Refuge Notebook

Article

August 28, 2009

Departing Refuge Manager Reflects on Changes and Future Challenges
By Robin West

Last weekend my wife and I took our youngest child to Anchorage and checked her into a dorm at UAA. She joined her brother and sister, also attending UAA, which probably lessened the shock of leaving home a little for her, but not for my wife and me. We are now officially “empty nesters” but we don’t really care for the feeling. Whether by chance or by a more defined destiny, the timing of our children leaving home coincides within days of us also leaving our home – our home of 14 years here on the Kenai Peninsula.

We are packing up our two remaining kids - a Welsh terrier and a German wire-haired pointer - and heading for Canada, in route to our new home in Oregon. It is with a combination of excitement for the prospect of new adventures in a new place, mixed with comfort and joy of many great memories, and also a sense of sadness of leaving a great state and community.

I have worked on natural resource management issues in Alaska for over 30 years – from the North Slope to the Aleutians, to SE Alaska. It has been wonderful. Our children have all grown up and gone through the school system in Soldotna. No matter where we travel, in many ways this place will always be our home, and it is our intent to keep a cabin somewhere on the Kenai to return to over the years.

I would like to share a few thoughts with Peninsula residents in my last contribution to the Refuge Notebook. First, I want to say thank you! This is a very special community and we have been treated extremely well both personally and professionally. Perhaps it is human nature to sometimes categorize people and organizations, and being a career federal employee I have been given plenty of grief about “the feds” or “Washington, D.C. bureaucrats” throughout my travels. Living and working here, however, I have sensed more understanding and acceptance than many other places.

I also have witnessed a deep care for the Kenai River and our entire natural environment by the local community. This may originate from the choice people have made to live here. It seems that most people truly treasure the clean air and water, beautiful scenery, and opportunities to hunt, fish, and view wildlife. And whether folks argue about who ought to get the fish (sport, commercial, or subsistence users) everyone supports doing what is necessary to protect the habitat so that we have fish in the future to argue about. This community attitude, I believe, has made the conservation work for me at Kenai National Wildlife Refuge much more successful and rewarding than it might otherwise have been.

I also predict that there will be new and evolving issues ahead that will challenge Peninsula residents to use their best collective talents to resolve. As the area grows, and more development occurs, a balance between creating jobs and growing the economy with maintaining environmental quality and the quality of life will need to be sought. Some of this balance will be value-based, and that makes it difficult, for some will wish to maximize or minimize certain uses or activities to best fit their view of the world. This too is part of human nature.

And then there will be opportunities to make decisions to balance growth with environmental protection that are science-based. Managers can model such things as how much development can be facilitated along the banks of the Kenai River, and in what fashion, before risking the sustainability of the River’s water quality and fisheries. But even good scientific backing will not ensure success of future management decisions. Individual property rights are part of our strong foundational freedoms and can easily be pitted against desired long-term planning goals, (and I’ll use the “Z word”) zoning, and regulations spawned from predictable growth. These challenges will be great, but the local community is well poised to address them.

There will be other challenges. Energy is a critical topic for the Nation and for Alaska. Southcentral Alaska and the Kenai Peninsula also, are on the verge of an apparent energy crisis. Available cheap energy has been an important part of the foundation of the area’s economy for the better part of 50 years. Within 10 years time it is possible that natural gas will be have to be shipped into the area to meet the domestic and industrial requirements (and at an increased cost). It is possible that significant new discoveries will be made locally, or that a pipeline will supply the area from elsewhere, but folks are going to be faced with some difficult choices. Expect increased discussion of coal-fired power plants, wind energy, and hydroelectric power to join the ongoing search for additional oil and gas resources.

Fire management will also likely become increasingly complex on the Kenai Peninsula. In recent decades we have witnessed a warmer and drier climate that has helped facilitate a spruce bark beetle epidemic, indirectly affected habitat conversion in some areas to very flammable grasses, and influenced weather changes that have increased the occurrence of lightning storms and natural ignitions. If current weather patterns persist, we might expect a relatively severe fire season every second or third summer in the foreseeable future.

I could speak to other issues related to climate change, predator management, subsistence use, recreational crowding and carrying capacity, or other issues that stir emotion and keep resource managers employed, but I will save those topics for my successor and a very capable Peninsula community. There are indeed many challenges ahead, but the rewards will also be great. With determination and a continued positive community spirit, the Kenai Peninsula will be a wonderful place to live and visit for many generations to come. I thank everyone again for the honor and privilege to work here, and wish you the very best.

Robin West is leaving Alaska after 31 years for a new job and eventual retirement in Oregon. He has been the manager of Kenai National Wildlife Refuge for the last 14 years. You can check on new bird arrivals or report your bird sighting on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Birding Hotline (907) 262-2300.