Wade Vagias Named New Yellowstone Management Assistant
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National Park Service Yellowstone National Park Al Nash or Dan Hottle ------------------------------------------------------------------
Vagias had been on a detail assignment as Acting Management Assistant since April 2010, focusing his efforts primarily on the park's Winter Use Plan/Environmental Impact Statement, before applying for and being accepted into the position permanently earlier this year. He previously worked in the Wilderness Stewardship Division at the National Park Service (NPS) Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Most recently, Vagias served as Co-Chair of the NPS Wilderness Character Integration Team, an 18-member team from across the park service that seeks ways to integrate wilderness character into NPS planning, monitoring and management. He also served as guest editor for the recently released Wilderness Edition of Park Science, and oversaw the Wilderness Fellows Program. "It is an honor to be selected for this position," Vagias said. "Yellowstone National Park is the idea that became the ideal, and I look forward to working with park staff and the park's many partners and stakeholders to help preserve and celebrate the values that make this park so special." Prior to working for the NPS, Vagias was a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management at Clemson University in South Carolina. He earned his Ph.D. in Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management at Clemson, where his dissertation evaluated the Leave No Trace visitor education program in three NPS units. Vagias' professional experience includes faculty appointments with Lock Haven University and Butler County Community College, both in Pennsylvania; river ranger with the Bureau of Land Management in Maupin, Ore.; raft guide with the Nantahala Outdoor Center in Long Creek, S.C.; mountain operations at Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah; as well as research projects for the National Audubon Society and the NPS. Vagias and his wife, Jenna, who is a program manager with the Yellowstone Association Institute, have a daughter, Brooke. They look forward to further integrating into the Mammoth community and sampling all of the wonderful outdoor recreation opportunities available in northwestern Wyoming. - www.nps.gov/yell -
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Did You Know?
The 1988 fires affected 793,880 acres or 36 percent of the park. Five fires burned into the park that year from adjacent public lands. The largest, the North Fork Fire, started from a discarded cigarette. It burned more than 410,000 acres.