Member

Bob was born on February 1, 1941, in the prairie town of Madison, South Dakota, near where his parents, Glen and Mayme Streeter, operated a diversified farming operation. He developed an early interest in wildlife, observing the seasons, and the prairie wildlife while working with his father. He spent much of his childhood and free time on horseback, roaming around the wetlands and prairie remnants of Lake County. Pheasant and duck hunting were obligatory activities in this community! His parents left no question as to whether he would attend college. When a recruitment notice came from South Dakota State University outlining options that included wildlife management, Bob knew his chosen career had appeared. After graduating with a BS degree in wildlife management and conservation in 1963, and upon the advice and encouragement of his professor, Dr. Don Progulske, Bob accepted a research assistantship at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, to study under Dr. Henry S. Mosby. A course in plant ecology drew Bob away from Virginia to study elk winter range interactions in Yellowstone National Park with Dr. Duncan T. Patten. He graduated with an MS degree in wildlife biology in 1965 and moved to Colorado to work on bighorn sheep population dynamics under Drs. Fred Glover, Jack Gross, and Dwight Smith. Four years later, armed with his PhD degree from Colorado State University, he entered into active duty as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine to complete an earlier military obligation. The state of Colorado used the results of his research to modify bighorn sheep management of two populations in the state and to initiate a multi-year nutrition and disease study and management program. While in the U.S. Air Force laboratories, Bob conducted experiments on the effects of low oxygen and high carbon dioxide environments in space during the period of 1969 to 1972, providing key information that benefited astronaut survival in subsequent manned space flights that might experience such conditions. After the U.S. Air Force duty, he moved back to Colorado to become the assistant unit leader of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Colorado Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit. One year later, Bob moved to Washington, D.C., to become head of the Cooperative Wildlife Units’ program, supervising and providing support to the then 34 Wildlife Units located around the United States. The Service established the Office of Biological Services in 1974 to address the impacts of energy development, tapping Bob as manager of the coal research program. Through 1982 he led a west-wide research and development effort that identified where coal could be mined with minimal impacts on fish and wildlife, procedures to protect fish and wildlife during mining, and reclamation procedures for fish and wildlife habitats post-mining. In 1983, Bob established the Office of Information Transfer that served as a communications link between the research organizations and the operational field staff. He became part of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan in 1988 and was responsible for implementing the North American Wetlands Conservation Act in 1989. He became executive director in 1992, and was recognized for providing the vision and structure together with other private, state, and federal partners that has resulted in the most successful wetlands conservation effort. Bob was appointed assistant director for Refuges and Wildlife in 1995, leading the Service’s National Wildlife Refuge, Land Acquisition, Law Enforcement, Migratory Bird Management, and North American programs. Bob joined the Ducks Unlimited team in 1998 and established a new office in Fort Collins, Colorado, to develop a wetland conservation plan to guide future investments of Ducks Unlimited in Mexico and other parts of Latin America. Bob left Ducks Unlimited in 2000 and now enjoys life in retirement. Bob married Karen Johnson in 1964. They have two sons and four grandchildren. Bob attended Washington Biologists’ Field Club as a guest of Dr. Harvey K. Nelson in 1993 and was elected to membership in 1995.