Bob Hamilton is the Director of the Tallgrass Initiative for The Nature Conservancy in Oklahoma. His conservation career has been focused on the protection and management of our native grasslands in the context of working landscapes, and restoring the natural ecosystem dynamics (grazing and fire) that are needed to preserve our natural heritage. Bob attended Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas, where he obtained a B.A. in biology, and Emporia State University, where he obtain an M.S. in biology. Bob has worked for The Nature Conservancy since 1982 in various conservation and stewardship positions, starting in the Dakotas. Since 1988 he has been with TNC’s Oklahoma program, and played a role in the planning and creation TNC’s 40,000-acre Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. He served as Preserve Director from 2008-2022, when he directed all aspects of the Preserve’s land protection and conservation programs, with special focus on the Preserve’s 2,000 bison, leading the prescribed burn program (1035 burns on 435,000 acres to date), research partnerships that produced several hundred peer-reviewed publications, and served as TNC’s Fire Manager for Oklahoma and Kansas. He has authored/co-authored 29 scientific publications on grassland ecosystem restoration, bison ecology, and conservation planning in the Flint Hills ecoregion. In his current position as director of the Tallgrass Initiative, he directs TNC’s land protection programs in the tallgrass prairie region of northeastern Oklahoma, utilizing conservation easements with private landowners to preserve the unfragmented, native prairie landscape of the Flint Hills.
