As many of you are now aware, on June 17, our dear friend and colleague Dr. Michael Soulé passed into the great unknown at age 84. His life was one of major scientific accomplishments, keen insights into the proper functioning of native ecosystems, and unbounded love for nature and students of nature.

Michael’s love and observations of natural processes began at an early age while exploring the back-country deserts, canyons, and water bodies of California and Baja California and progressed to earning a Doctorate in evolutionary biology and ecology from Stanford.

In addition to teaching and faculty duties at the University of California, University of Michigan, and in Samoa and Malawi, he did field research over the years in the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, Africa, and the Western U.S. Closer to his final home near Paonia, he did research early-on at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory at Gothic.

He later moved to the North Fork Valley where he was elected a member of the Board of Directors of the Western Slope Conservation Center and served on the Public Lands Committee.

As Michael consulted and lectured across the planet, he became more well-known as the founder and first president of the Society for Conservation Biology and a co-founder of the Wildlands Network, and is considered to be the “Father of Conservation Biology.”

Along the way, he managed to find time to write or edit 11 books and dozens of articles on everything from population genetics to the need to conserve alpha predators in order to prevent trophic cascades. But Michael also showed his students the need to utilize their scientific knowledge and skills to stand up to the current forces of willful ignorance and advocate for sound environmental policy and practice.

His numerous contributions to environmental science earned him many awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Wildlife Federation’s National Conservation Achievement Award, the Zoological Society of San Diego’s Conservation Medal, and the Edward O. Wilson Biodiversity Technology Pioneer Award. Audubon Magazine named him among the 100 Champions of Conservation of the 20th Century.

Ever the educator and mentor, Michael participated in public forums as recently as last year in Paonia, and initiated lively discussions with friends in the Scientists and Philosophers Friday lunches around the North Fork Valley.

Appropriately, Michael spent his final winter with his wife, June, in the wonderland of his youth, Baja California. Let us always honor and cherish our memories and the contributions of this giant of science, Michael Soulé.