nterior People: A Look at Department Employees

Baca NamedInterim Director

Sylvia V. Baca

has beennamed the InterimDirector of the Bureau ofLand Management bySecretary Babbitt. Shesucceeds Michael P.Dombeck, who headedBLM as Acting Directorfor two and one-halfyears before leaving theagency in January to

become Chief of the U.S. Forest Service in theDepartment of Agriculture.

Baca had been serving as deputy assistant secretaryfor Land and Minerals Management—the Interiordivision that oversees the BLM, as well as theMinerals Management Service and the Office ofSurface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. Shewill return to that post after the confirmation of apermanent BLM Director.

“Sylvia Baca has worked closely with the BLM andwith the states and communities served by theagency and has earned a reputation as aknowledgeable, skilled, and energetic manager,”Babbitt said. “We are very fortunate she has agreedto lend her talents and energy to the managementof this important agency until a permanent directoris sworn in.”

Prior to joining the Department two years ago, Bacawas director of finance and management for theCity of Albuquerque, New Mexico. She received aBachelor of University Studies in 1981 and a Masterof Public Administrationin 1989 from theUniversity of New Mexico.

“It has been a pleasureworking with MikeDombeck and having himas a member of theInterior team,” SecretaryBabbitt said. “Over thepast few years, Mike hashelped shape thePresident’s forest plan, implemented a newmanagement strategy to protect and restore salmonand steelhead habitats on public lands, and led theinterdepartmental wildland fire policy review.”

Assistant Secretary Frampton LeavingGeorge Frampton, Interior’s assistant secretaryfor parks and wildlife, has announced hisresignation, effective on February 14. “I’ve beendoing the same kind of issues for ten years withouta vacation,” Frampton said. “I have two teenagesons, and I want to spend some time with them.”

Secretary Babbitt praised Frampton’s work, whichincluded restoration of the Florida Everglades,conservation planning in coastal California, andusing Exxon Valdez oil spill funds to buy fragilehabitat around Prince William Sound in Alaska.“His knowledge and skill will be greatly missedhere,” Babbitt said. Frampton, a trial lawyer activein environmental litigation, was president of theWilderness Society before coming to Interior.

Intergovernmental’s Turner Resigns Leslie Turner, counselor to the Secretary, directorof Intergovernmental Affairs, and the formerAssistant Secetary for Territorial and InternationalAffairs resigned January 10. During her tenure asassistant secretary and as a member of theDepartment’s Reinventing Government Team,Turner successfully reorganized the Department’smanagement of territorial and international affairs,reducing costs and improving the deleivery of theseservices. She is returning to the law firm of Aikenand Gump and will specialize in Pacific Rim issues.

In the minds of most Americans, Uganda stillevokes images of a tumultuous civil conflict in the1970-80s. But Jim Siegel recalls a lush rollinglandscape of farms, canopied rainforest, andsavannas stretching to the horizon. He sees LakeVictoria, the Rift Valley, and the RwenzoriMountains—habitat for some of the rarest and mostbeautiful wildlife in the world.

Before the civil war, Uganda was one of the premierwildlife tourist destinations in Africa, with suchworld-acclaimed protected such as Queen Elizabethand Murchison Falls National Parks. QueenElizabeth National Park was once reputed tosupport the greatest population of large herbivores(mostly elephant, hippo, buffalo) of any place in theworld. During the war years, those wildlifepopulations were decimated for food, commerce,and sport.

“Those chaotic times are part of the past,” saidSiegel, who spent several weeks last fall trainingUgandan wildlife wardens in techniques formonitoring biological resources. “Ten years of peace

and stability have lead to an improved economy andbetter conservation of the country’s amazingwildlife resources,” said Siegel, a wildlife courseleader at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’sNational Conservation Training Center in WestVirginia.

As part of its national conservation and sustainabledevelopment efforts, Uganda has begun rebuildingthe national environmental agency—the UgandaWildlife Authority—and restoring the national parkand game reserve system.

“Uganda’s Rift Valley represents the great meetingof the East African savanna and the West Africanrainforest, one of the world’s foremost hotspots ofbiodiversity,” said Siegel, who hopes to return toUganda to help conserve its unique naturalheritage.

Siegel recounts his experiences, the role Interior isplaying in Uganda’s rebuilding effort, and thechallenges facing that nation’s wildlife preserves onpages 6-7.

Restoring Uganda’s Parks and Reserves

Jim Siegel, above right, worked withother Interior instructors, Ugandanwildlife officials, and U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers, above left, aspart of U.S. Government project to help Uganda rebuild its national park and game reservesystem. Interior instructors Jeff Shryer ( front row left) and Dave Vekasy (back row left) conduced parkinterpretive training. Siegel writes about the experience on pages 6-7.

Harry Dalton, Hollywood’s versionof a U.S. Geological Surveyvolcanologist, was investigatingseismic episodes in a small PacificNorthwest town when he becamealarmed by the evidence he foundaround a long dormant mountain—the kind of activity that precedes acatastrophic volcanic eruption.

Though his colleagues doubted histheories and questioned hisevidence, Dalton enlisted the townmayor to help him convince hisdoubting supervisors and theunbelieving townspeople of theimminent danger.

Dante’s Peak explodes across the screen, as themovie ads proclaim, in February, starring PierceBrosnan as the heroic Interior employee whosaves hundreds of lives by his courageous action.While the film is a special effects fiction, it isanother indication that Hollywood and the nationalmedia have tapped a rich vein at Interior—thephysical dangers many employees face in carryingout their everyday jobs and the need for great gobsof courage to face the expected and unexpectedrisks.

Last year, a made-for-TV movie featured fictionalsmokejumpers, but the dangers of that job are no

fiction to thousands of Interiorwildland firefighters who riskedlife and limb last summer and falltrying to save people’s homes andproperty as well as the nation’snatural resources during thelargest wildfire season in 30 years. The all-too-real dangers faced byBureau of Land Managementrangers, wildlife biologists, parkrangers and police, and otherInterior law officers also have madenational headlines over the pastfew years.

Much of the work Interior doesinvolves danger from natural and

human sources. And Interior employees often putthemselves in harm’s way to help others, as part oftheir jobs and sometimes even when they are noton the job. They disregard their personal safetyand face grave risks to help co-workers, completestrangers, and the people who visit the nation’sparks, refuges, and recreation areas. Though itmay not be listed in the job description, Courageat Work is an indispensable asset for many Interioremployees.

At a December 9 convocation, Secretary Babbitthonored Interior employees for their courageousand heroic actions and their distinguished serviceto the Department and the nation.

Valor and Excellence:

Courage at Work

The stories behind the 1996 Valor and Distinguished ServiceAwards are told on page 4.

Michael P. Dombeck

Sylvia V. Baca

and Their Work

National Park Service interpreters like to get intotheir work—to live the history they relate tovisitors. So when interpreters at the San JuanNational Historic Site in Puerto Rico, a U.S.commonwealth in the Caribbean, learned that areplica of an early American sailing ship wascoming to visit, a serendipitous exchange tookshape.

“It began with a fortuitous conversation withRanger-Historian Scott Sheads of Fort McHenryNational Monument in Maryland,” recalledDeborah Rehn, an architect at the San Juan Site.“The Pride of Baltimore II, was coming to port inSan Juan harbor to rest and rejuvenate the crewbefore the last home stretch of their Europeantour,” Rehm said. The 1812 Baltimore Clipper is theState of Maryland’s goodwillambassador to the world.

Rehn informed Mark Johnson,the chief of interpretation at SanJuan. Johnson thought that asail on the ship would be anexcellent way for his staff tolearn first hand about thedifficulties of navigating asailing vessel in and out of SanJuan harbor. He also realizedthat he had been Sheads’instructor in an NPS HistoricWeapons & Black Powder OfficerTraining program in 1990.

With the support of San JuanSuperintendent Ping Crawford

and an invitation from the Pride’scaptain, Jan Miles, Johnson and hisgroup of interpreters and park guides setoff for an afternoon sail with the crew ofthe clipper. After Captain Milesexplained historic sailing ship andnavigational terms, Ranger Sheads talkedabout the construction of the ship, andChief Johnson reviewed the primaryharbor battles and pirate activities ofthe period in which this type ofvessel would have participated.

Finally, with the trade windsblowing, the group experienced firsthand the wind shadow of El MorroCastle—a 16th century Spanish fort guarding the

entrance to the bay—on departing andentering the harbor.The team learned howmuch effort isrequired to manuallyraise and lower sails,and the complexitiesof steering this type ofship in a narrowchannel. The “crew”also experienced thenecessity of teamworkin accomplishing achallenge.

San Juan NationalHistoric Site thenhosted a torchlight

Hardwiring History

Lucky San Juaneros are ready to help sail the Prideof Baltimore II. From left, in front row, Joel Acevedo,

Deborah Rehn, Rosanna Weltzin, Milagros Alvino,Laura Roman; Back row, Mark Johnson, Jose L.

Duran, Jorge Acevedo, John Cancel, DavidBocanegra, and Carlos Carrasquillo. Above, the Prideat sea with all sails flying. Photos by Scott Sheads.

Paul Winegar, Southeast Field Area

Bringing a massive labyrinth of 400-year oldfortifications into the computer age was no smalltask. Doing it without damaging the site’s historicalfeatures was even harder, but helped to preserve apremier example of colonial Spanish architecture.

Fort San Cristobal and El Morro Castle at San JuanNational Historic Site are some of the oldestcultural resources in the National Park System. Thefort—El Fuerte de San Cristobal—was begun by theSpanish in 1625. It lies at the east end of thefortifications which protected Old San Juan and SanJuan Bay on Puerto Rico’s northeast coast. Castillode San Felipe del Morro (El Morro), begun in 1540,stands guard west of the city at the entrance to thebay. The Historic Site also has 14 million square feetof City Walls surrounding the original city andnumerous other structures.

The site’s managers decided that networking thepark’s 22 personal computers was the best way toimprove communication in the park, the Caribbeanarea, and with National Park Service support groupsthousands of miles away. A team of NPSprofessionals was called in and successfullyinstalled the first of its kind and most up-to-datesystem in the southeast field area. MarkHardgrove, Assistant Superintendent at San Juan,spearheaded the effort to reduce paperwork,improve communications between parkmanagement and staff, and optimize the use of theexisting computers.

NPS offices are located throughout the park,literally from one end of Old San Juan to the other,a distance of about a mile. The park managementheadquarters is at Fort San Cristobal and the officesare housed in historic officer’s quarters andcasemates. The administration offices (personnel,purchasing, and cultural resources) are in a historictwo-story Spanish colonial building located outsidethe fort.

Hardwiring the computers between the twolocations was a major challenge. The management

offices in the fort lie on top offive historic solid masonrycisterns, while theadministration offices outsideare down the hill, below thecisterns. The vaulted stoneand brick tanks, built in1774, are filled by rainrunoff from the plazaabove. Each can hold2,400 gallons of water.Two are still in use foremergency watershortages.

Facility Manager Angel Diaz,who directed the wiring of thesystem, had to take into account anyeffect it might have on the historicfabric of the structures and avoiddamaging these cultural resources. Thesolution was to run cables along the wallthrough one of the 57-foot long cisterns andinto existing conduits to the offices in the fort andthe administration building outside.

First, wires were pulled in each of the two locationsand run through existing conduits to telephoneoutlet boxes in each office. Next, NPS maintenanceworkers Richard Negron and Carlos Quintanadonned life vests and flippers and entered thecisterns. They worked from a plywood platformmounted on a truck tire inner tube, a new form offloating scaffolding! Their on-the-job maintenanceexperience and recreational snorkeling skills camein handy. Henry Lopez, the maintenancesupervisor, monitored their safety.

After the wiring was completed, the wallconnections were installed by a local computertechnician. Dawn Bosh of Everglades NationalPark and Wayne Martorana of the Gulf CoastSystem Support Office then arrived on-site tocomplete the networking process.

At theother end of

the Historic Site,park maintenanceoffices located in El

Polverin, the powdermagazine on the

grounds of El Morro,required another solution. Because of the

distance between El Morro and the office complexesat Fort San Cristobal, computers in the parkmaintenance division use a remote setting and aretied to the network through the public telephonesystem.

The park now has 22 IBM compatible computerswhich can communicate directly through cc:mailwithout the need for dedicated phone lines. Theserver software is Microsoft Windows NT, theworkstations operate on Windows 95 and 3.1.1 forWorkgroups completes the operating system.

Elba Vega, the system administrator, credits MarkHardgrove and the Dell and Microsoft TechnicalAssistance people for her knowledge. The project’sfinal stage will train all staff to use the system’s fullcapabilities. DOI Net will soon provide the parkimmediate access to everything from purchasing toproperty to personnel.

Paul Winegar is the Public Affairs Officer for theNPS, Southeast Field Area in Atlanta, Georgia.

Sailing To San Juan

Aerial view of fortress San Felipe delMorro, San Juan National Historic Site.

tour of El Morro, opening many closed areas of thefort for the captain, his crew, and the families ofpark staff. The tour included a living historypresentation by the San Juan “crew” of interpretersthat brought the fort to life. The captain and crewof the Pride were presented a plaquecommemorating this historic exchange.

The project offered mutual enrichment. Tentativearrangements have been made for future exchanges.This was the fourth visit of the Pride to Puerto Ricosince the vessel was launched in 1988. For a copy ofRanger Scott’s report from the Pride of Baltimore II,check out the Pride of Baltimore II World Wide Webhomepage at http://www.4impact.com/pride

Submitted by Deborah Rehn, an architect at SanJuan National Historic Site.

... recognizeindividuals,supervisors,managers, andorganizationsdemonstratingexemplary serviceand commitmentin strengtheningand promoting theDepartment’s EqualOpportunity Program.

Lori Windle, of the Office of Surface Miningand Reclamation Enforcement, received theEmployee Achievement Award.

Horace Clark, of the Office of the Solicitor,received the award for Long-Term Achievement.

F. Eugene Hester, of the National BiologicalService (now the USGS Biological ResourcesDivision), was honored with the ManagementAchievement Award.

The Wyoming State Office, of the Bureau ofLand Management, received the award forOrganizational Achievement.

And the Departmental Special EmphasisObservance Committee received the SpecialEmphasis Achievement Award.

...are presented to Interioremployees who havedemonstrated unusual courageinvolving a high degree of personalrisk in the face of danger. The act ofheroism is not required to be related toofficial duties or to have occurred at the officialduty station. Recipients receive the everlastinggratitude of the people they save and the gratefulthanks of the nation they serve, as well as a citationsigned by the Secretary and an engraved gold medal.Matthew A. Lysakowski and David W.Norenberg, Sr. The Bureau of Reclamationofficers faced escalating danger from a severelydepressed man wielding a 14-inch carving knife andthreatening to commit suicide by jumping from thetop of Hoover Dam. Lysakowski and Norenbergtalked the man out of jumping, disarmed him, andresolved the situation without resorting to deadlyforce. The two-hour confrontation took placeOctober 10, 1996 on a busy highway that spans thetop of the dam. The threatening situation stoppedtraffic and endangered motorists and passersby.

James W. Hendley II, U.S. Geological Survey,saved a woman at Point Reyes National Seashore,when she panicked while climbing the sheer face ofa cliff. Hendley positioned himself on the nearvertical rock face above the woman, directed herhusband and another man to anchor his legs, andplaced himself at significant risk of falling morethan 50 feet onto sharp rocks below by allowing thewoman to grip and hold his arm while Hendleydirected her to hand and foot holds that enabledher to climb off the precipice.

Gary E. Peeples, Jr., Fish and Wildlife Service,saved a family caught in a riptide at Pea IslandNational Wildlife Refuge on June 28, 1995. Peeples,a student intern, entered the dangerous waterswithout hesitation and swam to a father who wasattempting to keep his two daughters above watersas they were swept out to sea.

Peeples brought one daughter to shore, while thefather assisted with the rescue of the other. Peeplesswam back out to the mother, who had been carriedfurther out to sea, and brought her to safety. Hethen immediately returned to his duties at theVisitor Center. The father, David Ellison, reportedthe rescues, saying the family might have perishedwithout Peeples’ unhesitating and unselfish acts ofbravery.

James L. Detterline, National Park Service, savedthe lives of two visitors who had fallen into theRoaring River at Rocky Mountain National Park onAugust 12, 1995. Ranger Detterline entered theriver to stabilize the two adults while rescueequipment was being set up. The victims had beenin the frigid waters for more than 30 minutes andwere barely clinging to a rock about 15 feet abovethe lip of 75-foot high Horseshoe Falls.

Detterline slipped twice trying to reach the couple.On his third attempt, the victims—unable to holdon any longer— unexpectedly lunged at Detterlinewho exhibited tremendous strength and courage byholding onto them long enough for rangers on theshore to pull them to safety.

Richard Scott Evans, National Park Service,

rescued three individuals on Lake Namakan atVoyagers National Park. The snowmobilers had beenstranded overnight without food or shelter in minus25-degree weather when Pilot Evans spotted themfrom the air. Surface conditions on the lake wererough with windblown hammocks and patches offresh snow.

Evans made several touch-and-go landings tosmooth out the hummocks and test the surface ofthe lake to ensure that the plane would not bogdown in the slush. He then landed and took offthree times carrying the victims to safety one byone.

Michael Fellner, National Park Service, rescuedtwo people in imminent danger of drowning off ofRiis Park at Gateway National Recreation Area.Lieutenant Feller, of the Park Police, swam out tothe victims with a life saving ring, first helped aman reach the safety of nearby buoys, then swam toa woman who was in a state of panic, reassured herin her native Spanish, andbrought her to shore with thelifesaving ring.

Jack Finley, National ParkService, helped to save two co-workers following the crash of afully-fueled CH-47 helicopter thathad been fighting the BlackwellFire near McCall, Idaho, on

September 23, 1994. Finley, who was the ParkService observer/ground liaison officer on thehelicopter, remained aboard the burning aircraft tohelp put out two fires. He then helped a crew chiefwho had been injured in the crash to get out of thehelicopter, warned people on the ground away fromthe wreckage, and reentered the smolderingfuselage to locate the second crew chief.

Randall K. Flanery, National Park Service, savedthe life of a 12-year old boy who had been sweptinto the freezing Queets River in Olympic NationalPark. Seeing the accident, Ranger Flanneryimmediately entered the river—in full uniform—swam 35 yards downstream in the swiftly flowing,snow melt-swollen river, and found the boysubmerged in a deep pool at the confluence of theQueets and Sam Rivers. Flannery pulled the boy’shead out of the water, calmed the scared,disoriented, and combative victim, and pulled himto safety.

Richard P. Martin, National Park Service,recovered the driver of a submerged vehicle, whichhad run off a road and plunged into a rain-swollencreek outside Chickasaw National Recreation Areaon May 26, 1994. Before divers and rescueequipment arrived at the accident scene, Martin,with a rope tied around his waist, swam to themiddle of the creek through a swift current andrepeatedly dove 15-feet to the vehicle until he hadfreed the victim.

Daniel R. Mason, National Park Service, single-handedly convinced a suicidal man with twohandguns to surrender on January 8, 1996, atOlympic National Park’s Lake Crescent. Theintoxicated and severely depressed individualthreatened suicide and waved a cocked .44 caliberpistol several timers during a 30-minute face-to-face confrontation with Ranger Mason, who not onlydisarmed the man but also convinced him tovoluntarily surrender.

Theodore D. Ondler, James W. Pilgrim, BobB. Quarles, Cameron S. Shaw, Benita S.Smith, and Val K. Urban, all Fish and WildlifeService employees, rescued numerous residents ofthe of Florida Gulf Coast during a major winterstorm that struck the area March 13, 1993.Hurricane force winds and an 8-foot storm surge ona high tide caused rapid flooding that trappedthousands of these residents, many of them elderlyretirees and many with medical conditions thatcould have deteriorated and proven fatal had theynot been rescued.

Acting independently without the benefit of acentral command post, and at great personal risk,these employees faced hurricane force winds,intense wave action, freezing temperatures, windand water tossed debris, downed electrical lines,and broken gas lines to reach the flood victims inboats and bring them to safety. All of the employeesrisked capsizing, collisions, and drowning, as well aselectrocution and explosions in performing theselife-saving operations.

4

Interior’s Valor Award recipients for 1996 gather for a group photograph after the presentations bySecretary Babbitt. The employees were recognized for their courage at the Department’s 58th HonorAwards Convocation on December 9 in the auditorium of the Main Interior Building. Photo by Tami

Heilemann, ISC

...demonstrating unusual courage...

Around the Department

AWARDSVALOR

EqualOpportunity

Awards

Orme Lewis, Jr., Sponsored by the Bureau ofMines, received the Conservation Award for hiscommitment to resource conservation, thedevelopment of environmentally soundtechnology, and the support of advanced mineral-related education through Interior’s MineralInstitute Program, which he headed for morethan ten years.

John Hollingsworth, sponsored by the Fishand Wildlife Service, was honored with theConservation Service Award for his unparalleledand exemplary photography of wildlife and theirnatural habitat. His work fostered aninternational appreciation of the treasures of theNational Wildlife Refuge System.

Vin T. Sparano, sponsored by the Fish andWildlife Service, received the ConservationService Award for his outstanding career and

contributions spanning 35 years as a writer andeditor with Outdoor Life magazine. His workconveyed an abiding respect for and adherence tocodes of ethics and conduct that surpassed themere letter of game laws.

Roger E. Preuss, sponsored by the Fish andWildlife Service, received the Public ServiceAward for his lifetime work in conservation artand education and his exceptional contributionsto wildlife and habitat conservation. Over fivedecades he donated wildlife art that generatedmore than $4.5 million for wildlife habitatpreservation and other basic conservation effortsand co-founded numerous wildlife conservationgroups. His many honors include being selectedNational Wildlife Artist of the Year (1964), Dear ofWildlife Artists, and U.S. Bicentennial WildlifeArtist.

...awards are granted to individuals or groups notemployed by the Department but who haveperformed outstanding and direct service toInterior and improved the effectiveness ofDepartmental missions. The awards are thehighest honor that can be bestowed on a privatecitizen or group by the Secretary.

DIVERSITYAWARDS

... honor Interior employees or groupsdemonstrating exemplary service orsignificant contributions to theDepartment’s efforts to substantiallyincrease diversity at all levels, includingequal opportunity and affirmativeemployment initiatives.

Efraim Escalante, Bureau ofReclamation, received the ManagementAchievement Award.

The Special Emphasis Committee,National Interagency Fire Center,Bureau of Land Management, receivedthe Special Emphasis Award.

The Section 504 CoordinationTeam of Region 5, U.S. Fish andWildlife Service, received theAccessibility/Employment of Personswith Disabilities Award.

5

Richard A. MacDonald, U.S. Geological SurveyPeggy K. McCafferty, U.S. Geological SurveyRobert H. Meade, Jr., U.S. Geological SurveyAlan M. Mikuni, U.S. Geological SurveyRandle W. Olsen, U.S. Geological Survey

Robert A. Page, U.S.Geological SurveyWilliam W. Patton, Jr., U.S. Geological SurveyL. Niel Plummer, U.S. Geological SurveyJoseph S. Rosenshein, U.S. Geological SurveyLaurence A. Soderblom, U.S. Geological SurveyLinda D. Stanley, U.S. Geological SurveyJohn Vecchioli, U.S. Geological SurveyRichard S. Williams, Jr., U.S. Geological SurveyBernard J. Scheiner, Bureau of MinesDale F. Imlay, Bureau of ReclamationJohn W. Keys III, Bureau of ReclamationClaude F. Lard, Fish and Wildlife ServiceJoseph S. Marler, Fish and Wildlife ServiceRichard N. Smith, Fish and Wildlife ServiceMilton Friend, National Biological ServiceF. Eugene Hester, National Biological ServiceRowland T. Bowers, National Park ServiceJohn H. Davis, National Park ServiceHenry E. Drews, National Park ServiceWilliam H. Ehorn, National Park ServiceThomas C. Gray, Jr., National Park ServiceRonald M. Greenberg, National Park ServiceRobert C. Milne, National Park ServiceJohn G. Parsons, National Park ServiceRichard E. Powers, National Park ServiceMichael D. Shields, National Park Service

Interior employees who were honored with the Distinguished Service Award for 1996 gathered for a groupphotograph after the presentations by Secretary Babbitt. The December 9 ceremony at the Main InteriorBuilding was the Department’s 58th Honor Awards Convocation. Photo by Tami Heilemann, ISC

These dedicated publicservants are the pillarsof their services, our

department, and of thefederal government.

They inspire us to takepride in our work andchallenge us to matchthe high standards oftheir achievements.Secretary Babbitt

Distinguished Service Awards

...are the highest honorary recognition employeescan receive in the Department of the Interior. It isgranted for outstanding contribution to science,outstanding skill or ability in the performance ofduty, outstanding contributions made during aneminent career in the Department, or any otherexceptional contribution to public service. Recipientsreceive a certificate and citation signed by theSecretary along with an engraved goldDistinguished Service Award medal and gold lapelpin. The 1996 recipients were:

John H. Farrell, Office of the SecretaryAlbert V. Witham, Office of the SolicitorEleanor R. Schwartz, Bureau of Land ManagementRobert E. Brown, Minerals Management ServiceGerald R. Daniels, Minerals Management ServiceJames R. Detlefs, Minerals Management ServiceH. Erich Groess, Minerals Management ServiceJames W. Shaw, Minerals Management ServiceLarry L. Amos, U.S. Geological SurveyManuel G. Bonilla, U.S. Geological SurveyWendy A. Budd, U.S. Geological SurveyWilliam F. Cannon, U.S. Geological SurveyJ. Thomas Dutro, Jr., U.S. Geological SurveyRomeo M. Flores, U.S. Geological SurveyArthur Grantz, U.S. Geological Survey

Keith A. Kvenvolden, U.S. Geological Survey

ManagementandCareerAchievement

Conser

vation

and P

ublic

Service

Science and

Service

Jim Siegel

The most striking thing about Uganda is howgreen it is. Lush farms of bananas, corn,potatoes, tea, and coffee dot the rollinglandscape. Wildland is covered with multi-canopied moist forest or dryer savanna. As youtravel from Kampala, the capital, toward the west,

International Initiatives

s the visitor wandered off the trail during a tourof the wildlife preserve, the Ugandan park guideapproached the stray, conjured up a genuinelyconcerned look, and asked, “Excuse me, sir,but have you ever been bitten by a poisonous

snake?”

The visitor scurried back to the trail and remained closeto the group for the rest of the tour. The guide’s novelapproach worked without admonishing the wayward visitoras had been done in the past, sometimes causingembarrassment and wounded pride.

The new technique is a small example of the success of atraining program conducted by Interior employees onbehalf of the U.S. Government. At the request of Uganda,the U.S. Agency for International Development is fundingthe Department to assist the Uganda Wildlife Authority intraining its park and game reserve employees.

The training focuses on improving their ability tointerpret wildlife resources and conduct biologicalinventories of Uganda’s rich wildlife, plant, and forestresources. Interior’s participation in the internationalconservation project is funded under a Partnership forBiodiversity agreement that Assistant Secretary BonnieCohen signed with the Agency for InternationalDevelopment in 1995.

The work is carried out under the leadership of theDepartment’s Office of International Affairs and is oftendone in cooperation with the U.S. Peace Corps. Last year,four Interior employees trained 28 Ugandans working inprotected areas and 15 of their Peace Corps Volunteercounterparts during four 2-week sessions.

Storytelling in the Service of Wildlife

David Vekasy, a supervisory park ranger at San AntonioMission National Historic Park in Texas, led theinterpretative skills training program, conducted lastspring. Vekasy was assisted by Jeff Shryer, the Ugandaproject leader with the Partnership for Biodiversity. Shryer

6

Jim Siegel,FWS, enjoyingthe shade of a

canopied forestin QueenElizabeth

National Park,hopes he’ll

have furtheropportunities

to contribute tothe

conservation ofUganda’s

unique naturalheritage.

you pass the northern shore of enormous LakeVictoria. About 25 percent of the country is coveredby lakes and various types of wetlands.

Queen Elizabeth National Park, our training site, is200,000 hectares of bush-grassland and forestleading to the edge of the Rift Valley ’s LakeEdward. The famous Rwenzori Mountains loom offto the northwest. The park is home to thousands ofUganda kob, Defassa waterbuck, bushbuck, topi,Cape buffalo, warthog, hippo, elephant, and theirpredators such as spotted hyena, leopard, and lion.

The park hub of the Mweya consists of touristfacilities, park headquarters, and employee housing,all on a narrow peninsula jutting into Lake Edward.Indoor sessions for both training courses were heldin a small classroom of the Institute of Ecology.

One of the most consistently amusing things aboutMweya was that family groups of warthogs wouldgraze outside the buildings, oblivious to peoplewalking by. Ornamental flowering trees and shrubswere alive with various weaverbirds, bulbuls, andsunbirds.

Unlike most of the parks in the United States,Ugandan national parks and game reserves maycontain rural communities, generally small villagesthat fish in park lakes and rivers. Lake Edwardbordering Queen Elizabeth National Park supportsan important commercial tilapia industry.

From left, Peace Corps Volunteer Chris Scypinskiand Kyambadde, of the Uganda Institute of Ecology,review site plans with Interior’s Lou Hagener (a BLM

ecosystem specialist) as warthogs wander throughthe yard.

Uganda’s QueenElizabethNational Park,which once hadthe greatestpopulation oflarge herbivores(elephants,buffaloes, hippos)in the world, hasa wealth of lushscenery, such asLakeNyamusingiri,above. At left,Dave Vekasy, asupervisory parkranger at SanAntonio MissionNational HistoricPark in Texas,works withUgandan traineesduring aninterpretive skillsclass.

Uganda’s Parks and Wildlife—The Beauty and the Challenge

Interior in Uganda:A Partnership for Biodiversity

A

7

People living near protected areas also have somelegal access to harvest polewood, reeds, bamboo,and medicinal plants for family use. Subsistencehunting and trapping, although illegal, are notuncommon in the parks and reserves, with wildlifeoften captured using wire-snares.

Much of the fieldwork for our biologicalinventorying course was conducted in nearby parkgrassland and forest. Participants were familiarizedwith a number of the common plant, wildlife, andfish species and the appropriate techniques tosurvey them.

The bird life at Queen Elizabeth was incredible,with the class easily observing about 100 of thearea’s 545 species. Participants also took a boat tripalong the Kazinga Channel of Lake Edward to surveylarge mammals and aquatic birds and visited afishing village to estimate the harvest of tilapia,catfish, and other species.

The class also visited a prominent Uganda koblekking ground, a large closely-cropped plain wherethe strongest male antelope set up very smallterritories within a display and fighting arena.Groups of female kob came to the lek to choose the

is a wildlife biologist with the Bureau of LandManagement’s Kemerer Resource Area in Wyoming.

The interpretative training focused on applying fourkey principles: how to relate to visitors’ experiences,provoking thought, revealing information, and usingartistic approaches, such as storytelling, to givevisitors rewarding and memorable nature talks.After initial classroom instruction, traineespracticed their presentations outdoors for theirinternational visitor audience.

Trainees set minimum performance standards fortheir nature talks and helped to develop astandardized visitor questionnaire to evaluatetourist satisfaction with services in the protectedareas, including presentations by nature guides. Thequestionnaire has been adopted by the UgandaWildlife Authority for use in all of that nation’sprotected areas.

Shryer returned to Uganda in October to evaluatehow well the students have applied theinterpretative skills training at their work sites. Hewas accompanied by the director of the Peace Corpsfor Uganda and the assistant director of the UgandaWildlife Authority.

The trainees showed excellent progress inimproving their interpretative presentations, Shryerreported. Three of them are teaching other parkstaff how to give nature talks. Safari tour operatorsnow request some of the Ugandan trainees by nameto give presentations to tour groups.

Monitoring a Hotspot of Biodiversity

Jim Siegel and Lou Hagener taught thebiological inventory and monitoring course, held inthe fall. Siegel is a wildlife course leader with theU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s NationalConservation Training Center in West Virginia.Hagener is an ecosystem specialist with the Bureauof Land Management’s Havre Resource Area inMontana.

Henry Busulwa, a fisheries biologist at the UgandaInstitute of Ecology, assisted Siegel and Hagener. Allthe Interior trainers had worked as Peace Corpspark management volunteers in Africa during thelate 1980s and early 1990s.

The participants in the course were from all theprotected areas of western Uganda, where the EastAfrican savanna meets the West African rainforest—considered one of the world’s foremost hotspots ofbiodiversity. Most were tourism wardens, whoseresponsibilities included supervising ranger staff aswell as the development of park roads and visitorfacilities.

Five of the participants had the enviable position ofworking in the two mountain gorilla parks in thesouthwest part of the country. A few werecommunity conservation wardens assigned to helpvillages inside and bordering the protected areas touse natural resources such as fish, plants, andforest products in a way that would sustain thoseresources. A few participants were law enforcementwardens, supervising anti-poaching rangers.

The course concentrated on basic biological surveyskills including the use of a topographic map andcompass, plot and transect techniques forvegetation and wildlife, and methods of estimatingfish harvests.

The trainees ranked their areas’ top inventory andmonitoring issues, giving thehighest priorities to wildlifepopulations and their movements,efforts to curb poaching, theeffects of wildfire, the successionof savanna vegetation, the impactsof tourism, and the sustainableuse of park resources. Each teamof trainees also wrote aninventory action plan for theirprotected area.

All trainees were expected to train their home staffin the newly acquired skills. Each team was givenkey monitoring equipment to take back to theirparks and preserves, including binoculars, fieldguides, compasses, tape measures, vegetation plotframes, mapping tools, notebooks, and clipboards.

Additional photos, story, page 2.

At left, Interior instructors showtrainees how to set up a quadrant tomeasure vegetation cover on asavanna. At right, Henry Busulwa, afishery biologist with the UgandaInstitute of Ecology, shows traineeshow to measure tilapia and lungfishas part of the wildlife monitoringcourse.

most dominant males for mating,ignoring big groups of youngerbachelor males.

While practicing forest inventorytechniques, the class saw largecolorful birds like turacos andhornbills and four species of primate including thestriking black-and-white colobus monkey.

The most challenging aspect of the course wastraining an audience with a varied range ofexperience. A few of the wardens were trainedconservation professionals with fairly extensiveexperience in park management, while others werejust starting their careers.

The key was to help trainees improve their skillsand gain practice in applying those monitoringtechniques to relevant conservation issues, whatevertheir background.

The process of using inventory and monitoringapproaches to improve land management is one ofthe most neglected parts of many conservationprograms. The inventory site plans that the traineesdeveloped during the course will help them focus

their new surveying skills on the most urgentmanagement problems facing their protectedareas.

Jeff Shryer and other members of the countryteam will return to Uganda in 1997 to evaluatehow the inventory and monitoring training hasbeen applied in helping to revitalize managementin the country’s parks and reserves. The teamalso will give more focused monitoring trainingand will be able to trouble shoot the mostpressing inventorying and monitoring problems.

Lou Hagener, at right,an ecosystem

specialist at BLM’sHavre Resource Area

in Montana, describeshow to measure forest

canopy on theKyambura Gorge Trail

in Queen ElizabethNational Park. Below,

the grasslands ofQueen VictoriaNational Park.