WASHINGTON, DC—On April 25, former Forest Service Chief Michael P. Dombeck was inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame in recognition of his lifetime of service to the cause of conservation. As Chief (1997-2001), he helped reorient the Forest Service from its traditional focus on short-term outputs of timber and other commercial goods to a focus on long-term outcomes from healthy, resilient forest and grassland ecosystems, including clean and abundant water, opportunities for outdoor recreation, and more.

Dombeck grew up in a small Wisconsin town within the boundaries of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. While growing up, he spent countless hours fishing, hunting and wandering the woods. By age 15, he was guiding tourists on fishing trips, later earning the nickname “Muskie Mike” for his exceptional knowledge of muskellunge, Wisconsin’s state fish. Dombeck’s love of the outdoors led him to pursue degrees in biology, zoology and teaching from the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point and the University of Minnesota and a doctorate in fisheries biology from Iowa State University.

Dombeck first joined the Forest Service in 1978 as a fisheries technician, later serving as a fisheries biologist on the Hiawatha National Forest in Michigan and in several other positions before becoming the Forest Service’s national fisheries program manager. In 1989, he spent a year as a LEGIS Congressional Fellow working in the Senate before taking positions as special assistant to the Director of the Bureau of Land Management and as science advisor in the U.S. Department of the Interior.

In 1994, Dombeck was named acting director of the Bureau of Land Management. As director, he worked closely with Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas (1993-1997) to integrate ecosystem-based approaches (initially known as new forestry) into federal land management. Together, the two leaders oversaw implementation of the Northwest Forest Plan, which designated millions of acres of federal land in the Pacific Northwest as late-successional reserves with habitat protections for endangered species such as marbled murrelet and northern spotted owl.

After being named Forest Service Chief in 1997, Dombeck worked with agency leaders to focus the Forest Service on long-term outcomes on the land—healthy landscapes and watersheds. Dombeck oversaw the Forest Service’s adoption of a natural resource agenda with four focus areas: watershed health and restoration, healthy forest and grassland ecosystems, sustainable outdoor recreation, and a sustainable system of forest roads. Under his leadership, the Forest Service adopted the Roadless Rule of 2001, protecting about 58 million acres of roadless areas across the National Forest System. As Dombeck put it, “We stopped building new forest roads we can’t afford into areas that don’t need them.”

A strong proponent of civil rights, Dombeck appointed Hilda Diaz-Soltero as the first female (and Hispanic) associate chief. Dombeck inherited a heavy backlog of civil rights cases, and he formed a special team to handle them. Operating like an incident management team on a wildfire, the team reduced the backlog to a reasonable workload.

After leaving the Forest Service, Dombeck spent time in academia at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point and the David Smith Post-Doctoral Conservation Research Fellowship Program. He has authored, co-authored or edited over 300 articles and books. Among his numerous distinctions is the highest award in career federal service, the Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive, bestowed by President George W. Bush in 2001.

Throughout his career, Dombeck focused on the importance of conserving water, connecting people to the land, and keeping wild places wild. One of his personal heroes is Aldo Leopold, who also started his career with the Forest Service and finished it by teaching and practicing conservation in Wisconsin. Leopold wrote, “Who is the land? We are, but no less the meanest flower that blows.”

Dombeck stands in that same tradition of conservative land stewardship—of keeping “every cog and wheel,” as Leopold put it.