Robert Michael Pyle studied butterfly conservation at the Monks Wood Experimental Station in England as a Fulbright Scholar, leading to his founding of the Xerces Society in 1971. Xerces is now the largest pollination protection team in the world. Pyle earned his Ph.D. at Yale University, where he investigated Lepidoptera eco-geography and conservation under Charles Remington. Later he worked for the government of Papua New Guinea on giant birdwing butterfly conservation and was Northwest Land Steward for The Nature Conservancy. Bob has since been active in the conservation of monarchs, Northwest wilderness and forest protection, and reconnecting children with nature.

A professional writer for many years, Bob lives and studies butterflies in southwest Washington. His twenty books include the John Burroughs Medal-winning Wintergreen; Rambles in a Ravaged Land; The Thunder Tree: Lessons from an Urban Wildland, which Richard Louv has credited as an inspiration for Last Child in the Woods; the epic road-trip narratives Chasing Monarchs and Mariposa Road, and the recent collection of poems, Chinook & Chanterelle. His latest book is Through a Green Lens: Fifty Years of Writing for Nature. A Guggenheim Fellow, Pyle has received a Distinguished Service Award from the Society for Conservation Biology, and recently has been named an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society.