who headed the U.S. Forest Service during the Clinton Administration and was hailed by the National Wildlife Federation as "a living, breathing conservation hero," will deliver this year's Bernard Rothenberg Lecture in Biology and Public Policy. His talk is titled "U.S. Conservation Challenges: Are We Making the Right Policy Choices?"; it will take place on Thursday, Oct. 28, from 4 to 5 p.m. in B21 Carpenter Library. The lecture, sponsored by the Department of Biology, the Center for Science in Society, and the President's Office and is free and open to the public. A reception in the Quita Woodward Room will follow the talk.

When Dombeck took the helm of the Forest Service, many saw the agency as an ally of the timber industry, and his efforts to change the goals of the Service from commodity production to ecosystem health made him a controversial figure. He presided over the development of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which barred road construction in areas of national forests where roads had not already been built. President Bush suspended this rule, which was bitterly opposed by many conservative senators from Western states, on his first day in office.

Dombeck, who holds a Ph.D. in fisheries biology, started his career with the Forest Service in 1978. In 1989 he began serving as science adviser and special assistant to the director of the Bureau of Land Management, and he became the acting director of the bureau in 1994; he remained there until his appointment as Forest Service Chief in 1997. His work at the Forest Service won him broad acclaim from environmentalists; among his numerous honors are a National Wildlife Federation National Conservation Award and a Presidential Rank Award as a Distinguished Executive.

Dombeck continued to pursue scientific research and writing throughout his career as a government executive. He has authored, co-authored and edited numerous popular and scholarly publications, most recently the book From Conquest to Conservation: Our Public Lands Legacy (Island Press, 2003). He also continues to make frequent national and international scientific presentations. He now serves as the Pioneer Professor of Global Environmental Management and University of Wisconsin System Fellow of Global Conservation. He is helping to lead the planning and development of the Global Environmental Management Education Center at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

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