They ARE essential !

As part of my presentations at Savage Cabin over the summer, I talked about a man whose research and devotion to the preservation of a specific mammal has always held a special place in my heart. The man was Dr. Adolph Murie and the mammal is the severely misunderstood wolf. He first spent time at Mt. McKinley National Park ( now named Denali ) with his older brother Olaus, who was studying the caribou. This inspired him to become a wildlife biologist himself and he too came to work for the National Park Service. He was sent to Mt. McKinley in 1939 to study the wolf and the impact it might have on prey species, in particular the Dall sheep. The opinion was they have a negative impact on the prey populations. His studies there, and later in Yellowstone, proved the fallacy of this mindset. These conclusions have been further corroborated by other biologists since then, such as the studies conducted by Dr. David Mech at Isle Royale National Park, Denali, and Yellowstone. Isle Royale itself is a perfect example of the natural coexistence between a predator and its prey.

Out of the 1000s of people I presented to over the summer, I only two individuals approach me afterwards to disagree and voice their own convictions. These were based on incorrect information and negative propaganda concerning the wolf. I have always been the type of person to research and verify “facts” I have heard, even if these facts are in line with my own beliefs. This has been true whether it is nature or history related. It prompts me to dig deeper and read more on my own, from the viewpoint of all sides, and weight the validity of the source materials.

The views these two individuals expressed to me, however, we were so far-fetched and obviously based on negative hype they had heard. For example, one of them told me the wolf was an indiscriminate killer and was decimating the herds in Yellowstone. He told me the wolf packs would tear into a herd of elk, kill them all, and leave the carcasses. This is so far beyond any truth I have ever read from biological studies of wolf behavior. He went on to tell me if the wolf was not eradicated, the herds would be pushed to extinction. I calmly and politely pointed out to him if the wolf was decimating the herds, would not the prey species have become extinct long before Europeans arrived in America ? He walked away in a huff.

The other person expressed pretty much the same sentiment but elaborated further by mentioning the danger from wolves to cattle and the negative effect wolves were having in competition with hunters. With regard to the first, I have not enough room here to address that issue. However, I do know there are many non-lethal methods to deter wolves from going after cattle. Do a Google search and you will find information on methods being successfully used in Europe to this end. With hunting, this also could not be further from the truth. I have nothing against hunting – let me repeat, I have nothing against hunting – unless it is done for the sole purpose of a trophy. If it is to fill your freezer with meat for your dinner table, that is fine. 

By the same token, while humans are considered to be the best hunters on earth, this is a misconception. When predators hunt, they watch and test the prey animal. They attempt to get it to run, and in by doing so, they gauge the health of the animal. A healthy prey animal can outrun and/or fight off even a pack of wolves. Why ? Predators conserve their energy. If it is deemed to cost too much physically for the animal to be caught or brought down, the chase is abandoned for the chance to find easier prey. It is the sick, old, and very young which fall victim to predators. On the other hand, humans will take down the largest, healthiest animal they can find. In retrospect, we weaken the herds by our method and predators strengthen the health of the herds by theirs. 

They ARE essential !

If you disagree with me, that is your opinion and you are entitled to it. However, I urge you to do research and read as much as you can from all viewpoints before forming a concrete belief in yourself one way or another.

Cabin Thief

The chinking used on the outer walls of Savage Cabin is a material locally referred to as oakum. Basically it is hemp rope, a nautical rope also used for sealing boats and plumbing joints. It was brought up from Anchorage by rail or dogsled, unraveled, and the individual strands pushed into the cracks between logs using a wooden tool similar to a large chisel. In addition, sphagnum moss was also used.

There are strips of oakum noticeably newer than others. It has to be repaired from time to time because birds and red squirrels love taking it for nesting material, especially the latter. There are grey squirrels here in the southeast, but I have never seen one of them so persistent and vocal as the red squirrels in Denali.

One of the wildlife techs told me they are very territorial and live in home ranges with family members. If a squirrel they do not know wanders in, there is a possibility it could be accepted, but more often than not, it is chased out and sometimes killed. One morning at the cabin, I witnessed the full brunt of their attitude and chatter.

If there was time between tours, I passed it by walking around, splitting wood, cutting kindling, or reading. This particular morning, I was sitting in a chair inside the cabin enjoying the heat from the wood stove when I heard a noise on the porch. Not knowing exactly what it might be, I peered cautiously out the door.

As part of the display outside the cabin, I always placed a large wad of the oakum on a table so when guests asked what was used to fill the cracks, I could not only tell them but actually show and allow them to feel the material. When I looked out the door, this oakum was completely off the table and on its way off the porch, trailing behind a red squirrel.

I grabbed the strand of oakum and halted its slide off the porch, but he did not let go. Spinning around to face me, his vocal chatter spewed out around his cheeks stuffed with a big piece of the strand. His legs leaned backwards, fully prepared for a tug-of-war he was destined to lose.

Gently pulling on the oakum, I told the little guy he was not going to have it. His chatter continued and he refused to let go. With a firm yank, I pulled it out of his mouth. Upon losing his prize, the squirrel stood up on hind legs and let loose this long, loud chatter. Basically, he was cussing me up one wall and down another. He thought he had his whole nest in one shot.

Looking rather silly, seeing as how it was a squirrel I was talking to, I pointed at him and firmly told him he was not going to have it, after which he scampered off to the nearest spruce tree.

Replacing the oakum on the table, I stepped inside to stoke the wood stove and returned to the doorway. It had been only a matter of a couple minutes, but there he was on the table, mouth open to grab it again. His head shot in my direction, gave a quick chatter and ran up the corner joints of the cabin, where he perched to watch me.

A few minutes later, a tour group walked up, increasing the odds apparently to his dissatisfaction. He disappeared into the fireweed around the spruce trees.

Red squirrels were very common in the area around the cabin, but I know which one the “thief” was. In his ramblings, he stopped, rose up on his hind legs and just stared, sometimes accompanied with chatter. With his little sailor mouth, I can imagine the names I was being called.

Red Squirrel Thief !

The cabin where I do all of my presentations here at Denali was constructed in 1924. As chinking material, sphagnum moss and oakum are used. The latter is basically hemp rope, a nautical rope, which was brought up from Anchorage by rail or dogsled.

Oakum, as I was told, is a prized nesting material for the local birds and squirrels. One of the other interps captured a photo of a squirrel last week peeking over the edge of the porch with both cheeks stuffed with it. I was soon to get a dose of their thievery myself.

As part of the display at the cabin, I place a large clump of the oakum on the table outside so when people ask me about the material between the logs, I have an example handy.

Well, I was sitting in the cabin between tours when I heard a noise on the porch. I cautiously peeked out the door not knowing what had caused the sound. Bear and moose are often seen around the cabin, especially the latter. The first thing I noticed was the oakum was gone, off the table. BUT not quite gone as I caught site of it quickly sliding toward the edge of the porch. At the far end and at a full run was a red squirrel. He had hit paydirt and was going to have the comfiest squirrel mansion around !

Or so he thought.......

I grabbed the end of it and pulled. It stopped in his tracks, but he did not let go. He only spun around to face me and started chattering at me through the mouthful of oakum, legs straining backwards locked in a momentary tug of war. I yanked harder and the oakum popped out of his mouth and I quickly retrieved it.

That is when he stood up on his hind legs and let loose this long chattering tirade which could have meant nothing less than cursing me up one tree and down another.

"NO, you are not getting it !" Yes, even pointed my finger at him. He spun and ran off into the grass under a spruce tree.

I replaced the oakum on the table and stirred the fire in the wood stove inside before coming back out to the porch - 20-30 seconds max...... On the porch, I glanced at the table to find the pesky, persistent, little furred brat about to grab the oakum a second time. Again, I fussed at him and this time he took off up the cabin wall and eventually back out to the spruce trees.

Who says animals do not have personalities ? They have personalities AND attitudes !

Denali Update

I have been remiss once again in not keeping this Blog updated. MUST get better - MUST get better.

Well, I am a month and a half into my sojourn here in Denali and have just shy of 100 presentations under my belt - have done 98 as of today. My 3rd person presentation is solid and received the NPS vote of approval. Research is underway for my 1st person impression which looks like it will be Andrew Fleutsch, a ranger from Glacier who swapped with one from here at Denali for a time. During his time here, Fleutsch accompanied Adolph Murie on some of his excursions when the latter was here undertaking his groundbreaking study of the wolf and its relationship to prey species. Glacier is sending us a packet containing a lot of information on this ranger and I am looking forward to sifting through it and learning a lot about him which I can then in turn create a 1st person presentation from.

Savage Cabin, where I do my living history presentations, sits in the overlap area between the Nenana River and East Fork wolf packs. I keep hoping to see one passing through in the quiet times between tours. Have three more months so hopefully it will happen, either at the cabin or somewhere else in the park.

There was almost a two week stretch where Denali ( Mt. McKinley ) could be seen clearly. That, from what I have been told, is something which never happens. A few days ago, this changed. There are over 100 wildfires in the state, 6 of which are within the park and 10 more in different places along the boundaries. Smoke from these, along with clouds, has reduced visibility at times, to make even the closer mountains hazy and forget about seeing Denali. From the vantage point I have seen it, the mountain is still about 70 miles away. But when "the mountain is out" ( this is how we refer to it being visible ), it is an incredible site even at that distance. It is in a perpetual state of ice and snow, so is easily picked out along the horizon.

The first men to successfully summit Denali did so in 1913. Some of their descendants set out a few weeks ago to attempt a 100th Anniversary climb, following the route of their ancestors. This is NOT the route most climbers take today. In addition, the start off point for modern climbers is to be flown into a base camp several hundred feet up. These descendants set off from Kantishna and hiked to base, starting from there. They reached the summit successfully two days ago. Quite a feat if you ask me.

As far as wildlife goes, cows and calves abound ( moose ) and I have seen two bull moose, massive creatures. There is a willow right next to the porch of the cabin which this morning had fresh limb breaks and bark rubbed off from bull. It was about 7-8 feet off the ground. These fellow must be huge. If he is marking territory right there, my presentations could get quite interesting come rutting season. I have not seen another bear, but have seen a lynx. It caught a grouse right behind the cabin one morning.

The mosquitos ------ I do not care what they say. These guys ARE the state bird of Alaska. They are big and have attitudes. The ONLY spray that works as repellent is that which contains DEET. Apparently this is the worst year for them in a long time. One of the wildlife techs explained it this way. With the late snows in May, the birds which migrate here arrived to find several feet of snow and no insects to eat, so either moved on or starved. When the hatch DID occur, there were, and are, very few birds to eat them. I saw my first dragonfly today. Those guys better get busy !

Well, I have rattled off enough tonight in an effort to get back in the swing of things.
STAY TUNED !!

Denali - Boots on the Ground

I am wrapping up my fourth day in Alaska and second in Denali National Park & Preserve. It is beautiful up here with snow-covered mountains, one to feet of snow and drifts of several feet. The mountains are rough and, unlike the Appalachians I am used to, are characterized by rock cliffs rising several hundred feet. The tree level is at the base of the slopes or below. The forest is made of a mixture of Black and White Spruce interspersed with what I believe are Aspen. I will have to wait until the snow melts to see what, if any, undergrowth exists. Further into the park, trees give way to the tundra. You can see for miles across the valley between the two mountain ranges.

I have been in orientation the last two days, including extensive informative sessions today with NPS staff. Yesterday afternoon, one of the interp coaches gave us a tour of the sites from which we will be doing presentations. One of them is the Savage Cabin built in 1924 as a cook cabin for the first tourist cabin in Mt. McKinley National Park now known as Denali. It is a gorgeous setting with spruce trees dotting the landscape. We were told the area was a favorite hangout, at different times, of a grizzly bear, a caribou, and a lynx. On the wooden shutters are nails pointing outward to deter curious bears.

It was during this tour I inquired about the distance across the tundra to the base of the distant mountains. He said it was roughly 8-10 miles from the road we were on. We also saw an arctic squirrel, which we were told would put on a show to enhance its "cuteness". He also said if you were able to get really close and take a picture, shake the camera slightly to get a blurred image of the squirrel ------- then tell people you had a close encounter with a grizzly.

Tomorrow morning, training begins for official interpreter certification. I am looking forward to getting down to the nuts and bolts of my job here ( can I call it a job ? ). Plus, I can take this certification anywhere and will look great on my resume along with the job experience. We will be training for a few days and then we will "shadow" one of the coaches and take the Denali History Tour so we see how it all works.

My excitement for what I am and will be experiencing this summer is counter-balanced by the distance from home. Except for a couple of trips she took to Texas to see her brothers and a few CW events for a weekend, my wife and I have been together daily since fall 2005. Our daughter has been with me every day over the past year - through the summer and picking her up from the bus stop everyday. I miss them terribly and love them very much !

Much love from Denali !

Surreal

The time has almost arrived. This Friday morning, it begins - the adventure of a lifetime. I will be traveling into the great northwest wilderness in the interior of Alaska to Denali National Park for the summer. I am both nervous and excited. The chance to experience the wildness of America's last and most enduring frontier is something I never thought possible. It has become not only a possibility, but a reality.

I am looking forward to learning about a new time era and putting everything I can into meaningful, informative presentations to the public. My impression will be a 1940s park ranger and spending a lot of time when working at the Savage Cabin. This was one of the first structures built in the park and is still used by rangers during the winter as a way station while patrolling the snow-draped backcountry with their sled dog teams. The history of this area is so different to what I have studied throughout my life here in the southeast. It is a far cry from the American Civil War, Revolutionary War or the French & Indian War. However, as with any area, there is HISTORY. The local indigenous population, Athabascan ( sp ? ), is involved with interpretation in the park, there is Gold Rush history AND to the southwest in the Aleutians, WWII was felt when Japanese troops landed and fought a series of brutal, mostly forgotten, engagements against American troops. Though my concentration on historical research has mainly centered around events in American history east of the Mississippi, my interest in history is of history itself, regardless of the time frame.

The hardest part will be the separation from friends and family here at home. However, it is only a few months and there WILL be a homecoming. It is not like I am being deployed for 12 months, or more, to a war zone where the possibility would exist of me not coming home. In addition, with today's technology, I can keep in touch via cell phone and Skype.

I truly do not know what to expect and realize I have a LOT to learn, both with my position and the way everything is going to work. My wife worked in Yellowstone for four years before I met her and she is able to share some insight, but even that was not recent and things may have changed. Not only that, but Yellowstone and Denali are two separate NPS sites.

Friday morning will be a bit rough with parting ways, but I will not say goodbye for I will be returning. A great experience, a foot in the career door, and a great addition to my resume. I pray God will keep me safe as well as my family, and have faith He will help me to do my utmost and totally ROCK this position.

Even with it being so close, for the moment, it has not sunk in. It probably won't until I am at the airport and even more when I actually arrive there.

For now, it is very --------- surreal.

Summer Duty Station

I have been involved in Civil War re-enacting since 1994 and giving presentations and talks since 2005. My unit hosts an annual living history at Andersonville National Historic Site in March and one in September at Sweetwater Creek State Park. In this role, I have been extensively involved in the planning and organization of these events. In addition, I am in the process of pursuing an Associates Degree in History.

All my work on these events, and participation in, has been on a volunteer status. However, all the hard work and dedication paid off in quite an unexpected manner. I was offered, and have accepted a seasonal position as a living history interpreter at Denali National Park in Alaska. It is a foot in the door in the career direction in which I want to go and will look awesome on a resume !

Bears and wolves and moose, oh my !
:-)