02. Alaska Park Management

September 1993

Management - Alaska Style

My first trip to Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve was to inspect operations involved with the 7 fires burning out of control in the park. I found that "we" were not terribly concerned about the 150,000 acre fire, but "we" were worried about the 30,000 acre fire which was threatening some private in-holdings (including a 1,500 gallon fuel dump).

I decided to get a first hand view of the fire operation, via the park's Cessna 185. I was impressed with the ability of the ranger/pilot; until my first landing at Coal Creek (the only in-park operation in Yukon-Charley). We "buzzed" the "runway" to “check things out”. No moose or bear. We could land. I could not help but ask him why we couldn't get the small rocks for our runway like they had at Eagle? Basically the area has been "smoothed" out from mine tailings. .

Throughout my career I have found that success is singular and problems are plural. Management problems were expanding in geometrical proportion to the size of the fire. Seems the Alaska Fire Service, who was fighting the fire, had learned that we had a hazardous material pollution site that would qualify for clean-up from the superfund. It was located in the next valley over and, although we were not certain, there was some potential for the same situation here. A short while later these fears were confirmed; Coal Creek was indeed a superfund site.

The crew finally did agree to stay on the fire; but insisted that we move their base camp to Eagle and fly them in each day. I was a bit concerned about logistics of an hour flight each way (read that as, "What the hell would this do to the budget?). While I was thinking it over, the fire-pro helicopter landed.

A couple of guys got out. I started walking over to the older to get an up-to-date report on the fire. When he started pumping fuel; and remembering my previous experience with Alaskan pilots, I knew he was the one to question about flying the crew. There did not seem to be a problem and AFS was paying. I decided he might be a good pilot to fly with since he, “ had been flying helicopters for a "long time. Learned in "the war", he said. I don't know which war he was talking about but knew it was far enough back to give him plenty of experience.

The helo pilot as me if the "fuel problem" has been settled. I knew I was not going to be happy but as the Superintendent knew I better know as much as possible, "What problem is that?"

A couple of weeks ago the "experienced" fire-pro pilot pumped 40 gallons of AV gas into the helicopter instead of the needed Jet-B fuel. The pilot claims the barrels were mislabeled but the investigation could not prove it. Operating out of barrels was already being questioned, since someone had put sugar in the NPS airplane fuel last year. We are using these situations to get the regional office to spring for a permanent, secure fuel dump. I was happy because the helicopter did not seem to be harmed and was back on fire-fighting duty.

A good thing too! That night, one of our regional archaeologists, working with the fire crew, became ill. She was fortunate that one of our seasonal rangers is a retired physician and realized the serious nature (acute peritonitis) of the situation. We got the fire-pro copter in that night, transported her to a med-evac plane at Eagle, and had her in the Fairbanks hospital. Several hours but pretty damn fast for Alaska, she was in Fairbanks surgery. Diagnosis was that she would have died had the helicopter not been available. “Nah”, evaluated our seasonal “ranger”, “fire-fighter”, “retired physician”. “I can’t see too good anymore; but, they ain’t nothin’ to takin’ out an appendix. I could have told any of these idiots how to do it.”

I was pleased with the whole thing, then, yesterday, I learned that this bird had lost an engine and auto-rotated down in Denali National Park. No injuries, but the contractor is now claiming it was the Yukon-Charley AVgas. Don't know where all this will lead as the investigation continues.Don't believe that he could have made the number of flights he did after the "fuel problem" and still have that as cause of the auto-rotation. Suspect the Superintendent of Denali would like for the problem to belong to the Superintendent of Yukon-Charley.

The Air Force has a Military Operating Area which takes in most of the park. This particular MOA is used mostly for fighter training exercises…..mock battles. I decided, in the interest of public relations, to attend a pilot briefing and de-briefing for Operation Cope Thunder at Eilson AFB. I listened to their missions and concerns and then presented ours. It was a great learning experience in more ways than one.

The briefing was at 7 AM and the de-briefing at 1:30 PM so there was slack time to fill and the pilots felt that I could better understand their position if I spent some time in the F-16 "lawn dart" flight simulator. I found out what life is like in the fast lane.

The screens around the cockpit offer a realistic view. I did manage to avoid the major NO-NO. I did not get sick, but my stomach had had enough when I crawled out of there a couple of hours later.

This is the ultimate video game. I managed to shoot down a couple of slow moving "bandits". Then saw a couple of more ahead. "They're getting away!", the pilot monitoring the simulator said.

I hit the afterburner and they disappeared. "Where did they go?", I exclaimed.

The controller said, "They are a couple of hundred miles behind you!"

Finally it was time for the scary part....landing. I did manage to get it down without crashing, "unusual for a non-pilot". But the controller stated, "I have never seen so much of the North American continent in the last 1,000 feet of descent" A gross exaggeration, we only saw most of Alaska.

I decided that I did not want to be a jet fighter pilot. Everything happens fast! I asked the pilot if the radar of an F-16 was capable of "seeing" slow moving, small planes, say like a Cessna 185 for instance? Sure, he said, "no problem" they could pick up the heat of engine parts at about 10 miles and that gave them, "let's see, uh, shoot we have about a minute or so to avoid one of them slow, low flying 'bug smashers'!"

Although a great deal of my time has been involved with flight, there are other things happening in the park. Fishing season is over, subsistence hunting season has started and sports hunting is about to begin. We found out that the beaver we have been studying built a dam that flooded the road to a mining claim. Now, I have to figure out how to get access to the claim without ruining the beaver study. We also have research programs involved with peregrine falcons, dall sheep, caribou, martens, grizzly bears and wolves. There is a recommendation to turn an old mining operation into a historic district, the catch is that this includes the polluted "super-fund" site. Trappers have illegally used one of our cabins, we have their property impounded and now have to figure out how we get it out of the park.

I believe there is enough to keep me busy here for a few years. This Epistle from Paul is tuning into a book. I will close by saying that this is an example of life in Alaska and I will continue with the "rest of the story" later.