Michael Dombeck

Dombeck also served as UW System Fellow and Professor of Global Conservation at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point from 2001 to 2010.

[3] His research included studies on the movement, behavior, reproduction, and early life ecology of the muskellunge, Wisconsin's state fish.

His research led him to become Program Chairman of the 1st International Muskellunge Symposium held in 1984 with proceedings published by the American Fisheries Society.

[7] He described himself as a "combat biologist" due to his conflicting attitudes with the majority of other agency employees, who he saw as excessively concerned with road-building and engineering rather than environmental conservation.

[7] At the beginning of the George H. W. Bush administration, Dombeck was assigned as Special Assistant to the Director of the Bureau of Land Management[8] and later was named Science Advisor.

[13] Under Dombeck's leadership, the roadless rule was developed, which protected 58 million acres of the most remote national forest lands.

The rule began as an 18-month moratorium on road construction, then was made permanent as a result of activism and email campaigns by environmental advocates.

After retiring from federal service, Dombeck took a position as Professor of Global Conservation at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and was later named UW System Fellow, where he served from 2001 to 2010.