Baby Boomer Ranger

Today we received a letter from Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell, subject: Best Places to Work Survey.

“The Washington Post’s Federal Diary contained an article entitled “Struggling to Boost Forest Service Morale,” which focuses on results from a recently published survey “Best Places to Work.” The survey was conducted by the Partnership for Public Service and American University’s Institute fo the Study of Public Policy Implementation. It rated federal agencies based on responses form 212,000 federal employee responses to questions about the work place, including training, employee empowerment, leadership , and matching skills to the agency mission. The Forest Service was ranked 206 our of 216 agencies surveyed. The Post article included comments from Congressional leaders, employees unions’ officials and Associate Chief Hank Kashdan’s testimony in an April congressional hearing.”

I love this place, but dang, have we got the bureaucratic “B S” or what?
Take this as an example of what we have to go through. I’ve been trying to complete all the approvals and requirements to go on the Earthwatch Fellowship trip. I received the announcement through official Forest Service channels and it all appears to be Forest Service supported and sanctioned, but you would never know it by the amount of paperwork that must be done!

I can’t sneeze without having to fill out, turn in, and get a form signed. I will spend more time completing forms for this trip than time I will spend in the airport.

What does it take to get out of here?

Acceptance Form
FS 6500-1 signed by my supervisor and the Regional Forester
AD-1101 signed by the Ethics Advisor
Liabiltiy Release
Health Form-Medical Release signed by my Doctor
Travel Authorization on www.govtrip.com (five screens worth of forms)
Personal Passport
SF-53
Two new Passport photos
DS-82 signed and dated
and now we were told, days before our trip that we need a Collection Agreement that has a whole set of five or more forms of its own!

What’s a Baby Boomer Ranger to do?

And the form said everybody must tell where you’re from and where you have been.
So I pulled out a pen and I scratched out a line – “I’m here, I think, and I am!”
And if you were here, I’d tell you to your face
Who are you to question my place?

Forms, forms, everywhere a form!
Blocking out my life by fillin’ in the line.
Do this, don’t do that, must I fill out that form?

And the form said that everybody must be approved.
So I pressed all the keys and checked all the blocks and did what I needed to do.
Hey, what does it cost to type up this crap and who really gives a damn?
If the people who pay, knew what I had to do, they’d bag even worse on you!

Forms, forms, everywhere a form!
Blocking out my life by fillin’ in the line.
Do this, don’t do that, did you fill out this form?

And the form said you gotta have this paper signed by Near and by A-far.
So many pages, to trace all the places, to approve where I want to go,
Did I know them, did they pay me, and what do they need to see?
Password, code word, sign on the line, attach a FS-53!
What is it, and who am I, and which is it gonna be?

Forms, forms, everywhere a form!
Blocking out my life by fillin’ in the line.
Do this, don’t do that, do I need this form?

And the form said we love you and we want you, come and be with us!
So made a copy, and scanned it too, and printed it for number three.
But the paper I made, and the promises they gave were only killing a tree.
The real life stuff, is not the stuff that’s on this form about me.
I’m just fine, and I blogged this line to show that I am free!

Forms, forms, everywhere a form!
Blocking out my life by fillin’ in the line.
Do this, don’t do that, I don’t need your form!
Do this, don’t do that, I don’t need any form!

(Special thanks to the Five Man Electrical Band for their song “Signs".)

The Forest Service is ranked 206 of 216.
I love this place, but I wonder who would sign a survey form that would approve of the Forest Service moving up the federal agency morale list?
Not this Baby Boomer Ranger.

Now I have a project I can really blog about! This Baby Boomer Ranger is going on an Earthwatch Expedition to Costa Rica.

Check this out. I’m going to be an international volunteer.

My journey started about four years ago, while enjoying my Saturday morning grande non-fat latte. Next to the recycled paper napkins and cinnamon shakers, I saw a brochure for a contest. Starbucks Coffee would to send a lucky winner on an Earthwatch Expedition to work as a volunteer living and doing research on a coffee plantation. I took the brochure, checked it out on the web, and it was much more than I thought.

I had an epiphany.

I had a dream of a volunteer and partnership program on the Sierra National Forest. People from all around the country, all around the world, would come to the Sierra National Forest and work with biologists, hydrologists, botanists in gathering data, protecting our national natural resources, and participating in a democratic public land management process. I called it my “Out of the Box Partnership Project.”

One part of my wild vision was having a chance to further develop my personal perspective and experience by participating in an Earthwatch Institute expedition. I blogged about it way back in July of 2005 in “Cultivate the Doers”

Since then, a lot of things on the Sierra changed. My job changed, but my interest in partnerships, travel, and international work experiences remains strong.

Responding to an email forwarded to me from my college roommate, I applied for an Earthwatch Institute Fellowship. Due to the generosity of a philanthropic environmentalist, four Forest Service employees will be able to participate in an international experience, living and working beside researchers and volunteers.

The Earthwatch Institute Mission:
“Earthwatch engages people worldwide in scientific field research and education to promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustainable environment.

We believe that achieving a sustainable future requires objective scientific data from the field - and that the scientific process must engage the general public if it is to change the the world. To that end, we involve people from all walks of life directly in global field research.”

How cool is that? I really like that part about science and changing the world. I’m going to see if it is as cool as it sounds.

Throughout my career, I have enjoyed many challenges with the diverse ecosystems of California. Now that I have projects from the top of the state to the bottom, I am looking to taking another step in expanding my personal professional experience. Participating in an Earthwatch Expedition will allow me a chance to explore other environmental work opportunities. I hope that this project will give me a new set of ecosystem stories, a new set of global conservation considerations, and international work exposure. I am looking to increase my environmental awareness and bring that insight to the people and projects I am leading.

On my spring 2009 trip to Central America, I got my feet wet and I’m ready to go again.

I’ve got my Smokey the Bear baseball cap and my tropical weight field clothes sprayed with deet. My camera battery is charged, my typhoid shots are up to date, and my boots are broken in. Even my fear of www.govtrip.com won’t stop me.

I’m leaving August 9 and returning on August 18, 2009. Please check back as I blog about my trip preparations along the way, my thoughts, my fears, and my occasional panic attacks. I’ll be blogging up until the trip, and if all goes well, I’ll be blogging from Costa Rica while I am there.

Caring for the land and serving coffee. What in the world does growing coffee have in common with the management of national forest lands?
Hell if I know, but let’s give it a try and find out.

This year, Earthwatch. Next year…who knows where this Baby Boomer Ranger will go?

I’m going to dare to dream – and blog about it!

February and March really threw me for a loop. I’m not accustomed to taking back blogs or not blogging about a big project. But, I’m ready to blog for April before this month is gone too. Time flies while you’re having fun!

My big event this month was the annual gathering of the AMSETers. We met in the Land of the Megawatts aka. Santa Clarita, California.
(Check out those 500 kV towers! You can feel the megawatts.)

We had a very good attendance for a unit meeting. All but four permanent team members were present. AMSET added two new permanent memebers since the last team meeting, one of which is me, and our new to the team Wildlife Biologist detailer made the meeting as well. Although Jo Ann, our Enterprise Team Leader, did not attend because she is still on sabbatical, she did conference call in for a brief update on how she is doing.

“I love working with adults!” I said to myself more than once during our meeting.

We had an agenda and we moved through it like we wanted to get something done. Like grown-up adults.

All in only one day we discussed:
The roles of the team leader and team members,
The possiblity of changing our name to Adaptive Management Services, instead of AMSET,
Changing or improving the appearance of our logo,
Defining or re-defining our team mission,
Assessing and defining our workload (need more work or overtaxed already?)
Reviewing and changing our organization charts,
Reviewing the discussing how we could improve our marketing,
Discussing what will our future look like?

And we took a group photo. Say “Cheese” for the camera!

AMSET is really three self directed teams: the Science Section, the Business Section and I’m in the Planning Section.

The Science Section people all like to run out in front of fires, throw equipment into plots and watch the flames. Then after everything is all charred and ashy, they gather up their data and compare the predicted fire behavior to the actual. Real fire data.

The Business Section does a lot of stuff no one likes to do, and hopes to never have to do. I’m glad they’re around because they help all of us in the Forest Service get resource management work done. They have the guts to face things like purchasing, hiring, and dealing with the dreaded ASC (Albuquerque Service Center.)

The Planning Section was originally set up as “cash cows” for the Science Section. It seems that everyone hates doing NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) analysis and are willing to pay big bucks to get it done - by someone else! That’s us, the mercenary, work for pay: “Caring-for-the-Land-and-I’ll-Get-Your-Project-Done-for-a-Fee Planners.” The sick part is we really like our jobs. Well, maybe not exactly … at least I really like project planning.

The best part was meeting everyone on my Enterprise Team.

We didn’t sit and talk about when we would begin to talk about our organization. We didn’t study our workloads and pontificate on possible trends and analyze staffing alternatives until the cows came home. We didn’t decide to put off to tomorrow what we knew we wanted to do today. We didn’t whine about declining budgets and downsizing. We didn’t complain about when to turn in reports and targets. We didn’t dance around last year’s deficit and wring our hands over cries of cutting the budget.

We were honest and direct, and said what we wanted then moved on to the next item. The first ground rule up front was that no one was to have hurt feelings about what was said at the meeting.

Ah, how refreshing! Our organizational planning is done for now. I’m off to work my billable hours. There are projects to be planned!

Blog redacted upon request.

See me if you have any questions.
/Cindy

In the memoirs of Forest Service lore, there are tales of Rangers jumping on their horse and riding for days, fixing trails, looking for forest fires and literally spitting and whittling with ranchers and loggers. We are told romantic tales of leaving their wife behind in the little cabin in the forest for long days of campfires, cans of beans, cowboy poetry and sleeping on the ground under the stars. An early Forest Service forester’s duty was riding the trail alone with his horse and a shovel to stop the flames of an occasional lightening fire. “Home, home on the range!”

But, where does Baby Boomer Ranger roam?

I very much wanted to attend the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco to see the latest in Apple computers, software and accessories. But, I also had commitments to two of my projects. Every Tuesday, I have a project status update conference call with the Shasta- Trinity National Forest, and every Wednesday, I have a conference call with the Bureau of Land Management, the City of Los Angels Department of Water and Power, and their project contractor.

What’s a Baby Boomer Ranger to do?
Answer: Do it all!

In the middle of computer software vendors and demonstrations of iLife, iPhones, and iMacs, I stepped aside and did my Baby Boomer Ranger work. I made my conference calls. I do not think that the others on the calls knew where I was, and it really didn’t matter. I was there with them, doing my job “Caring for the Land and Serving People.” My office was temporarily situated in Moscone Center. After doing my public servant duty, I was alone with no horse, but I did have my cell phone, my digital camera and my iTouch.

My temporary office at MacWorld

From the convention, I should mention one amazing item I learned about at MacWorld. There are now digital cameras that automatically ‘geotag’ photos. The camera has a GPS unit build-in, and when you take a photo, it adds the location to the photo’s metadata. After you download your photo, you can call up a Google map that displays digital pins at the locations where you took your photos. I thought, “Now that is what a Baby Boomer Ranger needs, photos that remember the locations of where you were!”

Me and my iTouch at MacWorld

This week, I grabbed my Google map and my cell phone, threw my dress clothes in my overnight bag, and put my laptop computer in its Samsonite wheelie briefcase. I’m in downtown Los Angeles for a face-to-face meeting on the Barren Ridge Transmission Line Project. Surrounded by high-rise office buildings, I’ll figuratively ‘spit and whittle’ on how to protect the natural resources on the Angeles National Forest and provide renewable energy to the City of Los Angeles. Again, no horse, no shovel, and if I see any flames, I’ll be running in the opposite direction!

Sunrise in the City of Los Angeles, Central Library and the Bonaventure Hotel

When traveling for work, I like to drive the Forest Service hybrid (if it is available) and I enjoy Subway sandwiches and an occasional In-and-Out burger. Sometimes, I’ll partake in a glass of merlot and dinner at a restaurant draped in white linen tablecloths. If can stay awake in the evening, I’ll spend a few minutes blogging or surfing the World Wide Web. My computer, my digital camera and my cell phone are always with me and I call my husband every day I am away.

Last week, I was in the Moscone Center in the heart of San Francisco, and this week I am in downtown Los Angeles next to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Disney Concert Hall. When I get back to my office in Clovis, I’ll plug in my cell phone, and set up my computer. I need to call the Shasta-T again, as well as the Lassen, the Tahoe, the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona, and the Umpqua National Forest in Oregon.

Where is a Baby Boomer Ranger’s duty?
Anywhere she can get cell phone coverage.

Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, California

Last week in the Sunday Chronicle, Parade Magazine had their annual reminiscing over last year’s best and worst of 2008. The headline was “2008 A World of Change,” and I couldn’t agree more.

Now, in the tradition of Cindy Blogs the Sierra, here is my Baby Boomer Ranger Best and Worst of 2008.

Best: This year I had what is likely the best job change of my career. Even though it was only a lateral, it has allowed this Baby Boomer Ranger to work from the Cleveland National Forest to the Umpqua on projects that are challenging, interesting, and they will finish, and I will be able to move on to new projects. I can do this for the five or ten years and still move forward!

My Leaving the Sierra party.

Best: I have some of the best projects of my career. I am a Forester, a Special Uses Specialist, a Natural Resource Planner, an Editor, a Volunteer Coordinator, a Lands Specialist, and an independent contractor. I can go and find my own projects, I can delegate parts of my current projects, and I can be the judge of my workload. The only drawback is that I need to keep up my billable hours, which is not going to be problem. If anything, the drawback is that I need to be sure not to overcommit myself.

Reviewing the maps for the Trabuco Community project on the Cleveland National Forest

Best: I think I have a great supervisor. I have never met him face to face, but I think I talk with him as much, if not more than some of my previous supervisors.

Worst: This has been the worst year for burecratic changes. New credit cards, new computer, new travel cards, new programs and more and more mandatory training. “Fill in this”, “must do that”, “finish or we won’t pay you,” get a ticket to get something done, fax it in or forget it! ASC still sucks and each week we face a new “mandatory training.” Last week I had an email with instructions on how to access the 15 pages of instructions on how to do a network training for using a travel credit card. We need to be trained on how to take our training!

Best: I had a great time meeting people from other agencies and graduating from the USDA Graduate School. We had a great project and I learned how to develop a podcast. I met all the requirements, and most of them were interesting and challenging. Even though I’m not quite ready for the Senior Executative Service, I’m glad I had the opportunity to attend that training.

Worst: I had the worst assignment of my career to NOAA as a training detail for USDA Grad School. I already had a raving blog about this one and I don’t want to go backwards.

Best: I love our wellness program and attending George Brown’s Fitness. I didn’t make it to the gym every week, but there were some days that it felt so good to take a break, leave the office and let my mind take a break while I got my body moving. I have a great work out partner and I want to shout out “Thank you, Barbra!” Let’s go to the gym.

Worst: Leaving the Sierra means I left behind the opportunity to mentor and represent the High Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew. I like their mission and their philosophy. I still think that the success of the National Forests will be highly depenent upon the ability of Forest Service staff to work with and use volunteers. I will add them to my personal goal list and hope that I can continue to help.

Worst: I haven’t had the heart to look at my Thrift Savings Plan. I know I lost money, but I’ll look when I think things are better.

Best: With all the talk about the economic downturn, I have no risk of losing my job, or having my husband lose his job. I am frequently teased about working for the government, but I’ll take the lower wages and the stability over a boom or bust job any day. There are several reasons why I work for the government.

Best or Worst? I have never seen so many retirements in one year. People are leaving the Forest Servcie in droves, but retiring is a good thing for the individuals. I’m sure they are all very happy.
I’m sure there is a lot of work that isn’t getting done because there is no one filling in behind them.

Best and Worst at the same time: The office was due for new carpet and painting. It was the best for me because it corresponded to my starting a new job and I got the best roommate in the world! I love my new office and I was able to de-clutter and clean up, focus and organize for my new job. I have a place where I can concentrate and focus on getting work done. The office move was also the worst of 2008 because there is no sign that I ever worked on the Sierra National Forest and there is no way to tell if they ever had a Lands Officer and it appears that there is nothing remaining. My old office is occupied by piles of papers and crap and the new Lands Officer Office is occupied by piles of papers and crap. My previous existence on the Sierra was wiped off the face of the earth. All that work and it is buried under junk and there is no sign of a lands program on the Sierra National Forest.

Best: Looking forward to 2009. I have some great goals and I don’t think I’ll be able to meet all of them, but that’s OK. I’m going to keep blogging and it should be great, after all I blog for good not evil!
Here’s hoping the there will be many “best of 2009″ and very few “worst.”

I’m big on Management by Objectives and I just set my goals for 2009. I’m looking forward to next year and one of my first goals is very ambitious - two blogs a month for 2009. I hope you will join me next year and think about what you want to get done, where do you want to go, and how will you get there? I still take my Franklin Planner with me everywhere, and I plan to take the time to make the time to plan my day, plan my week, and get something done!

I have so many great projects and plans I would like to share with you. Here is Cindy’s Professional Goals for CY 2009.

Maintain current contacts, relationships and friendships at work, in addtion to my personal relationships. Networking Goal

Keep contracts and projects on time and moving forward.

Have one non-drive day per week (home work, bicycle, rideshare or walk).

Have 75% billable hours for FY2009.

Help the High Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew stay on track (Personal Volunteer Goal).

Get-it-done Goals:
* Finish the Shasta-T Westside Plantation Project EA.
* Finish the Trabuco Community Project EA.
* Start new project(s) on the CNF.
* Be on time for LADWP meetings, calls, projects, and reviews.
* Find, develop and start one new contract this year.

Apply for Earthwatch Fellowship - Personal/Professional World Citizen Goal
Get an assignment in Peru – Personal/Professional World Citizen Goal

Apply for GS-13 Enterprise Team Leader

Attend GB3 at least 1 day/week – Fitness Goal

So this blog gives you an idea of what does a Baby Boomer Ranger do?
I hope you will ask the same, what will you do?

Thrashing through wall of brush and planted Ponderosa pine plantations, I found myself deep in a blast from the past. After twenty-five years, I returned to my former life as a Forest Service Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) Forester. My Forest Service past has caught up to my Forest Service present.

Early in my career on the Klamath National Forest, I would dawn my rubber rain pants in the drizzling rain and slip across logging slash attempting to count the trees per acre of fir and pine. I estimated the percent cover ceanthous and madrone, and guessed the extent of tan oak and poison oak. It was starting to come back to me… “Thin the conifers to 250 trees per acre; cut the brush,” and hope for the best.

Plantation in the Westside Plantation Project, Shasta-Trinity National Forest

As the Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) Forester in the 1980’s, I oversaw all aspects of pre-commercial thinning, aerial application of herbicides, backpack application of herbicides, and the chainsaw release of planted plantations. After an area was logged and cleared and planted with baby trees, I was responsible for examining plantations for treatment needs, evaluating treatment effectiveness, writing prescriptions, coordinating Forest Service and public input, writing the vegetation management environmental assessment, preparing and writing contracts, setting treatment priorities, selecting projects, supervising workers, inspecting contracts, and recommending future targets and budget.

I was the Contracting Officers Representative (COR) for service contracts to get the work done, and I supervised inspectors, negotiated with contractors, and I directed work for two Forest Service brush disposal crews. Using my new fresh-out-of-college scientific forestry skills, I organized, supervised and completed the inventory of 2,500 acres of plantations and I updated prescriptions and scheduled inventories for over 1,500 acres of plantations. I was very proud of my work developing the district’s first plan to inventory all TSI units on a regular scheduled basis. I was growing the forest of the future.

Now, twenty -five year later, I was returning so some of the plantations that filled my early career. I wasn’t on the Klamath, but just up the Trinity River to the neighboring Shasta- Trinity National Forest. These babies were the same age as the little tikes I was stuffing in the ground – brown down and green up at the early years of my forestry career. The offspring have grown, and they were now tall and healthy and ready to burn to the ground if something isn’t done soon to help them weather the firestorms that burned through many of their neighbors earlier this year.

The summer of 2008 was not pretty for the Shasta-T. Fires tore through forest investments, and threatened local communities. Bit by bit, the forest was thinning its plantations, but they wanted to package up one big project so that they could get priority when funding was made available to do the needed silvicultural treatments.

In June 2008, I was contracted by the Shasta-Trinity National Forest to lead the interdisciplinary analysis of the Westside Plantation Project, a proposal designed to reduce fuels and improve forest health and resiliency on 33,000 acres of National Forest system land. The project proposes thinning and fuels reduction in plantations, or managed stands, within the Trinity River Basin. Specific vegetation treatments proposed include both hand and mechanical thinning, and the project will be completed over a ten year period. The goal is to reduce the risk of stand-replacing wildfire, provide for community protection, and promote the development of habitat for Threatened, Endangered, and Forest Service Sensitive species. Plantations proposed for treatment range in age from 21 to 55 years, most originated after harvesting and regeneration (planting) within the last 40 years. These plantations are currently over-dense (300-1500 or more trees per acre) and considered to be at risk to various forest pathogens and stand-replacing wildfire.

During my first five years of my forestry career, I took care of freshly planted trees, and now, I am developing plans to protect and enhance California’s future forests. My career has come full circle.

“Sid Vicious” ID Team Fuels Specialist with the Shasta-T’s
Silviculturist and the AMSET Wildlife Biologist in the background.

In October, from across the state, five interdisciplinary team members for this project gathered in beautiful Hayfork, California, to see that we had viewed in GIS layers and maps, and tables of the forest’s plantations. Passing the closed lumber mill, and empty business we piled into a monster of a green Forest Service six-pack truck, Under cloudy, drizzly skies we drove on the the logging roads of yore. We were on a mission to see the character and form of these young trees and look toward their future. Amid the brush and logging debris, the trees of my past were still growing and still needed help.

In addition to having TSI flashbacks, we found another relic of the northern California national forests – the abandoned pot plantation. There in a little depression next to a small meadow, surrounded by planted pines, were the remains of someone’s marijuana garden. Chicken wire hastily strapped to snow poles in a 20’x30’ rectangle in the middle of nearly no-where, someone had their pot plants watered and cultivated and harvested among the ponderosa pines of our future forests.

Bob Hawkins inspecting someone’s abandoned marijuana garden.

Things change, and they stay the same. It is a comfort and a disappointment. As my career moved along, and my life developed, so did the trees. They got bigger and denser and will continue to grow and mature long after my career with the Forest Service has finished. I would like to think that I have been a part of their development, yet, something tells me that all our scientific forestry doesn’t really mean much without the test of time. In forestry, and in life, hope and time are a big part of the Big Picture.

There is a new gold rush in the west. Up one side, (or down the other) energy corridors are crossing National Forest lands in support of the new found demand for renewable energy. Wind and water electric capacity is being developed on private and public land in California. Each new megawatt created needs to get to a distribution line that connects the Grid with us, the power users.

Energy development is a National Forest priority. Short timelines developed by municipal utilities, corporations and other governmental agencies are pushing Forest Service staff to scramble to have public land issues considered and resolved.

Visual, cultural, recreation, vegetation, soil, watershed and riparian impacts from miles of project development must be analyzed on someone else’s schedule – not the Forest Service’s schedule. Show up and comment, or they will move on without you and your public land issues. “Caring for the Land and Serving People” is not on everyone’s agenda.

The Angeles National Forest contracted with my Forest Service Enterprise Team, Adaptive Management Services Enterprise Team (AMSET) for an ID Team Leader for the Barren Ridge Renewable Transmission Project. It is one of my first enterprise team contracts and one of five projects that are stretching me from the Cleveland to the Umpqua National Forest. Virtual work means crossing as much land as a western utility corridor.

The City of Los Angeles, Department of Water and Power (LADWP) submitted a Special Use Application to the Angeles National Forest to construct, upgrade, and add facilities to a new and existing 230-kV electric transmission system which would be part of the Barren Ridge Renewable Transmission Project. LADWP also submitted an application to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) because a portion of the project would also cross public lands managed by BLM. The Forest, BLM and LADWP are entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to complete a joint Environmental Impact Statement and Environmental Impact Report (EIS and EIR) to comply with both the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Barren Ridge Renewable Transmission Project includes: Constructing approximately 60 miles of a new 230-kV double circuit structure system (13 miles on National Forest System lands); installing approximately 12 miles of a 230-kV circuit onto existing double circuit transmission line structure; reconductoring the existing 230-kV transmission system; and constructing a new Haskell Switching Station on LADWP-owned lands.

The proposed project would facilitate LADWP’s need to meet Renewable Portfolio Standard goals to provide renewable energy; interconnect LADWP to renewable energy in the Tehachapi Mountains and Mojave Desert areas; maximize the capacity of existing LADWP transmission corridors; and, increase the efficient utilization of the Castaic Power Plant, an existing hydroelectric pumping-storage facility.

The Forest Service, LADWP, and BLM are in the process of developing the Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report. Several alternative routes are being considered.

While on a field review of the route options being conceidered in the the EIS, I photographed the towers that stretched across the Mojave desert and into the Angeles National Forest.

I took digital photos with my Nikon D70s, and a Nikor 18- 200mm zoom lens. Post processing was done on my iMac using iPhoto and commercially printed.

100 Photos About Turning 50

I’m turning 50 years old on October 1, 2008, and well, I’m not taking it well.

Since I’ve had a change in photo opportunities, since I’ve had a change in jobs, I need to be more creative in my photographic project development. So, I’ve decided to do a photography project in response to my becoming an artifact (a historic artifact, like described in the National Historic Preservation Act.)
I’ve looked on the web at photo-a-day projects, and many are not very satisfying (read: boring.) So, the big challenge is to make it interesting, different, personal, and something that makes sense. But since I often I find it hard to remember what I did just yesterday or even last night, let alone around one of my birthdays, it at least should be a nice remembrance; to have a collection of 50 photographs of my life before turning 50, and 50 photographs of my life after turning 50. I will start on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 and end on Wednesday, November 19, 2008.

You can read more on my Photography webpage and see my daily photo on my Photographer’s Blog.
Link Below.

wwww.cynthiawhelan.com

Ok, I AM moving on. For Cindy Blog’s the Sierra I’ve seen the future, and it is virtual. It’s on the web. It’s no where, and everywhere.
I think I’m going to keep blogging, and I’m going to go back to go forward.

I have resurrected an old project of mine - my Forest Service Memoir.

In 2005, when I started this project, three things inspired me to give it a try and see what I could do; the Forest Service Centennial, the book “The Free Life of a Ranger, a Forest Service Memoir” by Archie Munchie and the hit movie: “The Notebook”. Simple people can have interesting stories. I’ve been blogging for the last three years to practice my writing skills, to inspire my friends and coworkers to take action, and to entertain. I’m going to take my blogs to my past and into my virtual Forest Service world of today.

It starts something like this:

I’m not the folksy Ranger of “Green Underpants.” Jack Ward Thomas in his book “Journals of a Forest Service Chief” didn’t write a chapter on “Drugs Sex and Rock and Roll.” When Archie Munchie wrote his ”Free Life of a Ranger: a Forest Service Memoir” there was no such thing as telecommuting, virtual positions, Wikipedia or blogs. I’m not your grandparent’s ‘Forestry Ranger.’ My family didn’t grow up in a little house on the prairie, or in a log cabin in the woods. My parents weren’t raised on a farm or in the country or even in rural America, and neither was I. I was born to military parents at a time that would become known as “The Baby Boom.” I am a Baby Boomer Ranger and there has never been a more dynamic generation of land stewards working in a such a dramatically changing environment; “Caring for the Land and Serving People.”

Starting on October 1, 2008, on my 50th birthday, I will revise “Cindy Blogs the Sierra” and I will start my new blog:

Baby Boomer Ranger - Life, Love, and Natural Resource Management in a Virtual Forest Service.

I will be posting some things to try them out. I have an outline for my Memoir and a few items include:

THE CALIFORNIA OUTBACK

LESSONS LEARNED THE HARD WAY

TALKING CARE OF THE BABY TREES

AMONG THE GIANTS

THE BIG FIRES: YELLOWSTONE

PLANNER FOR A SPECIAL MANAGEMENT AREA

INHERITING THE WILDERNESS FROM A GOOD OL’ BOY

DEATH BY DOWNSIZING

THE BIG CREEK FIRE

THE SPECIAL TEAM

THE POWER OF HYDROELCTRIC PROJECTS

AN ENTERPRISING IDEA

THE CENTENNIAL ESSAYS

THE COMPUTERS THAT LEVELED THE FOREST

THE LINE OFFICERS - DRAWING THE LINE - OR KNOT

THE GUARD STATIONS, LIVING IN THE PAST

DRUGS, SEX, AND ROCK AND ROLL!

THE MILITIA ON CALL

CHANGING ROLES

GRADUATING FROM THE FOREST SERVICE

Will my memoir be published? There isn’t much of a market for books about government employees.
So, I doubt it.
But, that’s the beauty of blogging. I can write it, and you can read it - it’s on the web!
Living virtual is beautiful.

Tomorrow is my Going Away Party.
My party for leaving the Sierra National Forest.
And I am sad.

I keep thinking about divorce. I am very fortunate to not know first hand about divorce, and I hope that this is a close as I will ever get.
It is a friendly divorce, but papers are now final.

I also keep thinking about a bad joke. You know it, it goes like this:
A man goes to his doctor “Doctor, Doctor, it hurts when I hit my head against the wall!”
The Doctor tells the man, “then stop it…”
There comes a time to listen to one’s doctor.

And

“GOD, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and the Wisdom to know the difference.”

Several of my friends should be very sick of hearing me say “I need to move on.”
I do, and I am.

“Is this what you want?” I was asked.
DAMN Right it is!

I ready to get back to managing the National Forests of this country.
I want to start a project and finish a project, and really know it starts and when it is done.
I want to make agreements, keep agreements and be held accountable for my agreements.
I will know what I am going to work on for that day, week, and month.
I am going to be on time and prepared.
I will be technically challenged to apply what I know and learn what I don’t know.
And if someone else doesn’t want to keep up their part of the agreement, I know my choices.
Stop, or move on. That is all there is.

My first week is developing contracts and arranging work as a Natural Resource Planner. I have a large, forest-wide plantation thinning/fuels reduction project on the Shasta-Trinity Forest. I will be working on a gas pipeline that goes across three National Forests in Southern Oregon, and I will be picking up a City of Los Angeles transmission line project across the Angeles National Forest. It feels great to do what I was trained in doing - planning large-scale, multi-forest, multi-agency, resource management projects! Caring for the Land and Serving People, that’s what I’m talking about.

What will become of “Cindy Blogs the Sierra?”
I have a plan.
After all, “I blog for good, not evil!”
There will be more to come.

I am writing this on my last Cindy Blogs the Sierra day. My last day as an employee of the Sierra National Forest.
Starting on Monday, June 23, 2008, I will be a Forest Service employee working virtually for an Enterprise Team. I am going to be a “Forestry Ranger” without a Forest. I will be part of AMSET; Adaptive Management Services Enterprise Team.

I now work for a new Forest Service, a Forest Service without trees.
I can’t just jump into a green rig and drive out to the field to “check-it-out.”
I won’t see my supervisor on my first day of work.

I won’t be ushered around to see the location of the mailroom, the restroom, the snack area or the back door.
I will be entirely responsible my own work space and find my own supplies and materials, my own files and my own time schedule.
I will not walk around the office and meet my fellow team members, because they don’t work here.
I am unfunded.
I do not supervise anyone, and
I start off with no projects, no management areas, no administrative responsibilities, no program oversight, no Program Work Plans and no targets.
I have no authority.

Here I am signing my last Cost Recovery Agreement as a Cost Reviewer for the Sierra National Forest.
And all those Special Use Permits… they will be dumped on some other GS-9.

Who would have imagined a Journey Level GS-12 460 Forester with the US Forest Service without a District, without a Forest or a Region?

But… this is a very, very good thing for me to do.

to be continued…. because now I need to get to work… Resource Management Work…

New, my book of photos for my upcoming photography exhibit

Water - Power - Folly

June 2 - 27, 2008 at Fresno City Hall.
It is self published with Blurb.

From Wikipedia, Self Publishing:

Self-publishing is the publishing of books and other media by the authors of those works, rather than by established, third-party publishers. Although it represents a small percentage of the publishing industry in terms of sales, it has been present in one form or another since the beginning of publishing and has seen an increase in activity with the advancement of publishing technology, including xerography, desktop publishing systems, print on demand, and the World Wide Web. Cultural phenomena such as the punk/DIY movement, the proliferation of media channels, and blogging have contributed to the advancement of self-publishing.

The key distinguishing characteristic of self-publishing is the absence of a traditional publisher. Instead the creator or creators fulfill this role, taking editorial control of the content, arranging for printing, marketing the material, and often distributing it, either directly to consumers or to retailers. Less often, the author prints the material, usually using a xerographic process or a computer printer. In some cases, books are printed on demand with no inventory kept. This places the bulk of the financial risk for the venture on the creators, with many self-publishers ultimately subsidizing it rather than making money from it.

Water - Power …

Southern California…

By Cynthia A. Whelan

Book Preview

My next self publish project will be “Cindy Blogs the Sierra” in print soon.

“If you seek what is honorable, what is good, what is the truth of your life, all other things you could not imagine come as a matter of course.

- Oprah Winfrey

Sometimes, I’m a terrible sarcastic cynic. But not this week.

Sometimes,
I need to believe that there are still doctors who want to heal people.
I need to believe that there are still Judges who want justice.
I need to believe that there are athletes who are in it for the competition, there are artists who want to fill the world with beauty, and there are some politicians who will defend our freedom.

This week, I believe that our leadership in the Forest Service is dedicated to “Caring for the Land and Serving People.”

Part of the reason I took the opportunity to visit the Chief’s Office was because I want our leadership to value public service, value the work on the ground, and value our mission. I need affirmation that someone understands some of the garbage we are facing, and someone is trying to make it work. I want to know that it looks as bad from the top, as it looks from the bottom. I need to know if we’re all in this together, and if we are going to move forward, we will do it together. And if our leadership isn’t with us little guys, I’d love to blog them right into the ground, throw darts at their photos, call them silly names; and I’d blog about their arrogance and their ignorance.

But I can’t. Not this week.

“If only I were Chief of the Forest Service!” Me and Gifford’s desk.

I’d like to modify a quote from Bill Clinton. My version goes like this:

There is nothing wrong with the Forest Service that cannot be cured by what is right with the Forest Service.

- Cynthia A. Whelan, the First Forest Service Blogger

This week, I learned how government should be.
I was not interrupted by someone’s ringing, buzzing or singing cell phone.
I was not put off, postponed or canceled because of a “higher priority emergency.”
I did not have to stare at the wall because someone was late and I had to wait.
I ate lunch at lunchtime, and conference calls started on time as scheduled and ended on time.
I was introduced at every new encounter, and I was included in every meeting and all discussions.
I was asked my opinion, and my reply was heard.
I saw flexibility, creativity, and optimism.
I saw how to move people forward, and how to get things done.
I saw that business is business.
I enjoyed a work environment of model respect and professionalism.

That’s the good news. Now - What’s wrong with ASC, our computers our daily bureaucratic grind? Before I left for Washington DC I had some questions that I wanted to have answered. It turns out, I’m satisfied with the answers.

The Albuquerque Service Center is a mess. A big mess, and those things you thought were lost, likely are lost. But someone is looking for it, someone is asking the questions, and someone is going to fix it. There is nothing finished and everything is changing. If you thought something was confusing, it is confusing. If you are frustrated, you are not alone. There is a Customer Service Group of Forest Service employees trying to ask the hard questions, and they are frustrated as we all are, trying to find the problems, and the solutions. Also know this, we are not going backwards. Business for the Forest Service is going to change, and not “back to the good ol’ days.” There is only one way and that way is to “find it and fix it.”

If you are convinced that EUSC stands for “You Suck,” you are correct. The End User Support Center, computer assistance to the field is unacceptable. I heard if from the Top End User himself. (Who in the world refers to another human being as an End User anyway?) There is good news in the works for us and our computers. With the conclusion of competitive sourcing, units may be looking at some flexibility to make local decisions on how we can get some real human-hands-on support. Who knows, we may be talking to The Geek Squad one day! But again, no going backwards. We will be centralized, but maybe not everything, everywhere, everyday, everyplace.

The Top End User - Hank Kashdan

Have you ever been told “it’s on the web,” only to be sent to a page that didn’t have a single link that helped direct you to something you need to get done? I hate it when that happens; jargon filled directions hidden in places no one can Google. Fool me once – and I’m not going back to that site again. The real deal is that most processes have changed, are changing, and will continue to change, and it can’t be put in one place. Websites need to be live in real time, and if your information is morphing even faster than technology, your instructions are going to look like an old DG. ( I know you remember Data General computers). But, hidden away, trying to herd cats, someone is writing, and re-writing, and testing and with some help, they may actually write the unthinkable and articulate how we do business. What if you had to write out instructions on how to buy a carton of milk? Do you tell someone how to start the car? Do you tell them they need a key to start the car? What if they don’t know what a key looks like? How much money should they take? Which size of milk and what percent? Then to top it off, do you also give instructions on the last question “paper or plastic?” This item too, I need to conclude with a strong dose of reality. It may be hard and confusing, but there is no going back. We will be getting instructions from websites, but they aren’t going to look like the garbage we have now.

I was wondering ‘who are these people who work in the WO?’ I was checking the directory and watching for people I had known ‘from the field.’ I found two. While visiting the Lands department, I stopped by to see Brent McBeth. Brent did an outstanding job helping the Sierra develop and write our communication Site Plans. Brent is professional, efficient, effective and technically proficient. While he was visiting the Sierra, Brent helped us finish a job that we could not have done on our own. I have a lot of respect for Brent and his work, and now he is providing leadership in the Washington Office. The second friendly forest level face in the WO was that of Kathy Gage. I thought for certain she had retired rather than centralize, and she almost did. When Kathy was on the Sierra she was organized, prompt, structured, accurate, direct and a valuable part of the Forest Leadership Team. I knew that she meant business, and she still does. I am glad to see that people I respect are now working in the Washington Office.

The Capitol as viewed from the Yates Building 5th floor.

You may be skeptical about my new found optimism. This is good, you shouldn’t believe everything you read on the Internet, including my blog. But this week, I am different from you because, I now have something that I can’t put in a blog, and I can’t give to you, and I can’t fully articulate. This week, I stood next to the people who are trying to cure our ills, and they are bleeding as green as we are. I looked in their eyes, and I heard their voices, and I saw their presence. I have seen the enemy and it is us. I have seen the solution and it is us. The ‘top’ is from the ‘field,’ and the field is moving up to the WO. Those-guys-who-are-making-us-do-all-that-stupid mandatory training are just as frustrated as we are, and they are trying to set things straight. Just as we are trying to do the right thing for the land and the people, and so are they.

I am indebted to everyone I met this week.

I know there are still people who are in their jobs for personal gain and just don’t care. I know there are people who will take the easy route instead of the right course. I know that not everyone is honest, or honorable, or professional, or live a life with integrity. But this week I’m willing to set that aside and be the Optimist. I believe that the Forest Service will fix its ills because I saw our leadership working just as hard as we are “Caring for the Land and Serving People.”

Next Sunday, I am off to Washington D.C. on a shadow assignment. I will be following Mr. Hank Kashdan, Deputy Chief for Business Operations, March 24-28. That too, I’m sure, will be fascinating. Ed Cole knows Hank and is very glad that I will have a chance to visit with Hank. I’m sure I’ll have something about it on my blog!

I’m already getting questions to ask Hank. “Ask him, why does everyone in California hate him?” Also “Ask Hank when is enough, enough?” “Find out when do we fix the mess we’re in?”
I’m not sure even I can be that forward, but if you have a question for me to check out with Hank, email me at cawhelan@comcast.net this next week. I may not use your question, but it might be blog worthy.

Here is an old press release from 2005. It is interesting what you can find with Google. (Have you Googled yourself lately? You should.)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 2005 – USDA Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth today announced the selection of Hank Kashdan as deputy chief for operations. Hank is a public of the highest caliber with more than 32 years of service,” said Bosworth. “He is a great fit for this position because of his in-depth experience in administering our budget for the past several years as well as from the many different positions he has held in the field throughout his career.” Since 2000, Kashdan has directed the program and budget analysis staff in the business operations’ deputy area. He will replace Chris Pyon, who will retire from federal service at the end of the year. As deputy chief of business operations, Kashdan will oversee the following staffs: acquisition management; alternative dispute resolution; budget and finance; civil rights; communication; competitive sourcing; financial management; human resources management; information resources management; occupational safety and health; program and budget analysis; regulatory and management services; senior, youth and volunteer programs; and strategic planning and resource assessment. “I’m honored that Chief Bosworth has asked me to take on these duties and I look forward to meeting this new challenge in my career,” said Kashdan. “This is an important time for the Forest Service as it strives to implement major efficiencies in its administrative programs.” In 1973, Kashdan began his career as a survey technician doing land line and road surveys on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for the Kaibab National Forest (Arizona). He worked in a variety of positions in duty stations across the country, including as a ranger district administrative assistant, a timber sale-contracting officer, a forest administrative officer, and an assistant director in law enforcement. In 1993, he moved to Washington, DC, and spent two years detailed to the U.S. Senate, Committee on Appropriations, Interior and Related Agencies Subcommittee. Kashdan holds a bachelor’s degree from Humboldt State University (Arcata, Calf.).

Hank is responsible for all our favorites including the Albequreqe Service Center, human resources, internet technology, and finance!

If you have a question, ask “Cindy Blogs the Sierra.”

The Forest Service is in the bloggersphere, but only from inside. This official Forest Service blog can only be accessed from a Forest Service Server, and only with an eAuthentication password. It is an internal blog. I was going to check it, to write a blog about it, but I’ll have to read it at work, then write about it at home! From official to unofficial. Internal to external? If you can access this and see somthing blogable, let me know! These days, I’m rather busy at work, and seldom have time to read blogs, even my own!

—– Original Message —–

From: Hank Kashdan
Sent: 11/28/2007 06:40 AM
To: pdl wo ops amc all@FSNOTES; pdl wo ops deputy area@FSNOTES; pdl wo
Chief NLT@FSNOTES
Cc: Thiery Curtis; Donavan Albert
Subject: Welcome to the Forest Service Test of a Leadership BLOG

All,

As of this morning the Executive Leadership Team has entered the world of “blogging.” I want to thank the staff in the Office of Communications and Information Resource Management for their work in establishing the structure for blogging on the Forest Service intranet.

When we discussed this yesterday among the ELT, we admittedly were unsure how unleashing a “leadership blog” might work. Much of our being unsure is due to the fact that we really don’t know what is involved in being a “good blogger.” But what we do know is that we want to continually seek ways of staying in touch with Forest Service employees and providing a good venue for employees to visibly and easily dialog with each other on major topics.

So, through the link below (and the use of your e-authentication password), we invite you to get involved in helping leadership become familiar with blogging. This first blog simply provides the opportunity for employees to suggest how it might be used.

We have intentionally not made a big communication event out of kicking off this blog. We would simply like you to pass this link on and invite employees to participate. After a couple of weeks the ELT will assess how it has worked and “go from there.”

Thanks for giving this blog a look. Don’t hesitate to post your comments and thoughts.

http://apps.fs.usda.gov/roller/hank/

Hank Kashdan
Deputy Chief, Business Operations
Phone: 202-205-1707
Fax: 202-205-1181
Cell Phone: 703-851-8197

P.S. Blogs are meant for bragging. So just to brag, I still think I’m the first Forest Service blogger. You read it first, right here !

Have you ever kissed someone and they didn’t kiss you back?
Have you ever said “I love you,” only to be answered by a awkward, uncomfortable, sucking silence?
I have, and it was called: “Executive Leadership Program Developmental Assignment with the National Marine Fisheries Service.”

As a requirement of my participation in the USDA Executive Leadership Program I am required to complete a 60 day “Developmental Assignment.”

“An ELP developmental assignment is a special work experience where the participant has the opportunity to practice skills and learning’s in a new and different work environment.”

I saw this requirement as a real opportunity to ask some questions and maybe learn something new. Many times, I have wondered, did keep my career too narrow? Have I developed enough skills and abilities to work for private industry? Could I have done public service for another Federal Agency? How pigeon-holed am I? How specialized is my experience, and could I function in another work environment? Do I only have one place in the world? Is there only one employer willing to employ me? Is the grass really greener on the other side of the fence?

My ELP developmental assignment was going to be the stuff worth blogging about… and it was, but not quite what I had imagined.

Through a fellow ELP student (and all around good guy), I followed up on an opportunity to work for National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), NOAA – Sacramento Area Office. How cool is that! I would be a stand-in Fish Biologist. In my experience, fish are way cool, especially the fish NMFS are responsible for: Chinook salmon, steelhead, green sturgeon, Threatened and Endangered anadromous fish. Anadromous fish hatch upstream, swim downstream to the ocean, hang out in the ocean and eat, then swim upstream to spawn and die. At a minimum I would learn how to say, and spell “anadromous.”

Then it got even cooler – I was to review current water storage options (a.k.a new dams) being considered in the state of California and provide that information to other NOAA staff, and also review current academic, State and Federal perspectives on climate change. Also, my assignment was to review NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) policy, regulations and procedures that may be concerned with the water storage options and issues.

All of the above were to be shared and discussed with the staff to get their perspective and opinions to formulate the Agency’s issues and concerns, or formulate an Agency position concerning the potential development of additional water storage in California.

Unfortunately, things turned from cool to cold, to frigid, then glacial.

The Sacramento sucker is not an andronomous fish.

My first lesson was in the value of face time. Everyone was AOK with a virtual assignment where I would meet with staff in Sacramento, return to write and do research at my desk, then return to Sacramento. Sort of like those migrating fish… Twice, I went to the Sacramento office and found no one, and I mean no one, there during regular business hours. I will not work another virtual job. I need to see who I am working with.

My second lesson was in making appointments. I re-learned the value of making appointments and keeping them. But, I didn’t make enough appointments. I needed to schedule out the whole 60 days in advance, because I soon found that I could end up waiting weeks before someone was available. Lots of appointments are needed to work with with NOAA/NMFS staff.

The next lesson is hard to describe, maybe because I didn’t learn how to deal with it. What do you do when you need substance and all you get is… nothing? I sent draft documents for review and people either read them and had no comment, or made editorial scratch marks. Maybe I didn’t understand just how independent I was supposed to be? So I stepped it up, sent out more drafts and started making phone calls. I became worried when people in the office wouldn’t make eye contact with me. Maybe “Have you read it yet?” was now tattooed on my forehead? Maybe I was now coming on too strong? I asked four people for help finding a Biological Opinion for green sturgeon and each referred me to someone else, and the last person wasn’t in the office. I eventually found two very nice BO’s for sturgeon on their server using the Microsoft search document function. You can do a lot with Google and Microsoft as your only friends.

I was warned in advance, “Be careful, they’re a bunch of overworked introverts,” my mentor told me. I’m used to overworked staff, and I’m used to introverts, but not like this!

Yesterday, I finished. Actually, I stopped. After getting up at 0500, and driving three hours to Sacramento, I went to pick up any comments, take a photograph of the staff, and incorporate any remaining comments, but there was nothing on my desk. There were no messages. My supervisor was gone, and there was nothing for me to do. After three weeks of asking for comments on my draft document, not one comment, not one response. The cool project was moving slower than a glacier before global warming! I decided I was done; so done, I didn’t even want to take their photo. I departed the office leaving my binder of materials and my NOAA badge in my supervisor’s office.

Can you tell that I’m a bit bitter? Yes, but despite circumstances, I still think it was one of the coolest projects I have been allowed to work on, and I learned a very big lesson.

Several times over the last three weeks, I looked down, hoping to see my ruby red slippers. “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home,” and I would click my heels three times.

This Developmental Assignment has reminded me about the value of long-term relationships and the value of finding a niche, of knowing your home. This March, my husband and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. There is a reason why we are still married after 25 years. When I kiss him, we kiss together. When I say “I love you,” he says “I love you, too.” Long-term relationships are long-term because they are the result of a good decision about the right fit.

This April, I will have 28 years working for the Forest Service and I’m looking forward. I had a opportunity to jump the fence and see just how green is that grass on the other side? I’m glad that while jumping that fence I tripped, and my jeans ripped on a nail, and I got a bloody nose. I had an opportunity to look at another corporate culture, another work environment, another part of the world, and some one else’s job. I know why I work for the Forest Service, because it is a good decision and the right fit for both of us.

Indeed, I know why the Chinook salmon swim up stream!
Now, that’s cool.

Sleep has been called temporary death, but there’s so much that goes on during that time of repose. Your brain is more active while you’re asleep than when watching television, and that’s even when you don’t walk or talk in your sleep. No wonder You can lose sleep over things. While visiting that other world one might walk, talk, grind teeth, and sometimes dream.

When I woke up the other night, I remembered my dream, and I knew what it was about.

I am in a low-security detention center. Not quite a prison, but really really close. Noticing how nice everyone was dressed, I was glad that I too was dressed for the occasion. I was resolved that it was ok to be here to pay my dues, but I really wanted to make some friends so I could get out early. “I can be friendly” so I started out to shake hands and introduce myself. Everyone looked at me like I was speaking another language, and did not understand. “Darn it.” I thought I could get out sooner than this…”

My developmental detail with NOAA or the National Marine Fisheries Service is just half over. Last week I went to the office on Monday to attend a Staff Meeting and then returned again on Friday to pick up some reading material, see who was around and do an interview with the “Assistant Regional Administrator for Protected Resources Division.”

It was a good week. Monday I drove and Friday I took the Amtrak. I like taking the train to work.
There were sunny skies on my NOAA computer.

I was thinking that things weren’t too bad, but I became a bit concerned after listening to the Monday staff meeting. There was talk about some people feeling overworked, and if you think assignments aren’t evenly distributed… and who to talk to if you aren’t happy.

When the round-robin came to me I thanked everyone for their patience and asked if I could take a photo of the group. “Yes, what a good idea…” Individual conversations broke out and then… everyone moved on and adjourned and left the room and went to their individual cubicles or left the office.

All I could surmise was that I didn’t spell out the words “PHOTO - NOW,” and pull out my camera and start flashing. What part wasn’t clear? All I can figure is that I need to make an appointment for even the simplest of things, like take a photo.

It’s not just the photo thing, but in order to ask a question, I need an appointment. To get comments, I need an appointment. And every time I do catch someone in the office to ask a question I get “Now why do you need that?” or “What is that for?” or “I guess you could do that…” and it is almost always accompanied by that blank look “Que?” “Por que?” “No hablo englesia.” and off they scurry out of the office.

Consider these photos. This is a the view the fish biologists look at when they are in the office. Possibly what I didn’t understand while awake, I understood in my sleep? Cells. Prison cells?
What happens to a biologist when you lock them up in a high rise cement and glass building?

OK, I’m not being fair. (Blogging isn’t about being fair.) After all, I only really know two of their words: Biological Assessment and Biological Opinion. Perhaps there was more to their talk than I could possibly understand. Maybe their words were really code words for planning their escape! Words like:

Threat Assessments
Recovery Strategies
Independent populations
Habitat Restoration
Recovery Actions
Predation Threats
Salinity Control Gates
POD Workshop
Emergency Levee work
Independent Science Board
And
Spring Run Program…

What if - they are the ones that are threatened? What if they are the ones that wish to run, to be independent, to be in control, to recover?

Maybe I’ll try harder to make some friends, or maybe I’ll just plan to join in their break out of prison! Maybe my next blog could be about “The Great NOAA Escape!”
Right now, I’ll try not to lose sleep over it.

Actual candid photo of NOAA fisheries biologist.

I’m three weeks into my detail and I have a few observations.

My first impression was that the National Marine Fish people are very neat. The office was almost stark with no big piles of paper, no personal clutter, no junk on the floor. There were actually clear working space surfaces. I’m not talking about public space, people had a clean and clear personal working space. I had to ask a few people ‘where is your stuff?’ They didn’t understand the question. “You know, the loads of papers that need to be recycled, the flood of files, the stacks of reports, the deluge of draft documents, the oodles of agendas, the mounds of meaningless memos, the conglomeration of clutter, the tons of trash, the desktop debris, the heaps of crap that no one wants to deal with?”

I learned that I was accustomed to living in bureaucratic paper squalor. I like going to the NOAA office. It is clean.

Before I arrived at the Sacramento office, I received a phone call from their IT Specialist. Yes, a living, breathing, human being named Shawn Martin and he was going to set up my computer account. First their IT person is a real person, and second, he called me. Wow. I took a photo of him because he’s real and he was right there, sitting at MY desk, setting up my account, my passwords, my access to the server and wanting to know if I had any questions! Woe. First, the place is clean then someone wants to help me with my computer. This is a photo of Shawn. No Photoshop touch up here. Real photo, real computer guy at my desk and his name is Shawn. ( End User Support Center what the hell does that mean?)
He must have thought something was up when I had to breath into a paper bag to stop myself from fainting from hyperventilation. I asked Shawn (I used his name) so, what do you do here? And we had a conversation about the electronic file system, the printers in the office and how he likes his job.

I like NOAA. They are living human beings.

What I’m not sure about is what do they do? There are several desks that look like someone uses it (albeit neatly,) but I haven’t had the chance to meet them. There are a lot of staff that “telework.” That means work at home. Some have long commutes, some have health and family considerations and some work for other offices like Arcata and Santa Rosa. Of the twenty-six names on the phone list, thirteen list either an alternate cellular phone or a telework phone number. Staff either are there, or they aren’t. I left notes on the desks of a couple of people, and they didn’t give me a call. Nothing different there, other than they list a phone number where they can be reached. They admit that they won’t be in the office daily.

I’m not sure I like having a virtual position, but it appears that I with my once-a-week schedule fit in just fine. I need to make appointments if I expect to talk with someone, but that’s ok. It means that I need to know what I want to discuss, who I need to discuss it with and have a plan for when. I can learn how to do that.

In my conversations and exploration of who does what, it appears that they manage a lot fewer projects. Some seem to have maybe one or two projects, not the five million that we juggle on a regular basis. I met someone who’s only responsibility is to work with Caltrans’ consultations; sort of a Caltrans Coordinator. When Caltrans has a project, he is their contact. The agency focus is much narrower, and so is their workload. I think I could stand to have so few projects that I could count them on my fingers.

When it comes to my project, well, that is a bit fuzzy. “We need this paper that talks about… not sure what format to use… not sure exactly what to cover, or what you need to do…but I’m sure whatever you do will be so much more than what we currently have.” My project instructions are a bit fuzzy, a bit nebulous, a bit vague.

Now that is something I do understand! I can work with that.