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2009
January 31 2009 Rescuers save man who slipped and fell 200 feet at Rim Village while attempting to retrieve a friend’s dropped cell phone. Kevin Harris, 26, of Glendale, Arizona was walking along the rim when his friend dropped his cell phone over the edge. While climbing down the slope, Kevin slipped and fell 200 feet. Ranger dropped him a safety line, but because of the danger had to wait nearly three hours for the Jackson County Fire District 3 rescue team to arrive and complete the rescue. (MT Feb. 1)
February 1 2009 Man rescued after Crater Lake tumble. Firefighters rescued a 26-year-old man who slid roughly 200 feet after trying to recover a friend’s cell phone that fell into the caldera at Crater Lake National Park.
Kevin Harris, who is stationed at the Oregon Air National Guard’s Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls, suffered only scrapes after sliding down the snow-covered slope Saturday. A battalion chief with Jackson County Fire District No. 3 told The Oregonian newspaper that Harris was fortunate to stop where he did. Another 20 feet and he would gone off the edge and into the water. A firefighter was lowered on a rope to meet Harris, and rescuers pulled the pair back to the top.
February 13 2009 PARK RANGER JOSEPH SPILLANE SURVIVES CRASH
A CRATER LAKE PARK RANGER SURVIVED A CRASH AFTER HIS PATROL VEHICLE WAS CRUSHED BY A SEMI TRUCK SOUTH OF KLAMATH FALLS.
THE ACCIDENT HAPPENED WHEN A SEMI TRUCK LOADED WITH APPLES LOST CONTROL ON THE ICY ROAD AND SLID INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC, TURNING OVER ONTO OFFICER SPILLANE’S PATROL VEHICLE. THE DRIVER, FROM INDIA, WAS CITED FOR CARELESS DRIVING.
SPILLANE WAS SERIOUSLY INJURED. HE WAS RETURNING FROM DUTIES AT LAVA BEDS NM. SPILLANE AND HE WIFE HAD RECENTLY TRANSFERRED TO CRATER LAKE FROM MOHOVIE PRESERVE AND HAD JUST SETTLED INTO HIS JOB AS A LAW ENFORCEMENT RANGER.
February 24 2009 Mercy Flights makes life-saving donation to Crater Lake Park
By Paul Fattig Mail Tribune
The old ambulance at Crater Lake National Park struggled mightily to respond to an emergency last year, but the steep grade was too much for the 1990 vehicle.
It broke down with a patient being transported in it. Fortunately, they were able to keep treating the patient until help arrived, but it was a wake-up call that they needed to replace the old ambulance,” he said.
The call was answered Monday with a donated ambulance from the Medford-based nonprofit Mercy Flights Inc. The 1999 Ford E-350 came with a spiffy new free paint job, complete with the park logo, courtesy of New Stage Collision in Medford. The park normally has more than two dozen calls for an ambulance each year, mostly during the summer.
People come up to Crater Lake who aren’t prepared for the lack of oxygen or the strenuous nature of getting around. But budget constraints don’t allow the National Park Service to purchase a new ambulance to respond to the medical emergencies which often come in the form of heart or respiratory problems, officials said.
The “new” ambulance was retired by Mercy Flights, which regularly upgrades its emergency vehicles, said General Manager Ken Parsons.
The Mercy Flights has four new ambulances on order, each costing a little more than $110,000, he said.
“For what they will be using it for, it is conceivable they could get another six to 10 years out of it,” Parsons said of the donated ambulance, which has about 170,000 miles on it. “It is mechanically sound.”
Known as a Type 1 ambulance, the donated rig is excellent for the job, said Maria Mackie, the fire program management assistant and an emergency medical technician intermediate at the park.
“Eventually, we’d also like to find the funding to get the park a new ambulance,” he added. “If we can secure funding for the park to buy a new ambulance and related equipment, then it would become a permanent part of the park’s budget.”
April 22 2009 Crater Lake receives $367,000 of a $750 million Stimulus Package to be spent on restoring and repairing National Parks nationwide. Crater Lake’s tiny share will go for: heating and cooling, and fire protection systems.
July 2 2009 Crater Lake visitor center gets boost
U.S. House appropriations bill includes $350,000 to finish an education building on the park rim, culminating years of effort By Paul Fattig Mail Tribune
The U.S. House of Representatives has included $350,000 in an appropriations bill to complete the design for a visitor education center on the rim of Crater Lake. The funding is necessary seed money for creating a state-of-the-art facility at Oregon’s only national park, said Jeff Allen, executive director of the nonprofit Crater Lake National Park Trust, which works to protect, promote, and enhance the park. The trust has been working for years to secure funding for the center. Creation of the center has bipartisan support from Oregon’s congressional delegation, he said.
“This is a big step,” he said, noting the bill marks the first time Congress has included funding for the project. “Since its founding in 1902 as the sixth National Park in America, Crater Lake has done without high-quality interpretive facilities. With this bill, we are taking a giant step forward to fix that oversight.”
The tentative plan calls for renovating the currently boarded-up 1928 “campers store” building to turn it into a visitor center covering some 5,000 square feet.
Cost of the construction, which would include a seismic upgrade, is expected to be $6 million or more, Allen said.
July 10 2009 Secretary Salazar Lauds President’s Intent to Nominate Jonathan Jarvis as Director of the National Park Service. By now you may have heard that the President and the Secretary of Interior have announced their intent to nominate me to be the Director of the NPS. I am humbled and honored to be considered for the Directorship. In order to serve, I must be confirmed by the Senate and those hearings have yet to be scheduled but I assume will occur before the summer is out .
Over the course of last nearly seven years as the PWR RD, I have had the opportunity to work with all of you: extraordinary people, consummate public servants, dedicated to the mission of the parks. The PWR is a gifted region, its parks, its people, the visitors, the partners, and the resources inspire me. I go to Washington better prepared to take on the challenges because of all I have learned from you.
Thank you and wish me luck!!
Jonathan B. Jarvis Regional Director
Pacific West Region
510-817-1304 Oakland
Note from Ron Warfield – Chief of Interpretation at Crater Lake during Jarvis’ tenure – July 16, 2009 – At the first potluck held to welcome John and Paula to Crater Lake, I got the distinct impression that I was talking to a future Director of the NPS. I remember saying so at the time, and he just smiled. Jon has the chutzpah to be a great director. (Ron is retired from interpretation at Mt. Rainier.)
July 15 2009 What wonderful news and what a truly wonderful person Jon is. We all loved him and Paula at Crater Lake and hated to see him leave us. But, Larry, didn’t you get the idea that he was really going places? The NPS will be in the best hands with Jon at the helm. Hank Tanski – Assistant Chief of Interpretation at Crater Lake during Jarvis’s time in the 1970s..
July 21 2009 ‘Sleeper’ fire awakens at Crater Lake Lightning-caused fire had been smoldering the past two weeks By Paul Fattig Mail Tribune A “sleeper” fire sparked by a July 3 lightning storm in the Crater Lake National Park has awakened, jumping to nearly 150 acres.
The 143-acre Whitney fire, burning about 10 miles north of Crater Lake near the Umpqua National Forest boundary, apparently had smoldered for two weeks before exploding to life on Friday when it mushroomed by about 100 acres.
The fire was discovered Thursday by a helicopter crew checking on the 100-acre Desert Ridge fire, which also was started from the July 3 lightning storm, Isaacson said.
“It was decided we would manage that fire as a natural fire for forest health,” he explained, referring to a park service program in which fire is used as part of the natural process to improve forest health by permitting low-intensity burns to consume brush and small trees without torching the larger trees.
The agency decided to fight the Whitney fire because it was close to the forest boundary as well as the north entrance to the park, he said.
“We also wanted to focus on the natural fire, make sure it was a natural process,” he said of mimicking Mother Nature’s way of removing competing vegetation from established forests.
Wildfire allowed to burn in Crater Lake park
Firefighters have almost contained one of two wildfires burning north of Crater Lake but plan to allow the other fire to burn itself out as it runs out of vegetation in a pumice desert.
July 21 2009 Helicopter tours proposed around Crater Lake. A Bend company has proposed offering helicopter tours around the lake, but first the park wants to evaluate how the noise affects the silence some people seek there.
Ah, the solitude of Crater Lake National Park. The piercing whistle of the hoary marmot. The gentle warble of the mountain bluebird. The throaty roar of a 650-horsepower Bell helicopter …?
That last sound could come to Oregon’s only national park as early as next summer if a proposal by Bend-based Leading Edge Aviation is approved by the National Park Service and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Depending on your point of view, the thought of helicopters zipping around the 1,943-foot-deep lake is either a great way to get a unique view of the lake during a $149 half-hour flight or the latest in a series of threats to Oregon’s dwindling wild and unspoiled areas.
“It’s embarrassing enough that we have only one national park and so little protected wilderness in Oregon,” said Erik Fernandez, wilderness coordinator for Oregon Wild, a nonprofit environmental group.
“Desecrating the experience at Crater Lake with helicopters buzzing around would be tragic,” Fernandez said Tuesday. “Most Oregonians are surprised to learn that Crater Lake isn’t fully protected but rather that it’s being threatened by the buzzing of helicopters as well as chain saws and bulldozers on the doorstep to the park.” But the company that wants to conduct 300 flights a season said don’t get your Gore-Tex in a knot.
Travis Warthen, a Leading Edge vice president, said helicopter tours are well established at places such as the Grand Canyon, North Cascades National Park and Mount St. Helens. The helicopters would not fly directly over the lake, and flights would be restricted to the lake’s northeast rim.
“We would be far away from the visitor center — an RV on the rim road would generate more noise,” Warthen said.
Warthen said the flights would carry four to six passengers and would stay at least 1,000 feet above the ground. Most of the 300 flights would occur between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends; other flights would depend on demand and the weather.
“The rim road on that side is closed in the winter, and we’d be no louder than the sound of two people talking,” Warthen said. “But it’s open to snowmobiles, and the impact from them is way more than it would be from our helicopters. It’s spectacular in the winter.”
Flights would take off from Beaver Marsh State Airport 14 miles northeast of the park boundary, and would take routes designed to “maximize the view of the park for all occupants of the helicopter while minimizing the impact on other patrons,” according to the company’s June 3 proposal.
Total flight time inside the park boundaries would be 10 minutes for a 30-minute flight ($149); 20 minutes for a 40-minute flight ($169); and 30 minutes for a 50-minute flight ($199).
Park Superintendent Craig Ackerman said parks officials will help the FAA evaluate the proposal, according to The Associated Press. The park also will look at the effect on northern spotted owls and peregrine falcons, he said.
Opponents of the idea would be happy to see flights stay away from Oregon’s crown jewel.
“I am not pleased to hear about it,” said Greg Reddell, board president of Friends of Crater Lake National Park. “The park is about being respectful of nature. It’s a place for quiet and peacefulness, a place for a walk. I don’t think helicopters would be helping the park.
July 22 2009 FAA: Years to consider Crater Lake helicopters The Federal Aviation Administration says it will take “several years” to consider a Bend, Ore., company’s application to offer helicopter tours over Crater Lake National Park.
FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer (KEN-itz-er) said Wednesday they have a backlog of 85 national parks where air tour management plans have to be developed.
Sea of Silence by Joaquin Miller
Crater Lake was called “The Sea of Silence” by Joaquin Miller:
“The lake?” wrote Joaquin Miller in the Sunset Magazine, 1904 “The Sea of Silence? Ah, yes, I had forgotten—so much else; besides, I should like to let it alone, say nothing. It took such hold on my heart, so unlike Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, when first seen, that I love it almost like one of my own family. But fancy a sea of sapphire set around by a compact circle of the great grizzly rock of Yosemite. It does not seem so sublime at first, but the mote is in your own eye. It is great, great; but it takes you days to see how great. It lies 2,000 feet under your feet, and as it reflects its walls so perfectly that you can not tell the wall from the reflection in the intensely blue water you have a continuous unbroken circular wall of 24 miles to contemplate at a glance, all of which lies 2,000 feet, and seems to lie 4,000 feet, below. Yet so bright, so intensely blue is the lake, that it seems at times, from some points of view, to lift right in your face.”
August 3 2009 Small fires continue to pop up across Southern Oregon after the weekend’s Thunderstorms. 14 new fires developed from 400 lightning strikes in Crater Lake National Park alone.
August 8 2009 Tigard runner forgets his shoes in first attempt at marathon and 33 Years later since first CRLA Rim Run.
Rim Run Winners:
Men: 6.5 miles, Dave Ellison, Klamath Falls, Oregon 37.28
13.0 miles, Bruce Manboyl, Crater Lake, Oregon 1:21.25
26.2 miles, Frank Shields, Chiloquin, Oregon 3:28.21
Women: 6.5 miles, Nancy Kurth, Klamath Fall, Oregon 52.46
August 8 2009 Wilderness proposed By Paul Fattig Mail Tribune
Several environmental groups are proposing a new wilderness area blanketing Crater Lake National Park and stretching some 75 miles from Crescent Lake south to Highway 140 at Fish Lake.
The proposed Crater Lake Wilderness, covering some 450,000 acres, would ensure the “quiet beauty” of Crater Lake would be protected. The proposed area, which would include the park and embrace the Sky Lakes Wilderness, Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness and the Mount Thielsen Wilderness, would create more wilderness connectivity. “When we look at Oregon, we think of ourselves as a green state, but only 4 percent is protected as wilderness and only one national park,” Fernandez said. “We have a responsibility to future generations to do better.
“This would not include roads, the lodge or other developed areas — just the backcountry up there,” he added. “Crater Lake, Mount Thielsen, Mount Bailey and the headwaters to Rogue and Umpqua Rivers surrounding the park are the crown jewels of the southern Cascades,” Fernandez said. “We owe it to our children and grandchildren to protect the wildlands around these areas forever as a haven for Oregonians who seek natural beauty, freedom and opportunities for quiet recreation.”
They also requested that U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, introduce legislation to create the new wilderness. Wyden announced his opposition to helicopter tours over the park during a Senate hearing late last month to discuss the future of the park service with Jonathan Jarvis, a longtime park service employee who is the nominee to head the agency.
Summer 2009 Prince Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco, spends several days at Crater Lake. As a youngster Albert was a camper and later a counselor for six summers at Camp Tecumseh, New Hampshire in the 1970s. Albert is an enthusiastic sportsman, participating in cross country, javelin throwing, handball, judo, swimming, tennis, rowing, sailing, skiing, squash and fencing. He competed in the bobsled at the 1988, 1992, 1994, 1998, and 2002 Winter Olympics.
Prince Albert’s visit of several days was so much different from last summer’s visit by the King of Jordan. Prince Albert’s visit was very low key. He stayed in the lodge. The boats were broken down, but he did make it to Wizard Island where he climbed to the top and went swimming in the Lake. No security. Had 8 people with him. Four of them were former Olympic Gold Medalists.
Albert has made it a goal to visit all 50 states. His Oregon trip was one his last unvisited four.
Superintendent Ackerman stated: He speaks very good English.”
Prince Albert called the Park first, stating that he was a scientist and wanted a boat ride, but eventually came clean as to whom he was.
Prince Albert has fathered a girl and a boy by different women, but because the kids are illegitimate, they have no claim to the Monaco throne. Prince Albert married former South African swimmer Charlene Wittstock on 1 July 2011. On 10 December 2014, Prince Albert, age 56, and Princess Charlene welcomed their first and second child, twins Gabriella Thérèse Marie and Jacques Honoré Rainier.
Sept/Oct. 2009 Planting Whitebark Pine in a Parking Lot – Several years ago it was discovered that hundreds of ancient whitebark pines were dying along the Rim of Crater Lake from a combination of white pine blister rust and mountain pine beetles and 60 years of snowplow blasting. In response to this threat biologists began collecting cones in 2003 from blister rust resistant trees. These seeds were germinated at the Dorena Genetic Resource Center. A total of 523 seedlings were planted at CRLA in the fall of 2009. 331 of the seedlings were planted in the old 1920 vegetatively restored Rim Village Parking lot. Large rocks were placed near the trees to add protection from the elements. The remaining 192 seedlings were planted on an undisturbed site below the rim. (Report from park ecologist Laura Hudson)
September 25 2009 WASHINGTON, D.C.
Jonathan Jarvis confirmed as director of National Park Service.
Has experience with West Coast national parks Jon Jarvis, a 30-year veteran of the National Park Service, and who has served since 2002 as regional director of the agency’s Pacific West Region where he was responsible for 54 national parks in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Nevada, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands of Guam, Saipan and American Samoa, is the new director of the NPS, confirmed Thursday by the U.S. Senate.
“America’s National Park System is a gift from past generations to this and succeeding generations. I look forward to working with [Interior Secretary Ken] Salazar, the Congress, our partners, and the extraordinary employees of the National Park Service as we prepare for the next century of stewardship and excellent visitor experiences,” says Mr. Jarvis.
Mr. Jarvis has served as superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park in Ashford, Wash., Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho, and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve in Alaska. A trained biologist, he was also chief of natural and cultural resources at North Cascades National Park.
Jon Jarvis, the recently confirmed director of the National Park Service, agrees there’s a need for more wilderness in the National Park System.
“I’m a big proponent and supporter of wilderness designation in national parks. I think it raises our standards, it sets the very highest of land protection within national parks as well,” he told the Traveler last week. “I was early in my career very active in helping draft the legislation and drawing the boundaries for North Cascades (National Park) when the Washington parks wilderness bill was passed in 1988, designating wilderness in (Mount) Rainier, Olympic and North Cascades.
I also rewrote the original 1970s wilderness proposal at Crater Lake when I was the park biologist there.
“So some of these things (national park wilderness designations) have just languished for many years.
I have a deep and abiding affection for wilderness, not only wilderness designation, but wilderness management as well,” added the director. “And I think sometimes we expend too much of our energy on the designation and not enough on the management side of wilderness as well. It is going to be an area of emphasis of mine as director.”
October 2 2009 Jonathan B. Jarvis. Sworn in as the 18th director Oct. 2, 2009, by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. He began his National Park Service career as a seasonal interpretive ranger on the National Mall in 1976. Jarvis is a Virginia native and graduate of The College of William and Mary. Served as Pacific West Region Director 2002-09 where he was responsible for 54 national parks in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Nevada, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands of Guam, Saipan and American Samoa and community revitalization programs that serve those states. He previously served as superintendent of Mount Rainier and Wrangell-St. Elias national parks, and Craters of the Moon National Monument. Other career positions: protection ranger, resource management specialist, park biologist, and chief of natural and cultural resources.
October 2 2009 From: Ronald Mastrogiuseppe [m13cli@yahoo.com]
To: Jon Jarvis
Subject: Well-earned Congratulations In Order
In these miracle days of the Mobile Internet, we are happy to Congratulate you as 18th NPS Director.
Since you last visited Crater Lake for the Science Center Dedication in August 2006, more ancient whitebark pines have died along the west Rim Drive. Visitors first meet whitebark pines at prime Lake View Points. Dr. Diana Tomback, Director of The Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation, recently visited and was impressed with this year’s seed cone crop; however, research needs to be better funded to discover genetic resistance to Asian Blister Rust. We are assisting in this effort including art jigsaw puzzles and bookmark educational whitebark pines in peril materials for park visitors.
All the five-needled pines of your familiar parks including North Cascades, Mt. Rainier and Craters of the Moon are dying from Asian Blister Rust.
We believe you are the first Director to have worked with Crater Lake natural resource projects. We sincerely wish you the Best in health, and happiness with your new responsibilities,
Ron Mastrogiuseppe, Director
Crater Lake Institute
541-810-3944
http://www.craterlakeinstitute.com/ and whitebarkfound.org
October 3 2009 From: “Jon_Jarvis@nps.gov”
To: Ronald Mastrogiuseppe <m13cli@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Well-earned Congratulations In Order
M13! Thanks for the note. We will be rebuilding our science program, so stay tuned.
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld
Jonathan B. Jarvis
Director National Park Service
202-208-3818
October 1 2009 From: Rouse <jsrouse@fidalgo.net>
To: Jon Jarvis <jon_jarvis@nps.gov>
Subject: Congratulations
From Jim Rouse, CRLA Supt. (Aug. 1978 to Apr. 1984)
who brought Jon Jarvis to Crater Lake, 1983-86, as Resource Management Specialist. Jim Rouse remains interested in CRLA Wilderness Proposals.
Congratulations and Best Wishes on your selection to be our new Director.
There is no doubt in my mind that you will do an outstanding job, and that your skills and capabilities are exactly what the National Park Service needs. I know that you have the confidence of the NPS employees and can call on any and all to assist you in the challenges ahead.
Did you see that Kelly Bush and Jerry Cook, both at North Cascades were featured in the article on “Fire Lookouts”, in the recent National Parks magazine.
I continue to keep close contact with M-13 and others of the Crater Lake Institute. They are an effective voice to Crater Lake and I am pleased to work with them.
Again, my best wishes, and if there is ever anything that this old has been can offer, don’t hesitate to ask. Sincerely, Jim Rouse
October 1 2009 From: Jon_Jarvis@nps.gov Sent: Thursday, October 01, 2009
To: “Rouse” <jsrouse@fidalgo.net>
Subject: Re: Congratulations
Thanks Jim, great to hear from you. Long way from Crater Lake and the rangers! Great to see the article on NOCA and Kelly and Gerry. Hope you are well. (Jim Rouse hired Jon Jarvis at CLNP)
Jon
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld
Jonathan B. Jarvis
Director National Park Service
202-208-3818
October 30 2009 A $32.2 billion Interior Department appropriation bill approved by Congress and sent to the President contains $350,000 for a visitor center at Crater Lake. The appropriation will allow the NPS to start the renovation of the boarded up 1924 camper store into a 5,000 square foot visitor center. Total cost will run about $20 m.
November 4 2009 Jon Jarvis pledges major role in climate change.
CLIMATE: NPS director pledges major role in tackling global warming effects
Environment and Energy Daily Noelle Straub
The National Park Service will play a lead role in educating the public about climate change and developing a strategy to address its effects, Director Jon Jarvis pledged yesterday.
“Parks are reference markers upon which we can measure the effects of climate change,” Jarvis testified at a hearing of the Energy and Natural Resources National Parks Subcommittee.
From reduced snowpacks in mountain parks and resulting impacts on species like wolverines and lynx to coral bleaching in marine parks, the effects of climate change have already been documented throughout the park system, Jarvis said.
In response, Jarvis said, the agency will focus on three major areas in
developing its climate change strategy: mitigation, adaptation and
communication.
The agency wants to “lead by example” on mitigation and reduce parks’ carbon footprints, Jarvis said. The agency has set a goal to exceed federal requirements for reducing energy use in NPS operations and having a portion of park energy come from renewables by the agency’s 100th anniversary in 2016.
The key to NPS efforts is developing “a very robust science program,” Jarvis said, noting that he appointed the first-ever NPS science adviser.
Jarvis said the Park Service does not currently need additional authorities to handle its climate change challenges. But he said within three or four years, some amendments to NPS management policies might be needed.
As Pacific West regional director, Jarvis ordered the 56 parks he oversaw to be carbon-neutral in time for the agency’s centennial in 2016. But yesterday he said the agency was reconsidering whether it could meet that goal.
The Park Service must focus on assisting the movement of species inland, possibly establishing corridors for wildlife to migrate.
November 2009 Legislation prepared for expanding Oregon Caves National Monument from 400 acres to over 4,000 acres. Joseph Vaile, campaign director for the Ashland-based Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, which has been lobbying to expand the monument, isn’t surprised the parks service
“The park service has a general management plan that calls for expansion,” he said. “What was surprising was the fact they wanted to wait in the last hearing. It’s something they’ve clearly studied. They’ve been proposing expansion since 1939.”
The agency has proposed expanding the Oregon Caves monument three times, first in 1939, again in 1949, and most recently in 2000. President Taft created the monument on July 12, 1909.
But Vaile believes the Forest Service is dragging its feet to delay the change in federal ownership.
“The Forest Service is doing everything it can to try to scull this,” he said. “But the reason this is happening is because the Forest Service has done a pretty lousy job of managing that area for years.”
November 20 2009 From Stan Geiger, summarizing his years of Crater Lake research <annsstang@verizon.net>
I’m pleased to receive the CLI research award because it is an acknowledgment of serendipity as much as it is original exploration of the drifting algae of an amazing Oregon lake. About the serendipity. My work at Beak Consultants, Inc. since 1974 had been total immersion in freshwater algae, particularly the drifting algae (phytoplankton) of the Columbia River Basin. When Doug Larson approached me in 1979 to assist him with the identification of algae in samples from Crater Lake that he had gotten himself on his own time during the summers of 1978, 1979 and 1980, I knew that I was in for a very unique experience. I was ready for this work (that was all done after the close of business for both of us) and with what Doug had done to obtain the samples, he could not be denied. The idea of characterizing the algae within 200 meters of the lake surface in water that was so different from the Columbia River was very appealing. People who have never had the pleasure of observing these very small but very important organisms to us will have difficulty understanding this source of satisfaction for me. It is truly exotic work.
Characterizing these drifting organisms that could turn sunlight into more life was useful in what the findings implied about the effect of these algae on the transparency of Crater Lake water. The diminished transparency of the lake since Doug did his PhD research on Crater Lake in the 60’s suggested some new sources of food for the algae in the lake were causing their numbers to increase and interfere with the light. The work was also useful in creating a debate about how there should be changes in the way the lake is monitored. At the end of my work in 1983 after producing Pilot Photo Atlas: Crater Lake Phytoplankton, Crater Lake, Oregon I had had the pleasure of identifying, quantifying and documenting these algae from 1979 – 1983. This was a nitch afforded to me through Doug’s appeal and my acquiescence in 1979 that I treasure. I had only seen Crater Lake in Doug’s aerial photos of the lake that he gave me. I still have one of the photos next to my microscope. The first time I saw the lake was after an Oregon Lakes Association meeting at Diamond Lake Lodge. I drove over to the west rim at night – a clear night sky filled with stars – and after waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness I saw the lake and Wizard Island in starlight. Were the stars as beautiful as the algae in the lake that I had been privileged to see? Hardly. Stan
December 15 2009 Greg Funderburk, 37, Park Fire Management Officer, and Cory Wall, 30, Park Dispatcher, are struck by an avalanche while climbing Castle Crest below the Park’s telephone reflector. Cory safely evades the snow slide, but Greg is swept down slope several hundred feet. Greg is rolled beneath the boiling snow until he hits a tree growing on the edge of a lava cliff. The avalanche of snow continues on over the edge, leaving Greg caught in the tree. Greg is able climb down with Cory’s assistance, but does spend four days in the hospital while being treated for a separated pelvis. Complete recovery takes several months.
December 2009 Visitation for the year: 446,512 visitors
December 2009 Fiscal year budget: $5,400,000
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