Former National Park Service Chief Rob Wallace Honored With Conservation Award

Rob Wallace credits his grandfather for instilling in him a passion for conservation, and now Wallace is set to be honored for his life’s work in that field. 

Wallace is one of the recipients of the 15^th annual Murie Spirit of Conservation Award, which will be presented Tuesday by the Teton Science Schools, where Wallace once served on the board of directors.

“It was quite a surprise and an honor when they told me about that,” Wallace told Cowboy State Daily.

‘We Selected Just The Right Person’

Born in Cheyenne and raised in Evanston, Wallace served as assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior — overseeing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service — during the first Trump administration.

Wayne Turner, Teton Science Schools executive director, told Cowboy State Daily that he informed Wallace about the award over lunch recently. 

“It was great conversation. I think I stunned him,” Turner said. "He was noticeably stunned. He’s not normally a speechless person, so when he was speechless, I knew we had selected just the right person."

Wallace shares the award this year with Amy McCarthy, chief executive officer of the Teton Raptor Center.

The awards will be presented at the historic Murie Ranch near Moose, Wyoming. 

Proud Of The Kelly Parcel Work

Wallace said he was inspired early on by the dedication that his grandfather, George Brimmer, had for conservation and public access to open spaces. 

Brimmer played a pivotal role in the Wyoming State Park Initiative during the 1920s and 1930s, Wallace said. 

He said that legacy motivated him over a lifetime of conservation projects.

One of Wallace’s proudest moments came with completion of the sale of the 640-acre Kelly Parcel in Teton County, which secures the parcel for public access. 

“That didn’t just happen. It took people with work ethic and vision to put that together,” he said.

A ground-up, organic effort involving a broad range of people made the Kelly Parcel sale a success, Wallace said. 

Those sorts of grassroots efforts are what works best for conservation, he added.

“I love it when it bubbles up from the bottom to the very top. It’s a very powerful movement,” Wallace said.

“Open space is in the DNA of almost every citizen of Wyoming,” he added.

Coalition Builder 

Wallace is a great choice for the award because he’s humble, persistent and knows how to form a coalition around a common goal, said Doug Wachob, co-chair of the Teton Science Schools’ board of directors. 

"That’s the kind of person we look for. We’re not looking for people who are strident advocacy-based people, but who are more collaborative people, and that’s where Rob just shines," Wachob told Cowboy State Daily. 

“We need that, we need that kind of person who is thinking about how to best use but also conserve our natural resources, added Wachob.

He’s crossed paths with Wallace in the conservation realm. 

They served together on the advisory board of the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming. And they were also on the board of trustees for the Wyoming Chapter of the Nature Conservancy. 

Noted Wyoming outdoorsman Paul Ulrich worked with Wallace on a number of conservation projects, and said Wallace deserves recognition for all he’s done for Wyoming.

“It’s extremely well-deserved. Rob has been a champion of conservation in Wyoming for decades,” Ulrich said.

“Rob’s always been willing to do what it takes on the ground to make Wyoming a better place,” Ulrich added. 

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.