My Park Story: Dave Hayes

Dave rappelling during Ranger Skills.

Dave Hayes

Where are you from?
Split Rock NY (Onondaga County) a town noted in the World Almanac under “disasters”. Look it up.

What interested you in the National Park Service?
I was always interested in the environment and wanted a career in that field. I liked the idea of sitting in a fire tower never having to deal with people. Kinda got that wrong.

Do you remember the first park you visited?
Badlands NP, South Dakota.

Dave on the fire crew in Flathead National Forest, Montana in 2000.

Dave Hayes

What is your background? College? Study?
BS in Forest Management. MS in Recreation Mgt, both from SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry, Syracuse NY.

What has been your path in the NPS? Other parks worked in?
After working as a logger in Vermont, I wanted something different. I was hired as a GS-3 seasonal interpreter at Vanderbilt Mansion in 1982. Other jobs here included roads & grounds, Buildings & utilities, youth conservation corps supervisor, fee collection and law enforcement. All my time has been at Hyde Park except a 1-year detail at Saratoga National Historical Park. I also completed a 2-year NPS natural resource training program where I spent weeks at a time at about 15 parks and universities across the country. I also served as the park’s wildland fire management officer and did a few stints fighting fire in Montana and Idaho. Most of my career was as the park’s Natural Resource Manager; added facility management to that role 10 years ago.

Dave Hayes as Eleanor Roosevelt with Fala.

ML

Any favorite/funny memories of the job?

• The old Halloween parties and my ER costume
• Wrecking the superintendent’s car in an ice storm
• Getting 54 stiches in an on-the-job accident, where the ER doc used my leg laceration as show and tell for his med students
• Goats, goats, goats!
• My boss Don Borquist and his daily bad jokes
• 6 weeks at Grand Canyon NP ranger skills training
• Mistaking new incoming park Superintendent Duane Pearson for a travelling salesman when he first showed up at Bellefield. (“Are you looking for purchasing?”)
• Convincing Superintendent Diane Dayson that she had to sing the National Anthem at FDR’s birthday ceremony (“It’s tradition!”)

Dave hiking to Kaaterskill High Peak in 2022.

Dave Hayes

What is your favorite part of the job?
Preserving land and natural resources. Working on the grand opening of Eleanor Roosevelt NHS in 1984. Helping to develop the Hyde Park Trail system and serving as the lead for opening the Roosevelt Farm lane trail. Becoming a licensed bird bander.

Do you have any hobbies? Outside of the NPS?
Birding, cycling, hiking in the Catskills and Adirondacks

Favorite personal things?
Travelling especially Cape Cod.

Footnote: As of Wednesday, November 1, 2023 Dave is officially retired. Congratulations Dave, enjoy it!