Seasonal -and Permanent- Greetings!

Photo by Kevin Bacher

The highly capable and eminently professional staff of the Volunteer Program would like to wish you and your families the best of the season. Now, let it snow!

Mount Rainier will be featured at a City Club luncheon on March 19

Painting by Allan Dreyer, Mount Rainier volunteer

Washington's National Park Fund invites you to attend a luncheon program at the City Club of Tacoma, at which Randy King, Laurie Ward, and I will be the guest speakers. Tickets must be purchased in advance, and are $17 for City Club members and $23 for non-members. The luncheon will take place from 11:30 to 1:30 on March 19, 2014 at the Tacoma Art Museum, 1701 Pacific Avenue in Tacoma. Here's a description of the event, from the City Club's website:

Please join us for an uplifting presentation about the current state of our national parks in Washington. Mt. Rainier Superintendent Randy King, Laurie Ward, Executive Director from WNPF, and Ranger Kevin Bacher will talk about the current challenges, recent achievements and plans in the future. RANDY KING: Randy King is the current Superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park.He has worked all over the US, and even in a World Heritage Area exchange in Australia. Randy grew up in Michigan, and remembers spending most weekends outdoors with his family. Randy describes Mount Rainier National Park as “a powerful place that encompasses all you would expect from a national park.” He likes to get outside as much as possible, and still goes out to hike with his family almost every weekend. KEVIN BACHER: Kevin Bacher is the Volunteer and Outreach Program Manager at Mount Rainier National Park. He has a Master's Degree in Natural Resource Management from Cornell University, and has been working for the National Park Service since volunteering at the Grand Canyon in 1986. LAURIE WARD: Laurie Ward is the Executive Director of Washington’s National Park Fund, where she has served since spring, 2010. She has a Master’s in Education from the University of Wisconsin. In her free time, she and her husband enjoy hiking in our national parks and forests with their yellow lab, Brady.

Mount Rainier National Park receives 2013 America’s Best Idea grant from the National Park Foundation

July 10, 2013: For Immediate Release

Alanna Sobel, National Park Foundation, asobel@nationalparks.org, (202) 354-6486
Kevin Bacher, Mount Rainier National Park, kevin_bacher@nps.gov, (360) 569-6567
Jay Satz, Student Conservation Association, jsatz@thesca.org, (206) 550-5977

Mount Rainier is one of 34 national parks across the country selected to receive a 2013 America’s Best Idea grantfrom the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks. Inspired by the critically acclaimed Ken Burns documentary “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” the America’s Best Idea program funds park activities designed to connect diverse, underserved and under-engaged populations throughout the United States with their national parks in innovative and meaningful ways.

“One of the great things about our national parks is that every American can relate to these treasured places if given the chance to experience them,” said Jonathan B. Jarvis, Director of the National Park Service. “It’s our mission to engage visitors from all backgrounds in the diverse stories that we tell in our national parks. Thanks to the support of the National Park Foundation, we can propel that outreach, and engage new audiences that would otherwise never have the opportunity to experience a national park.”

“The America’s Best Idea program gives people – particularly youth – incredible opportunities to connect to ournational parks through unique and innovative ways,” said Neil Mulholland, President and CEO of the National Park Foundation. “From experiences that center on history, the environment and even adventure, we are able to capture the imagination of a new generation of park-goers in ways that benefit their lives and the future of the parks.”

At Mount Rainier, the America’s Best Idea grant supports a long standing and growing partnership between theNational Park Service and the Student Conservation Association (SCA). “SCA’s mission is to build the next generation of conservation stewards, by connecting them to our parks and forests through the action of conservation service,” said Jay A. Satz, SCA’s Regional Vice President.

“We are fortunate here at Mount Rainier to work with SCA’s Community Conservation Program, which engages high school students in Seattle during the school year, and then brings them to Mount Rainier to serve with 15-day trail crews during the summer,” said Kevin Bacher, Mount Rainier’s Volunteer Program Manager. “SCA’s outreach to members of military families at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, through a program called ‘Base to Base Camp,’ has resulted in almost half of this year’s crew members coming from JBLM. And we’ve worked with SCA For decades to provide interns who support park staff in critical roles, learning skills, doing important work, and serving the public. Through our partnership with SCA this summer, 37 young people will contribute more than 9,000 hours of conservation service at Mount Rainier while having an extraordinary national park experience.”

Funding from the National Park Foundation supports the crew leaders for three eight-person trail maintenance teams, each made up of Community Program members from Seattle and Base-to-Base Camp youth from JBLM. The first crew is in the field now, and the second and third will be in the park later this month and next. Additional funding for the program comes from the National Park Service’s Youth Partnerships Program and Washington’sNational Park Fund.

“We are pleased to work with SCA’s Community Crews again this year, and especially pleased to welcome members of our military families at Joint Base Lewis-McChord,” said Randy King, Superintendent of Mount RainierNational Park. “These grants allow us to reach out to the conservation leaders of tomorrow and offer them a great experience in their national parks, as well as stepping stones toward possible future careers. We look forward to working with these young men and women for many years to come.”

For a full listing of participating parks and program descriptions, please visit the National Park Foundation website.

The National Park Foundation wishes to thank L.L. Bean, the Anschutz Family Foundation, and The Ahmanson Foundation for their generous support of the America’s Best Idea program.

About the National Park Service

More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 401 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov and www.nps.gov/mora.

About the National Park Foundation

The National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks, raises private funds that directly aid, support and enrich America’s more than 400 national parks and their programs. Chartered by Congress as the nonprofit partner of the National Park Service, the National Park Foundation plays a critical role in conservation and preservation efforts, establishing national parks as powerful learning environments, and giving all audiences an equal and abundant opportunity to experience, enjoy and support America’s treasured places. For more information on the National Park Foundation or how you can support and protect America’s national parks, please visitwww.nationalparks.org. Follow them on Facebook at facebook.com/nationalpark and on Twitter attwitter.com/goparks.

About the Student Conservation Association
The Student Conservation Association (SCA) is a nationwide conservation force of college and high school volunteers who protect and restore America’s parks, forests, and other public lands. For more than 50 years, SCA’s active, hands-on approach to conservation has helped to develop a new generation of conservation leaders, inspire lifelong stewardship, and save our planet. For more information, visit www.thesca.org.

- NPS -

Volunteers represent Mount Rainier in 4th of July Parade

This 4th of July, seven volunteers and family members joined six rangers to represent Mount Rainier National Park in the Eatonville Independence Day parade. Along with Lee Snook, Jim and Kevin Ross, Kevin Bacher, Dave Uberuaga, and Randy King, participants included Meadow Rovers Ed Hunds and Allan Dreyer; Dave's wife Barbara; Randy's wife Sally; and junior rangers Kate, Daniel, and Christian.

Besides showing pride for the park on a day when The Mountain was gloriously visible, this year's group also carried banners on both sides of a park patrol vehicle wishing Dave and Barbara Uberuaga farewell as they move later this month "from the top of The Mountain to the bottom of The Canyon." Uberuaga has been selected as the new superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park.

Thank you to everyone who came out to represent Mount Rainier's role in the community!

More photos from the parade can be seen here.

Dave Uberuaga Takes On Grand Canyon National Park

After career of 27 years at Mount Rainier National Park, Dave Uberuaga will be leaving to become the superintendent at Grand Canyon National Park. Uberuaga was informed early yesterday that he had been selected to take over the second most visited park in the nation.

"It was not an easy decision," Uberuaga said. He started at Mount Rainier in July 1984 and has served as superintendent since November 2002.

The reaction among those connected to Mount Rainier, including our very own Volunteer Program Manager Kevin Bacher, has been universal in high praise for Uberuaga.

“He’s been a passionate advocate for the park and a visionary leader through some very challenging times,” Kevin stated to The News Tribune.

“Among many other things, he has supported wholeheartedly a transformation of the volunteer program at Mount Rainier, making it a key partner of the park’s mission and integrated into every part of park operations. "

To read more, visit The News Tribune article published June 1st.

New phone numbers; welcome to Patti Poulin!

Mount Rainier National Park has just gone "live" with a brand new phone system, which provides direct-dial phone numbers to most individuals and offices in the park but means that most of the park's old phone numbers will soon become obsolete. There will be a month-long grace period during which old phone extensions will transfer automatically to the new numbers, but after that, you'll need to know the new number.

Mount Rainier's main phone number, 360-569-2211, will not change, and you will still be able to search for an employee by name when you call that number. If you're volunteering in the park, check with your supervisor to find out their new phone number. Here are a few other numbers you might want to keep track of (all begin with 360-569-):

-6571 Jackson Visitor Center (Paradise)
-6575 Longmire Museum
-6581 Ohanapecosh Visitor Center
-6600 Park dispatch
-6670 White River Ranger Station
360-829-9639 Carbon River Ranger Station

-6567 Kevin Bacher, Volunteer Program Manager
-6588 Patti Poulin, Volunteer Coordinator Intern

"Patti Poulin" is a new name for most of you--so please join me in welcoming our brand new summer Volunteer Coordinator Intern, here through the Student Conservation Association! Patti fills the role that Evan Escamilla was in last summer, and will be helping to coordinate volunteer projects throughout the summer. She comes to us most recently from the non-profit Ouray Ice Park, and has previous experience with the Bureau of Land Management in Tucson, The Nature Conservancy, the YMCA, and Outward Bound. If you're in Longmire, stop in and say hello!

Standing on the shoulders of giants

I was surprised and incredibly humbled, today, mid-way through two weeks of annual leave with my family at Christmas time, to turn to the last page of the News Tribune and find my name among several others listed as "Outdoors Giants of 2010." It's all for coordinating the work of more than 2,000 volunteers this past year.

But none of that would have been possible without the help of so many partners from the community -- the Washington Trails Association, Student Conservation Association, Mount Rainier National Park Associates, Washington's National Park Fund, Discover Your Northwest, Washington Ski Touring Club, Japan Volunteers in Parks Association, Boy Scouts of America, Seattle Parks, Tacoma MetroParks, REI, Boeing, the Backcountry Horsemen, Nisqually and Pathfinder Schools, Evergreen State College, the list goes on and on and on. And of course special thanks must go to my partner this summer, Evan Escamilla from SCA, who as an intern was so instrumental in keeping everything on track and running smoothly.

An none of it would be possible, either, without the help of hundreds of other individual volunteers, too numerous to even begin to name here. Browse through the blog entries from this past year for a small sampling of all the people who actually did the work, building trails, curating photographs, assisting visitors, rebuilding rock walls, surveying amphibians, creating promotional videos, planting native plants and tending them in the greenhouse, again the list goes on and on and on.

These are the true Outdoors Giants of Mount Rainier, and I feel positively Llliputian in comparison. Thank you, everyone, for a great year!

Photo of "volunteers in action" wins National Public Lands Day photo contest

A photo of one of our volunteers participating in National Public Lands Day on September 27, 2008 was selected as a winner of the annual NPLD Photo Contest! Volunteer Program Manager Kevin Bacher's photo of Bintou Sangare brushing the Snow Lake Trail will be featured on the NPLD website and in related publications--and has earned Kevin a gift basket from sponsor Aveeno!

Romance at Rainier

O.K., I debated whether to post this, because our volunteer program is about you, not me, but the article and photo do feature three of Mount Rainier's dedicated volunteers, even if they are my wife and kids! For what it's worth, enjoy the photo, and the accompanying article, which features not only my own family but several others for whom Mount Rainier has long played a major supporting role.

Or consider this another plug for the volunteer program. "Find meaning and romance volunteering at Mount Rainier!"

The article is by Jeff Mayor and the photos by Dean Koepfler.

Mount Rainier's volunteer program nominated for a George B. Hartzog Jr. Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service

Mount Rainier's volunteer program--that means you, folks!--was nominated today for a George B. Hartzog Jr. Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service. The award is named after a former NPS Director, who established the Volunteers-in-Parks program back in the 70s and promoted volunteerism in the parks throughout his career.

Every year, the National Park Service presents three such awards: one to an individual; one to a group; and one to a volunteer program. Past awards have recognized individuals, groups, and programs throughout the Service. Winners in our region have included Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the Crater Lake Ski Patrol. Mount Rainier has submitted several strong nominations over the years, including Clay and Dixie Gatchel (who did not win the Hartzog Award, but went on to win the national Take Pride in America Award for their years of service); Clyde and Lois Ambacher; and the Japan Volunteers-in-Parks Association.

Mount Rainier, of course, has always had a strong volunteer program. But this past year, we outdid ourselves (by which I mean, you outdid yourselves). The flood response last year raised our program from the level of "strong" to one of the best in the nation. That's my own opinion, of course. Now we'll see what a national committee of nomination reviewers thinks!

Some exerpts from our nomination:

"The public response and the successful flood recovery volunteer program is one of my career highlights. We truly engaged our public and through a very positive program, created thousands of new citizen stewards." - Superintendent Dave Uberuaga

"These partnerships [with SCA and the NW Storm Recovery Coalition] will continue, and with their help, and the help of existing park volunteers, the lasting legacy of the 2006 flood will not be devastated roads and trails, but a renaissance of public partnership in support of park stewardship." - Volunteer Program Manager Kevin Bacher

"Not only does senior management at Mount Rainier recognize volunteers as the true resource they are, but they recognize an even more important element to the equation. The foundation of Mount Rainier’s VIP program is not to just get work done that might not other wise be possible, it is also very deliberatively engaging the public to take ownership of their park."

"I am often asked by people why I choose to volunteer. One simply needs to experience ths subalpine meadows in the summer and see the grandeur of the environment; the explosion of color, the richness of the smells, hear the marmots whistling your approach, watch the variety of birds above and below you, hear the distant rumble of the glaciers as they groan, see the lines of climbers that seem like insignificant 'spots' on the snow heading toward Camp Muir and simply see the slopes of Mount Rainier towering above and you find the answer. As one experiences the treasure of Mount Rainier, you understand the need to protect and conserve this resource for the future and it is truly an honor as a volunteer to be able to participate in a small way in this effort." - Meadow Rover volunteer John Walsh

New Media!

New media are available on this website! Check out dozens of new pictures of volunteers in action--meadow roving at Sunrise, building trails, and helping with flood recovery efforts. You can also download and view two video interviews recorded by Communication Intern Susan Newman: One of Barry and Hunter Brown, trail repair volunteers (6.54 Mb), talking about their experiences and motivations for volunteering; and one of me--Kevin Bacher, Volunteer Program Manager (9.30 Mb)--summing up the volunteer program so far this year and our partnership with SCA. Enjoy!