Dale is retiring after an incredible 31+ years of continuous service to NatureServe (and The Nature Conservancy prior). Throughout his career, Dale has served as an encyclopedia of knowledge about moths, butterflies, bees and other insects. His work has made NatureServe’s data the go-to source for information about the conservation status of insects generally and all non-vertebrate pollinator groups specifically. Most recently, Dale has led efforts to publish landmark reports on the status, conservation, and management of some of North America’s most important pollinators: bumble bees, mason bees and monarch butterflies to name a few, that have positioned NatureServe as a leader in this high-profile field.

"Dale is a member of a rare fraternity of people who absolutely know the critters or plants that matter to them. They can identify these species in all of their life stages, often on the wing or from far away. They know where and when to find them. They know what their distributions are. They know when they reproduce, what they eat, what eats them. They can talk about a decades-old sighting of a particular species with as much detail as if it happened yesterday. Their passion for their chosen object of study knows no bounds. Nowhere was this knowledge more on display than at a workshop on population declines in Northeastern hawk moths we held last Friday at the Yale Peabody Museum," said Bruce Young, NatureServe's Director of Species Science. 

Biodiversity conservation owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to Dale. We wish him the very best in a productive and fulfilling retirement.