Similar to some of the things that the NPS had to do in 1980 after the passage of the Alaska lands bill.
Probably so. People were not used to law enforcement presence up there at that time. In addition, there was not a lot known about Glacier Bay, so we had the pleasure of exploring.
You did a lot of the survey work?
For example, we went into one bay, which according to the Coast and Geodetic Survey chart, was mostly under glacial ice. This was Adam’s Inlet and it was completely free of ice. This was where we found several thousand molting Canada geese which nobody, except fishermen and prospectors (who never reported them), knew about. As a result of this discovery, the NPS and USFWS started a cooperative banding program after we left. We spent two and a half years doing survey’s at Sitka/Glacier Bay. I say “we” because my wife and family were very much involved in this work.
Barbara: We went to Glacier Bay with him and lived either on the boat or in a little cabin on as island.
In February of 1995 I got in an avalanche above Sitka, on Harbor Mountain. Later that year, in late November or December, we moved down to Joshua Tree National Monument where I became the first permanent park naturalist. There were other ranger there, however. Chuck Adams (park ranger) and Les Earenfight (chief ranger) were certainly much more knowledgeable about the desert flora and fauna than I was.
Was that a lateral or did you go up in grade?
I got promoted from a GS-7 to a GS-9. Really getting way up there, I thought!
