Rob Lee

Region: Panhandle

Topics: Birds, Oil & Gas, Wildlife, Poaching, Smuggling, Biology, Warden, Rehabilitation, Science
 

Trained as a biologist, Rob Lee was a Special Agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Law Enforcement, based in Lubbock, Texas. A winner of the 1998 Guy Bradley award, which recognizes outstanding law enforcement contributions to conservation, Mr. Lee is best known for his ten-year effort to eliminate waste oil hazards to migratory birds in west Texas, which had contributed to the deaths of millions of songbirds, waterfowl, shorebirds and raptors caught in the sludge of over 1200 un-netted open oil pits, a loss that exceeded the Valdez spill impacts. Mr. Lee also participated in the prosecution of defendants involved in pronghorn antelope killings, rare insect smuggling, burrowing owl poisoning, and gamebird poaching.

Outside of work, he has served on the board of the South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, which provides care to orphaned, ill, injured and displaced wildlife, as well as offering environmental education to the community.

Interviewed

October 12, 2002
Lubbock, Texas
Reels 2239, 2240, and 2241