25 Years of Recollections

This article was originally published in The Midden – Great Basin National Park: Vol. 25, No. 2, Winter 2025.

When she started at Great Basin NP, Gretchen Baker spent most of her time with fisheries and aquatic resources. Here she's measuring stream flow in Baker Creek.

NPS

By Gretchen Baker, Ecologist

I arrived at Great Basin National Park in April 2001 as a term Biological Science Technician, ready to help restore native Bonneville cutthroat trout. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how I was going to survive four years in this super remote place. Now, going on 25 years, I’m still here and realize what a blessing the remoteness is and how much more I still have to learn. Here are a few observations of what has happened in the Resource Management arena during that time.

When I began, the Great Basin Resource Management program was growing under the stewardship of Tod Williams, the Resource Chief. He supervised the Wildlife Biologist, Neal Darby (my boss); Kris Heister, the park ecologist half the time and the Mojave Network Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) director half the time; JoAnn Blalack, Archaeologist; and Ben Roberts, Physical Science Program Manager. Also working were Krupa Patel, Bryan Hamilton, and Jud Tuttle for a total staff of eight permanent or term employees. We also had a number of seasonal positions each summer.

In 2003, the ecologist/I&M network director left the park and it was decided to split those positions. I went to the Chief and let him know that I had a master’s degree with a concentration in ecological management and I wanted the job. Fortunately, he agreed, and I became the new Park ecologist.

For the first few years at Great Basin NP, I went to training or conferences about once a month. One of the first ones was to learn how to write grants. That certainly paid off, as over the years I wrote many grants. The first one was a modest one, to inventory the perennial springs in the Park, and over two years we learned we had more than 400. Later I wrote much bigger ones, targeting the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act (SNPLMA) money that opened to the park in 2006 after the White Pine County Lands Act was passed. So far I’ve written grants that have brought over $8 million to the Park.

2015 Stream Insects BioBlitz participants

NPS

I also really enjoyed George Wright Society conferences; at one I learned about Acadia’s BioBlitz program and asked if I could start that at Great Basin. We have now completed 16 BioBlitzes here. They have been a joy, looking at the Park through a different lens each year as we delved into beetles, grasshoppers, ants, lichens, bats, birds, and more. The specialists who came brought an enthusiasm that was contagious, and the community scientists helped refresh my perspective of the Park.

The job hasn't always been clean. A group of cavers with Gretchen in the middle, coated in mud after a cave trip.

NPS

I also had great networking at a variety of other conferences, particularly the cave ones, one over time more and more cave duties fell into my lap, until I took over the program. It has been exciting to build upon what past cave specialists have done and develop a robust cave program. I could write extensively about cave projects, but will leave that for another time.

Before I took over the Park's cave program, I did NEPA for a number of years. Learning how to do compliance and write Environmental Assessments (EAs) was not easy, but one manager told me that it’s the people who aren’t afraid to do the hard things who are the ones who will end up doing well. I held onto that during some of the tougher times.

GLORIA researchers, studying climate change on mountain tops, on top of Buck Mountain in 2013 with Wheeler Peak in the background.

GLORIA Great Basin

It was great seeing the Mojave Desert Network Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) program start up and then become a powerhouse. Protocols were developed and piloted and the put in place. Now it's a pleasure to welcome the teams that come into the Park to gather data to help us learn what will be going on long-term. In a world where we often focus on short-term problem resolution, the I&M program is really special with its long view.

I took on the role of the Park's Scientific Research Coordinator, and I have found that particularly rewarding. Every year a number of scientists help us learn more about the Park through innovative and exciting research projects. There have been so many amazing projects over the years. The research group from the Ohio State University/Sinclair University/University of Georgia has been coming for over 18 years now and have watched my kids grow up. The Park has gained so much knowledge that it wouldn’t have without all the dedicated researchers.

Participants of the 2024 Lehman Caves Lint and Restoration Camp show off their first day bag of lint.

NPS/G. Baker

Those researchers as well as volunteers have been exceptionally important as of late. This year has been one of many changes, and our Resource Management staff has shrunk to its smallest ever, with just four permanent employees. We have all been here a long time, with the newest having spent over 10 years at the Park. This is different than many parks, which typically have more turnover. Encouraging staff to stay helps the institutional knowledge and helps get projects done. We so appreciate volunteers who have stepped in to help.

When I first arrived at Great Basin, I was impressed with the variety of projects going on and asked for permission to write about them in a little resource management newsletter, which I called The Midden. I chose that name as I knew the Park had a lot of middens, and I was awestruck with how many treasures packrats could put in their middens and how scientists could later uncover them and learn so much about them. Little could I have guessed that we are now on our 50^th issue of The Midden! When I go back and re-read articles, it always puts a smile on my face. We were doing Science Communication when it was just a burgeoning area.

It seems a little crazy that The Midden has reported on 25 years of Resource Management at Great Basin National Park. While some of the moments dragged on, overall the years have flown by.

You can find past issues at: https://www.nps.gov/grba/learn/news/midden.htm. And even older issues (plus some other great Park-related links) at: https://npshistory.com/publications/grba/index.htm

Thanks for reading The Midden and taking an interest in what’s going on behind the scenes at Great Basin National Park.