What We Do
Yellowstone National Park - National Park Service
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05/08/24 • 30 min
View definitions and links discussed in this episode at go.nps.gov/WhatWeDoPodcast
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TRANSCRIPT:
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Miles: You know.
Miles: From Yellowstone National Park. This is what we do. I'm Miles Barger.
Jake: And I'm Jake Frank. You know.
Miles: Hey, Jake. How's it going?
Jake: Miles, I mustache is looking super good today.
Miles: Yeah, our podcast listeners can't see my new magnificent mustache.
Jake: But, guys, it is spectacular.
Miles: To use mustache wax. That's the tip. Yeah. today we're going to be talking to Heather Basak. she's an administrative support assistant, real stones division of resource education and youth programs. We call it Rippy for short. before we get started, though, a little trivia question for you, Jake.
Jake: Bring it.
Miles: I don't know how you would know this, but you can make a good guess. How many seasonal employees does r e y p employ in the busy summer season? Rounded to the nearest ten. What do you think? 100 were pretty close. A little over.
Jake: 90.
Miles: One more.
Jake: 70.
Miles: 80.
Jake: I did that on purpose.
Miles: Nice. I think the four positions would be 83, but somewhere around 80. That's a lot. It is a lot. There's a lot that goes into, it goes into that, including hiring all those people and doing paperwork and doing budgeting and all sorts of fun things. so.
Jake: You got to pay the people.
Miles: We got to pay them. We we like to. and then one note, if you notice a difference in sound quality for this episode, there's a good reason for that that we're going to get into during this episode. Heather is a fully remote employee, so we're doing our interview via video chat. So the sound might be a little bit different and that's on purpose.
Miles: So you ready? Heather? Ready as you'll ever be. Yep. Heather, that is good to see you as always. So first question to kick it off, when and where did you get your start in the National Park Service? Or if you got started in something that led into the Park Service, you could even start with that. Sure.
Heather: so I never thought I would actually be working for the National Park Service. And I grew up like, I mean, we didn't know existed national parks. We didn't really do that. We did other types of vacations, but never the parks. So that was on never on my radar. And it wasn't until I was in college that I visited my first national park and the national park in Texas.
Heather: And wonderful trip. I had a blast. Beautiful. But again, I didn't it get. I never thought that I would work for them. And in 1820, towards the end of college and I didn't have a job. What exactly? Sure. What I wanted to do. I was thinking about going to museum studies because I was like a political figure. but I didn't have anything lined up.
Heather: And I actually saw a poster and one of the buildings in my college, and it was for the Student Conservation Association, or SCA, and it talked about internships and public lands. And I thought it could be something. To look into. I don't really have anything lined up. I'll look into it. So I went on their website.
Heather: And kind of internships like service, management service, doing a lot of that service park ranger type jobs. But then there were other internships like archeologist or, territorial intern that was really interested. I was really interested in scattered throughout the park. I was going to state, so I did her first internship with a National Park Service site in Kansas called Fort Scott starts right at the curatorial intern.
Heather: And I was working a lot with collections to prepare of that, and I really enjoyed it. Had other part of that internship was doing around the old military fort. And I got to see a little bit of living history in a fort. This is pretty cool. This is pretty fun. Maybe this is something I want to look into more.
Heather: So then I decided to do a second internship. After that, and FCA from Denali National Park and Preserve, and I got to see. I met Jake and we worked together, and I was really there. And I thought, okay, this is something I might want to do for the rest of my life. They were amazing people to work with.
Heather: there were beautiful things to see and do, and I never would have been never going to have probably visited the without first going to Fort Scott and doing other internships. Not just something I really, really wa...
05/01/24 • 38 min
View definitions and links discussed in this episode at go.nps.gov/WhatWeDoPodcast
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TRANSCRIPT:
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Jake: From Yellowstone National Park. This is what we do. I'm Jake Frank.
Ashton: And I'm Ashton Hooker.
Jake: Ashton.
Ashton: Hey, Jake.
Jake: How are you?
Ashton: I'm doing pretty good. How about you?
Jake: We're in Yellowstone, life is good.
Ashton: It's another day in Yellowstone.
Jake: Did you by chance happen to see the email that we got about the edits to our spring newspaper?
Ashton: I did, actually.
Jake: Did you get your edits in yet?
Ashton: No. It's on my list, though.
Jake: Make sure to do that. Yeah. Speaking of publications. Do you know how many publications that Yellowstone National Park manages?
Ashton: Oh. It's got to be way more than I even think.
Jake: It's a big number. It's not like ridiculously big number, but it's probably more than you would think.
Ashton: Yeah, I'm going to say 40.
Jake: Double that.
Ashton: Oh wow, 80?
Jake: 80 publications. Yeah. So, some of the big ones we have are like the park newspaper, but then there's a lot of site bulletins. There's basically all the information that you could want behind the visitor center desk. There's a ton of information to hand out to people if you come to Yellowstone and speaking of publications. Today we're joined by Miles Barger. He is the publications program manager in the Resource Education and Youth Programs division. Miles, how are you doing?
Miles: Oh, doing pretty well. Beautiful day out there.
Jake: It is a beautiful day. So, for our listeners, some of you may recognize the name. Miles is actually one of our hosts, but you're on the other side of the microphone today. So how does that feel?
Miles: Feels great. Multitalented. Yes. Yeah.
Jake: He's ambidextrous.
Miles: There you go.
Jake: You play offense and defense, right?
Miles: Yeah. Special teams.
Jake: Yes. So, how did you start working in national parks?
Miles: I was in college, and I was looking for a summer job. I had been working near my parents’ house in Kentucky. And then somehow, through the magic of the internet, I realized that you could work in a national park in the summer to make a minimum wage, which I think was like $5.25 back then.
Jake: You're dating yourself.
Miles: I know, yeah. You could work in a national park and make minimum wage instead of being at home doing it. So, I thought, that's interesting. So, I applied to. I don't think I applied to Glacier because you couldn't have a beard at that time, whatever the concessionaire was.
Ashton: Oh.
Jake: Well, what a terrible idea.
Ashton: Bummer.
Miles: I know. So, I was like, well, I'm not doing that, but Yellowstone, I saw some jobs, so I applied for a job with the concessionaire operating the hotels, which was Xanterra back then, as it is now. And I got a job, cleaning cabins at Canyon before they had built all the huge lodges that are up there now.
Ashton: Oh, wow.
Miles: It was all just cabins, yeah. And I towed a cart around from cabin to cabin and we paused when a bison was sitting on the porch, and I couldn't get in. It's like a forced break. and that was my first summer. And I haven't done anything but work in or around national parks since then.
Jake: Gotcha. So, you know, this podcast, we're focusing mainly on people who work in national parks. Yeah, but you mentioned that you worked for a concessionaire.
Miles: I did.
Jake: Yeah. Just something to tell people that are listening. Is that in Yellowstone, we have about 750 roughly permanent and seasonal employees combined every year. But what's that number in Xanterra? It's like over 3000?
Miles: I actually was just looking at this number for one of our publications. It's about 3200 seasonal, concessionaire employees in the summer. So many, many more.
Jake: Yeah. It's like five times more employees. So, for people who want to, like, if your main goal is to like what you were is to live in a cool place. In addition to park service jobs, there's Xanterra. There's Delaware North, STGi runs our clinics and then Yellowstone Forever. So, all of those different entities.
Miles: A lot of mines, a lot of my jobs were with nonprofit partners, like I worked for Alaska Geographi...
04/24/24 • 31 min
View definitions and links discussed in this episode at go.nps.gov/WhatWeDoPodcast
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TRANSCRIPT:
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Brett Raeburn: From Yellowstone National Park. This is What We Do. I'm Brett Raeburn.
Ashton Hooker: And I'm Ashton Hooker.
Brett Raeburn: All right. Ashton. First of all, it's great to see you. How's it going?
Ashton Hooker: Good to see you, too, Brett. I'm good. How are you?
Brett Raeburn: Good. I'm awesome. so I have a question for you. Have you ever hitchhiked before?
Ashton Hooker: you know what I don't think I have.
Brett Raeburn: I see the way your face. When I thought you were about to tell me an epic hitchhiking story.
Ashton Hooker: No, no, no, I'm actually surprised I haven't done that, though.
Brett Raeburn: Well, I did some research in the superintendent's compendium, and, hitchhiking is legal within Yellowstone National Park as long as you follow some certain rules. So one of those rules, which is in section five, part 4.31, which I'm sure you read.
Ashton Hooker: By heart, yeah.
Brett Raeburn: All the time. Says that you can you can hitchhike as long as a sign isn't bigger than certain dimensions. Do you know what the max dimensions for your hitchhiking sign would be?
Ashton Hooker: Wow. This is a very niche question. I honestly have no idea, but I'm just going to take a random guess. I'm going to say I can't be bigger than, like, five by five feet.
Brett Raeburn: So five feet. That's a big. That's a really big sign.
Ashton Hooker: I was trying to, you know, go a little bigger than I thought.
Brett Raeburn: That's huge. it's actually it's two, two feet by two feet. So you’re going to have to trim a few feet off that.
Ashton Hooker: That's a more like, normal size of sign.
Brett Raeburn: Yeah. So next time you're you're recruiting someone to pick you up for hitchhiking. It just needs to be under that two feet by two feet and you should be good.
Ashton Hooker: Okay, interesting.
Brett Raeburn: if you want to hold a five foot sign, the sign spinners, that might be your, that might be your go to. So our next guest, probably or is a lot more likely than we are to knows section five, part 4.3 of the superintendent. I can't say that superintendents compendium, by heart, because she's the law enforcement specialist here at Yellowstone National Park.
Brett Raeburn: So, Katy Anderson, have you ever cited someone for hitchhiking with a sign, like, if that if Ashton gave them their five foot by five foot sign? Have you ever cited someone for that?
Katy Anderson: No, but I would have definitely stopped and talked to her if she had a five by five sign. I would want her life story. I would want to know her.
Ashton Hooker: That would catch your attention.
Brett Raeburn: Yeah. I feel like you don't even need to know the compendium to know that. Like that. That's probably someone you want to talk to.
Katy Anderson: Exactly.
Brett Raeburn: Well, there's always a first time for everything. so I'm guessing. Yeah. And I'm guessing you see a lot of things. Something different every day as a law enforcement specialist. But I want to backtrack a little bit first. before, we get to your current position and talk about where and when you got your start in the National Park Service.
Katy Anderson: Yeah. So thanks so much for having me. my where and when. So my career with the National Park Service began in 2001. as a GS-3 Park Guide at Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland. living with those wild ponies, which was pretty much a childhood dream being fulfilled right out of the gate.
Brett Raeburn: Yeah, that's that's pretty awesome. So was it the wild ponies that that got you to that job, or how did you hear about the Park Service?
Katy Anderson: well, so the Park service go goes way back. for me, I'll have to go many decades back from that. It pretty much goes back to about the late 1950s. when my grandparents jumped on the Ranger three, which is a vessel that takes visitors, from the mainland of Michigan. and takes them out to an archipelago of islands in Lake Superior called Isle Royal.
Katy Anderson: and the island, as it sort of lovingly called by all of us who sort of grew up there, or grew up going there. along with my family, were super instrumental in my formative years in instilling a strong conservation ethic and just, in turn, inhe...
04/17/24 • 31 min
View definitions and links discussed in this episode at go.nps.gov/WhatWeDoPodcast
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TRANSCRIPT:
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Jake: From Yellowstone National Park. This is What We Do. I'm Jake Frank. Brett: And I'm Brett Raeburn. Jake: Hi, Brett. Brett: Hey, how’s it going? Jake: I’m great. How are you? Brett: I'm good. I had a good weekend. Jake: Yeah? That's good to hear. Hey, how are your pipes in your house doing? You like that transition? [laughter] Jason: Have you flushed your toilet today? Brett: My pipes, I think they're. I think they're good. Do you know something I don't know? Jake: No, I just wanted to, that was the best transition that I could come up with, Brett: That was terrible. I’m not going to lie. Jake: I have a trivia question, actually, I want to ask you. Brett: Okay. Jake: All right. So, Yellowstone, we’re a big park, 2.2 million acres, 4.5 million people roughly visit the park every year. We have a lot of infrastructure in the park that's hidden to support all that visitation. Part of you know, those systems are water and wastewater systems in the park. So how many combined between the, you know, making clean water and then making dirty water clean, if you combine those two systems, how many of those are in the park? Brett: Like pipes? The number of systems? Jake: No, the number of systems, the number of total systems. Yeah, you don't have to it's not like, you know, miles of pipe or anything. Brett: OK, that’s what I was trying to anticipate. Jake: Because they're located all throughout the park. So, if you were to count the total number, how many of their across the park? Brett: Fifteen? Jake: There are 23 wastewater systems and 21 water systems. So, a combined 44. Brett: So, I wasn't even close. Jake: It's a lot. It's like and, and this is like something that I had no clue about until when I started, you know, working with the facilities team to document all of our infrastructure, you know, from like the GAOA projects and putting in money to improve our infrastructure. It is unbelievable how much infrastructure there is. And it's all hidden like no one sees it, but it's by design. It's all, you know, behind the trees and whatnot. Brett: So, do we know how many feet of pipe there are in this park? I really want to know that now. Jake: I have no idea. But maybe, I guess maybe our guest today, Jason Murphy, he's the utility systems facility manager for our water and wastewater systems. Do you know that answer? Jason: The exact number to the top of my head? Brett: To the centimeter to the millimeter. Jason: So, between water and sewer, it's thousands. Jake: Yeah. Jason: There are over 500 manholes that one sticks in my head from that spec sheet. Brett: Wow. Jake: Yeah, that is crazy water. Brett: That's a lot. Jake: Well, speaking of water and wastewater and manholes, how are you today? Another great transition. Jason: It is a very great transition. I am fine. Yeah. Well, thank you for joining us today. Brett: How are your pipes? Jason: My pipes are good. Yeah, toilets are flushing. Great. Jake: That's a win. So, you know, why don't we just kind of dive in? How did you get into the Park Service? Did you start in the Park Service? Or, like, even before then, Jason: Just how did you get my first park Service job? I applied as a summer seasonal in 2001, and I was picked up as a wage grade three garbage truck operator and not the driver, but I rode the garbage truck we had ride along garbage trucks in Canyon. Then we had about 300 of those swinging bears cans and I rode the garbage truck for that summer, picking up garbage in Canyon. Jake: That seems like a fun job. Jason: It was very fun to do. Brett: Like on the outside, like you're the one hanging out? That is cool. Jake: That's like the one that all the little kids want to be when you grow up. Jason: Correct. Yeah, we've taken that away. Now we have mechanical arms that do that, but it was a very fun job. Jake: They always got to ruin all the fun stuff. Yeah, so. Jason: Can't hang on the back of a truck around town. Jake: Yeah. There's somebody probably got seriously injured and then that. Brett: Yeah. Jason: Yeah. Jake: So, how did you find that job? How did you hear about, you know, how did you even know to apply? Jason: Friends at University of Montana who came down here and work for YCR as seasonals? Jake: Okay. Jason: And they were like to apply for these jobs. Jake: And so, are you from the area? Did you go to school here? Jason: We were living in Missoula at the time. I grew up in Buffalo, New York, bu...
04/10/24 • 27 min
View park road status and seasonal opening/closing dates at go.nps.gov/YELLroads
View definitions and links discussed in this episode at go.nps.gov/WhatWeDoPodcast
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Jake: From Yellowstone National Park. This is What We Do. I'm Jake Frank. Miles: And I'm Miles Barger. Jake: Miles, how’s it going? Miles: Going great. Jake: Yeah? Miles: How are you? Jake: Good. How was your, how's your drive to work today? Miles: Very short. [laughter] Jake: Yeah. how are the roads? Miles: Very clear and in excellent condition. Jake: That's good to hear. Miles: Honestly. Yeah. Jake: So, speaking of roads to start, I have a trivia question. I'm curious if you. I would say this is on the easier of some of the questions that we've been hearing. Miles: OK. Jake: Do you know how many miles of road are in Yellowstone National Park? Miles: 475? Jake: That's very close. 452, I think, is the number that I've been given from facilities. And some of the reports that I've read. Yeah. 450 plus. That's roughly the distance between like DC and South Carolina, Charleston as the crow flies. So, it's like multiple states. So, it's a lot of, a lot of roads that are in the park that we maintain. Miles: In harsh condition. Jake: In harsh conditions. On a volcano. No big deal. Jake: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's either, it's either burning the road away or it's frozen and under snow. Miles: Or both. Jake: Or both. Yeah, so to talk a little bit about that, you know, I think when people come to the park, they just drive on the roads. You kind of take that for granted. But there's a lot of a lot of work that goes into keeping those up to date. So today we're joined, by Brian Batzloff. He's in the engineering equipment operator supervisor for the Special Projects crew. Did I get that correct? Brian: You got that correct. Jake: All right. Well, thanks for joining us. Brian: Thank you. Jake: Yeah. How are you? Brian: Thanks for having me. Jake: How was your drive to work today? Brian: It was wonderful. Yeah. Jake: When the roads are in bad shape and you're like, man, that pothole. What happens in your mind when you're driving to hit a pothole? Brian: I try to figure out why. Why it's there. Jake: Who do I need to call to get this fixed? Brian: Exactly. Jake: So, Yeah, we'll go ahead and get started. When and where did you get your start in the National Park Service? Brian: Here in Yellowstone, actually. I got my first job here in 1998. I was a carpenter's helper in the carpenter shop here in Mammoth. And then that was my last year of college. And then I went back to school, tried out some telecom work for a little bit in Atlanta, Georgia, and then decided I wasn't a city person. So, I came back here. My family's from the area. You're right outside the North Entrance, so I'm actually a third generation to work here in Yellowstone. Jake: Oh, that's awesome. Brian: My dad, my grandfather both worked up here in the park, on both. Actually, my grandfathers on both sides. Jake: What? Miles: Whoa! Jake: Wow. So, what jobs did they do? Brian: So, my grandfather, ironically, he at one time held my position for a short time. [laughter] I didn't know that until recently when I was going through some of my dad's stuff. And I've actually found his old nameplate from his door on there. So, I have it in my office now. Jake: Oh, that's so cool. Brian: But no, he started. He came, I believe, in the 50s, you know, shortly after World War II, after he got out of there and he came with his uncle at Yellowstone and started his career out in Grant village, and then kind of worked his way into Mammoth here. And then I think when he retired, he was the foreman for the carpenter shop. Jake: Awesome. And you mentioned him working at Grant Village. You are on special projects that's based out of Mammoth. Yeah. Have you worked at other areas? Yeah. my first full time position at Yellowstone was out at Old Faithful, and I was a heavy equipment operator out there for about a year. And then an opening came back with special projects, and they actually approached me for a lateral transfer for that position. Jake: So, between the job that you currently have and that first job, you mentioned that you had some movement in there to get where you currently are. Can you walk us through all the variety of jobs that you're at? Brian: Sure. So, like I said, my first year I was in the carpenter shop as a carpenter's helper. And then, I had that year where I was down trying to do the telecom stuff in Georgia. Jake: Your “Rumspringa.” [laughter] Brian: Yeah. And then, then when I came back, I actually ...
John Cataldo, Fire Management Officer
What We Do
04/03/24 • 38 min
View definitions and links discussed in this episode at go.nps.gov/WhatWeDoPodcast
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TRANSCRIPT:
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Miles: From Yellowstone National Park, this is what we do. I'm Miles Barger.
Ashton: And I'm Ashton Hooker.
Miles: Hey, Ashton.
Ashton: Hey, Miles.
Miles: How's it going?
Ashton: Pretty good. How are you doing?
Miles: I'm doing pretty well. Are you ready to record a fire podcast today?
Ashton: Yes, straight fire podcast coming your way.
Miles: Because today we're going to talk to John Cataldo, Yellowstone's Fire Management Officer and before we get started I have to do a little fire trivia, it's it's going to be a trite one, but I think it's still interesting. So Yellowstone record fire in 1988. How many acres of the park burned? during those fires.
Ashton: I know it was massive. I know it was a lot.
Miles: It was a lot.
Ashton: I mean, in.
Miles: Round to the nearest 100,000 if you want.
Ashton: Okay. I was going to say a few hundred thousand. I'll say 600,000 figures. Okay. I'm getting the motion a little more. 800,000.
Miles: That would be the right rounding.
Ashton: nice.
Miles: 793,880 is the official number I found.
Ashton: You know, like if we were to compare.
Miles: And that's. That's not the full fire.
Ashton: Like what's, like, 800,000 acres compared to.
Miles: Gosh, that's a good question. Yellowstone, 2.2 ish million. Okay. Which is what states combined Rhode Island.
John: To roll out.
Miles: To Rhode Island.
John: And.
Miles: So not so maybe two thirds of Rhode Island is 36% of the park. Pretty big.
Ashton: That's a pretty big fire.
Miles: Yeah, pretty big. And that's just inside of Yellowstone. Anyway, there's our trivia. But today, like I said, we're talking to John Cataldo, fire management officer here, ready to dive in. I'm ready. All right, good. So in your career, have you always worked for the National Park Service in your career? Did you start with a different agency in terms of fire?
John: I started with the National Park Service and 1992, and I've kind of oscillated back and forth between the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service, but always a federal agent.
Miles: Okay. Yep. What was your first job in fire?
John: My first job in or in general or. Well, in general, It was actually part of my financial aid package when I was an undergrad at Humboldt State University. I was offered a work study opportunity as part of my financial aid, and I was studying wildlife management at Humboldt State University in Northern California. And my my advisor and a department chair was married to the branch chief of Wildlife at Redwood National Park, and I was on academic scholarship as well at Humboldt and he kind of passed my name along to his wife and said, We've got a potential work study student, if, you know, interested in picking them up for some work and they
John: gave me a key to the office for Redwood National Park and a pile of wildlife observation cards that visitors and employees had filled out. And there was a pile pretty much up to the ceiling, and they gave me a key to the office and let me go in there 10 to 15 hours a week, all during the school year.
John: And just at my own pace, whenever I could fit in, in between classes and whatnot. And that was kind of my yeah, my my very first park service job.
Miles: Interesting. Yeah. So how long after that was it when you first got into fire of some kind?
John: The very next summer, I was working up in Alaska for the Forest Service and Cordova. Which is the last place I ever moved to without checking the Farmer's Farmer's Almanac. Like, how much rain or Sonic gets or doesn't get. And it turns out that Alaska gets 169 inches of rain a year. And I was working in fisheries at the time, so I studied wildlife and fisheries in college and so that was how I got my start in the service was those sorts of positions.
John: And so working in fisheries, we were outside every day in Cordova, you know, wearing rain gear. And I mean, honestly, after a couple of months of that, I was basically pruning like it just been like you know, you just had been in the shower for two months and they said, hey, do you want to go to a fire school?
John: And I just said, Is it indoors? And they're like, Yeah, it's it's down here. And the the district office was an old courthouse of...
Addy Falgoust, Park Guide
What We Do
03/27/24 • 27 min
View definitions and links discussed in this episode at go.nps.gov/WhatWeDoPodcast
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TRANSCRIPT:
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Ashton: From Yellowstone National Park. This is what we do. I'm Ashton Hooker.
Brett: And I'm Brett Raeburn.
Ashton: Hey, Brett.
Brett: Hey, Ashton. How's it going?
Ashton I'm good. How are you doing today?
Brett: I'm doing awesome. It's getting close to lunch, so my stomach might rumble a little bit here.
Ashton: Um, mine is seriously rumbling as well. I hope you can't hear it through the microphone.
Brett: Yeah, I have this big lunch box behind me. I'll try not to rummage in it too much. So, we'll see.
Ashton: Well, today we have Addy Falgoust who is a park guide here in Yellowstone. We're going to talk to her a little bit more about her job and what it's like. And so as a part guide, you know, if you're a visitor to Yellowstone, you might see them out and about either in the visitor center, roaming park trails, park-guided walks and talks, things like that. So along those same lines, we have the Junior Ranger program and it's pretty popular.
Brett: Yes, I've heard of it.
Ashton: It's in a bunch of different parks, Yellowstone as well. So my question for you, do you happen to know how many Junior Ranger badges are awarded here in Yellowstone?
Brett: Every year?
Ashton: Every year.
Brett: Number of Junior Ranger badges... so not just people who, like, get the books and don't go through to graduate?
Ashton: Correct.
Brett: I'm going to say... I'm trying to see if Miles would give me any hints here because he orders the badges. I think it's like I'm going to say 160,000.
Ashton: Oooh. Wow, That's more than I thought you're going to guess. But really, you're not too far off. So in the past couple of years, you know, we've had a few weird years with COVID and the flood and stuff, so it's been a little lower the past few years, but it's been about 50,000.
Brett: Okay. I'm like, So come on, Junior Rangers, step up.
Ashton: Yeah, Yeah.
Brett: But this year is going to be the year know 160,000.
Ashton: But in a normal year, it's about 50,000 to 100,000. So, you're not too far off.
Brett: That's that is a lot of Junior Rangers being sworn in.
Ashton: It's a lot more than I thought.
Brett: It's a lot of oath-takers.
Ashton: Yeah.
Brett: We're in good hands.
Ashton: Yes, we are. All the Junior Rangers out there. So, anyway, we're going to talk with Addy more about she does in the park. So, Addy, thanks for joining us.
Addy: Yeah, thanks for having me.
Ashton: How are you doing?
Addy: I'm doing well.
Ashton: Good, good. So, ready to dive in?
Addy: Absolutely.
Ashton: Okay. So how did you get your start with the National Park Service?
Addy: So I got my start in 2017 as an intern in Glacier Bay National Park.
Ashton: And that's in Alaska?
Addy: That's correct. Yeah. It often gets mistaken for a glacier in Montana. So often I do specify Glacier BAY in Alaska.
Brett: I heard that emphasis on BAY. Yeah.
Ashton: Cool. And so what drew you to that? Did you always know you wanted to be a park ranger?
Addy: So growing up, my family traveled to national parks. I think a lot of people in this career and they kind of, you know, was really interested. I fell in love with the Tetons and I was like, I want to live where they are one day. And the way to live there is to become a park ranger. So simple enough, I'll just just do that. And, you know, it got a little bit more complicated than that. But in high school and college, I started to look more seriously into pursuing a career in that direction. I actually visited Yellowstone in college and spoke to some Rangers on that trip and asked them, "Hey, how do I get into this field?" And they gave me some good information on internship programs like the SCA and also how to find jobs in USA Jobs.
Brett: What is that, SCA, just for those who don't know?
Addy: Yeah. So the SCA is the Student Conservation Association, and the internship that I did in Glacier Bay was through them. Ashton: Okay. And so what exactly did you do?
Addy: Yeah. So the position there was an education intern, and Glacier Bay has pretty few visitors that actually set foot on the land there. And the number of visitors in the winter is prett...
Pat Bigelow, Fisheries Biologist
What We Do
03/20/24 • 33 min
Learn more about fish management in Yellowstone at go.nps.gov/YELLFishMgmt
View definitions & links discussed in this episode at go.nps.gov/WhatWeDoPodcast
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TRANSCRIPT:
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Brett Raeburn From Yellowstone National Park. This is what we do. I'm Brett Raeburn.
Jake Frank And I'm Jake Frank.
Brett Raeburn So I have a question for you to kick this off. What's the, What's the biggest fish that you've ever caught?
Jake Frank The biggest fish I've ever. I was. I used to live in Alaska, and I went halibut fishing, and I caught, like, a 40 pound halibut. That's the. That's the biggest I've ever caught.
Brett Raeburn It's a way bigger than you're gonna say I was expecting.
Jake Frank And that's like, a.
Brett Raeburn Much less impressive size.
Jake Frank Well, that is a, that's a fairly unimpressive halibut. So for that species anyway.
Brett Raeburn Well you've got me beat.
Jake Frank Are you, are you, are you big into fishing.
Brett Raeburn No, about the only fishing I do is when I'm fishing through the freezer for frozen cod that I get from the store. So that's about. That's about as much as I do.
Jake Frank Before you cook it. Do you, like, hold it out in front of you and have someone take a picture so it looks better.
Brett Raeburn I have been known to do that. Follow my Instagram for all that content. Yeah. I also I also want to I want to start off with a trivia question, too, just to see. So you've caught you've got some pretty impressive fish, it sounds like.
Jake Frank Not really.
Brett Raeburn If you turn, you turn over that paper in front of you. There's something on there that I would like you to try to pronounce. You have not seen this before. So this is.
Jake Frank Alright? Let's see. Can I. Can I sound it out? So, Encore, Hankis, Clarki Lewisi?
Pat Bigelow Was that.
Brett Raeburn I was. I was. Well, I actually don't know. This is like one of those trivia questions I don't even know the right answer to. So. Sure you did. Well, all right, That's better than what I would’ve done.
Jake Frank But my guess is that this is the is this the binomial name for the Yellowstone cutthroat trout?
Brett Raeburn Yes, that is the scientific name for the West Slope. Cutthroat trout.
Jake Frank The West Slope. Not that. Not the Yellowstone. Okay.
Brett Raeburn All right. And so today we're going to talk to somebody who probably can pronounce it better than you just did, although I still think that was a pretty good pretty good guess. Our guest today is Pat Bigelow, fisheries biologist who spends a lot of her time on the waters of Yellowstone National Park. So welcome, Pat. How's it going?
Pat Bigelow Hey, Brett and hey Jake. Great. Beautiful day today.
Jake Frank Yeah, it is.
Pat Bigelow And You did pretty good: Oncorhynchus.
Jake Frank Oncorhynchus.
Jake Frank All right. So I was in the wheelhouse.
Pat Bigelow Yeah.
Brett Raeburn I love the Lewisi Clarki.
Jake Frank Is that how you see it? Or is it a line that that works?
Pat Bigelow Yeah that works, Lewisi Clarkii.
Pat Bigelow Yeah.
Brett Raeburn All right. I wonder where that came from.
Jake Frank I don't. I don't speak a lot of Latin.
Jake Frank So.
Brett Raeburn So I guess we'll just jump right into it. How long have you been working as a fisheries biologist? Well, as any job. How long have you been at Yellowstone National Park?
Pat Bigelow I've been here in this job for 23 years.
Brett Raeburn Wow.
Pat Bigelow I've been working in fisheries for 36 years.
Jake Frank Probably so. Fresh out of middle school.
Pat Bigelow Yeah.
Pat Bigelow Exactly.
Pat Bigelow Yeah.
Pat Bigelow I was really fortunate that I got some great opportunities early in life.
Brett Raeburn Very cool. And so how did you get your start here? 20, 23 years ago.
Pat Bigelow Actually, my first job was here in 1979. I was in Bozeman working a summer job, and I went down to the unemployment office to see if I could just give something better. And there was a poster up on the wall for a young Adult Conservation Corps in Yellowstone National Park, and I jumped at it. It sounded interesting.
Pat Bigelow I came down here. We had a I don't know if you guys are familiar with the YCC camp, but when we were actual Corps members, we had a girls dorm, boys do...
03/04/24 • 18 min
A tip for our listeners: If you want to work for the National Park Service, start by creating an account on USAjobs.gov, building your resume, and searching for open positions within the NPS. Visit go.nps.gov/WhatWeDoPodcast for more info.
Stay tuned for more episodes featuring park employees beginning March 20!
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TRANSCRIPT:
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Jake: From Yellowstone National Park. This is what we do. Hey, everyone, and welcome to the What We Do podcast. I'm Jake Frank. Our team of four will be interviewing ten people over the next ten weeks to take you behind the scenes to share stories from people who work for the National Park Service in the world's first national Park. So, first things first. Hi, team. How's everybody doing?
Ashton and Brett: Hey Jake!
Miles: Awesome.
Jake: Why don't we do some quick team intros? So, if we do, let's say your name, your title, or maybe your division. How long you've been in Yellowstone, what your favorite hobbies, ha no. And maybe if there's any other parks you've worked at. Miles?
Miles: All right. I'm Miles Barger. I'm the publications program manager here at Yellowstone in the Division of Resource Education and Youth Programs. I've been in Yellowstone for about three years this time around. I worked here earlier in my career as well. And I've also worked at Denali National Park and Black Kane of the Gunnison National Park and at Harpers Ferry Center. You can look that up if you want to know what it is.
Jake: Brett, what about you?
Brett: Yeah. So, I'm the newbie here. I've only been in Yellowstone for about two years so far. Before that, I was at Shenandoah National Park for 12 years, and I'm the digital media specialist here, which basically deals with the website social media, the NPS app and digital exhibits in the visitor centers. Ashton how long have you been here?
Ashton: Well, Yellowstone's actually my first park, and I've been here for about four years now as digital communications specialist for the superintendent's office. So, working on similar types of things, as Brett said, social media and the like. So, what about you, Jake?
Jake: I'm the I'm the old guy here, apparently. I've been here a little less than eight years, got here in 2016. I've worked at a handful of parks. I started in the Tetons and then went to Glacier, then Carlsbad Caverns, then up to Denali. Miles woot woot!
Miles: Yeah.
Jake: And then worked for Rocky. Also, Miles! Woot woot!
Brett: So, Miles has been following Jake.
Miles: Yeah, I’ve been following Jake.
Jake: And then Yellowstone. And then I got my first permanent job in Glacier doing media and then came here permanently. I also am a digital communication specialist like Ashton. I also work in the superintendent's office with Ashton, but it seems like everybody here on the team are all involved in media, web, social photography, videography, kind of everything podcasting. Now our resume is getting longer the longer we're here. So that's good stuff. Yeah. So now they know who we are. Let's give you some of the highlights of the park. So as far as the employees and the money. Yellowstone has about 750 employees each year and 350 of those are year-round permanent employees. And in addition to our paid staff, we also have about 450 volunteers that help with various things throughout the park. We have a federal appropriation, so the money that we get from Congress, you know, when a budget's passed is around $40 million, but it takes at least double that to operate the park each year. So, I think last year it was around $81 or $82 million. And, you know, if you're a budget person, you're like, how does it work, you know, to run a park on 80 million if you only get 40 million? And basically, we make up the difference through other revenue streams, like, you know, when you come to the park and pay an entrance fee or if you're a commercial, the if you are a commercial tour operator in the park. And then we also have philanthropic donations. So, people who donate to the park or our nonprofit Yellowstone Forever and all that money is not even including the major infrastructure project dollars, because some years with projects included, we spend upwards of like $125 million each year.
Miles: Yeah, and let's talk about Yellowstone's resources. Yellowstone itself is a pretty big park for 2.2 million acres, not the largest park in the lower 48. I think we're Second Death Valley is 3 million or something, but we are pretty big. 2.2 million acres. And even more than that, Yellowstone is at the heart of the surrounding area, which is known as the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which is, you know, if we didn't have these m...
05/15/24 • 31 min
View definitions/links discussed in this episode at go.nps.gov/WhatWeDoPodcast
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TRANSCRIPT:
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Ashton: From Yellowstone National Park. This is what we do. I'm Ashton hooker.
Miles: And I'm Miles Barger.
Ashton: Hi Miles.
Miles: Hey, how's it going?
Ashton: Good. How are you?
Miles: I'm pretty good.
Ashton: Well, thanks for joining. We are joined today by Bret De Young.
Bret: Hello.
Ashton: Thanks, Bret. He is the supervisory telecommunications specialist here in Yellowstone. So to kind of kick us off with this conversation about telecommunications, you know, cell towers, computers, all the, like, techie stuff that can be a little polarizing here in a park like Yellowstone. People like, you know, remote places without any connectivity. We're going to get into all that. But I have a little trivia for you first. So let's see. We're talking about data. This is a big park, a lot of employees, a lot of computers, a lot a lot of storage. How much storage do you think is supported on Yellowstone's network?
Miles: I'll take a wild guess. 100TB.
Ashton: You're actually spot on. Wow that's amazing.
Miles: I remember Mark's emails.
Ashton: Good job. So to put that into perspective, I was like, what does 100TB actually mean? So correct me if I'm wrong. This was just some brief googling. so 300,000 digital photos require one terabyte. So if you multiply that by 100, that is 30 million photos.
Miles: That's a ton. That's a lot of data and storage. One hour of eight K footage. Just kidding.
Ashton: That's probably not too far off. Yeah. But anyway, to get into this topic more, we have Bret De Young. Thanks for joining us, Bret. How are you doing?
Bret: I'm doing good.
Ashton: Good, good. So starting us off. Where did you get your start in the National Park Service?
Bret: In the National Park Service. I started volunteering with the National Park Service. I came to Yellowstone right after graduating from Purdue, and I worked for the concessionaire, and I worked with the Rangers at Ole Faithful doing search and rescue and a number of other different things. the other jobs that I did for the concessionaire and risk management and fire safety, I worked for the fire marshal, and I worked with the safety office. And, so, in an engineering office, I worked with a facility, maintenance division. So I knew most everybody pretty well after the 16 years that I'd worked for the concessionaire. And, then I one day I got a call from someone, and I applied for a job, and I walked across the street, and I asked them where the cafeteria was because the concessionaire, they fed us every day, and they told me I had to bring my own lunch.
Ashton: Oh, man.
Bret: So I'm still. I'm still working through that.
Ashton: Yeah. You're still learning how to tweet yourself every day.
Miles: Why did you first come out and start volunteering? well, are you just an outdoors person before that or.
Bret: Yeah, I was I came out here like most people do because they want to experience outdoors and they want to live in it, and they want to, you know, if rather than taking a vacation, they want to walk out the door and do it on their time off. And, so, yeah, I was just drawn to that. And, it was a really close knit community down at Old Faithful, and we ended up working winters and summers seasonally. And, you know, we all worked closely with the Rangers, so it was just nice to spend time and broaden our, our sphere.
Ashton: Was there something about Yellowstone that drew you here, or was it just kind of you just happened to come out?
Bret: It was, Yeah. I was graduating from college in 1989, at Purdue and, it was during a recession at the time. And I was I was gung ho to start paying off student loans.And I had a friend that kept saying, I love, you know, I've been working summers in Yellowstone and Yellowstone and, you should come out. And I said, okay, let's come out for a summer. And, I think you hear that story a lot. You know, people get hooked. You got hooked. So, yeah. And, my wife came out eventually, not long after that. And so we just made a home of it. Cool. There's. I mean, it's such a big park, and there's so many opportunities. You can move all over the place laterally, and and, there's a lot to do here. That's, that's a benefit of a great big park.
Ashton: So as a supervisory telecommun...
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