Michael J. Bean, J.D.

Research

Michael J. Bean is principal deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks at the U.S. Department of the Interior. He is responsible for providing policy direction and oversight to the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. From 1977 until he joined Interior in 2009, he was head of the Wildlife Program of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), where he became known as a leading authority on the Endangered Species Act, particularly on the use of incentives to engage private landowners in conserving rare species. With his Pew funding, Bean supported the Aquatic Biodiversity Initiative at EDF. The objective of the project was to avert imminent losses of biological diversity and put in place policies, programs, and institutions that anticipate and avoid critical problems. He also funded a pilot study to develop a conservation strategy for the long-leaf pine/wiregrass ecosystem that creates economic incentives for its conservation by private landowners in the Sandhills of North Carolina. Bean also used Pew funds to address the problem of lead poisoning in waterfowl created by ingestion of lead fishing sinkers. He served as part-time director of the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation from 1994 to 2001. A 1973 graduate of Yale Law School, he has served on the Board of Resources for the Future, the Environmental Law Institute, and the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of The Evolution of National Wildlife Law, the third edition of which was written with Melanie J. Rowland in 1997. He has also written dozens of articles, essays, book chapters, and reviews on conservation topics. To learn more about Bean, visit his bio online: https://law.ucdavis.edu/centers/environmental/files/BeanBio.pdf.