News Release

National Park Service employees and Tribes in Pacific West Region recognized for work preserving the nation’s heritage

NPS Photo/H. Kajitani

News Release Date: May 8, 2024

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SAN FRANCISCO – During each May for Preservation Month, the National Park Service (NPS) Pacific West Region recognizes employees and Tribes who have exceeded their mission to protect the nation’s heritage. That includes preserving historic buildings and artifacts, operating museums, co-stewarding parks lands with Tribal partners, and sharing the history of these sites with the public. This annual award recognizes individuals for their creativity and outstanding contributions to this mission.

Their winning projects, highlighted below, are also being considered for the national Director's Awards for Natural and Cultural Resources.

Award for Superintendent – Blanca Alvarez Stransky, Pinnacles National Park

Park cultural resources and museum collections in the west are threatened by climate change. At Pinnacles National Park, wildland fire is a hazard facing the unique landscapes, historic buildings, and irreplaceable museum collections. In 2023, Pinnacles Superintendent Blanca A. Stransky convened a park-wide team of employees to tackle this issue from multiple angles. They completed steps in their Fire Management Plan, thinning vegetation around park residences and painting historic buildings with fire retardant paint. They also moved the museum collection out of harm’s way, relocating it from Bear Gulch to a facility in Washington state, the first collections move of its kind in the Pacific West Region. Pinnacles’ proactive approach, led by Stransky, serves as an example of what other parks can do to safeguard their invaluable park resources in their care. Learn more>

Award for Facility Maintenance Specialist – Dave Goto, Manzanar National Historic Site

Tropical Storm Hilary struck in 2023 just as Dave Goto was nearing the end of a project to restore Merritt Park in Manzanar National Historic Site. The park had been designed and built by Japanese Americans incarcerated at the site during WWII. After the storm, Goto and his team found all their work covered in layers of sediment and debris. Goto supervised emergency repairs for two months, spending every weekend with volunteers digging out the park. Even without this setback, restoring historic landscapes of Manzanar requires a deep understanding of its past, the needs of the plants, and the current climate. Thanks to his leadership, the garden and orchard are now places to reflect on the fragility of our civil rights, as well as the beauty and diversity that immigrant cultures bring to the country. Learn more>

Joint Awards for Cultural Resource Specialist and Partnership Excellence, Yosemite National Park

The Wahhoga Committee of the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation/American Indian Council of Mariposa County is working with Yosemite National Park to establish a place for tribal education, stewardship, and healing. Known as Wahhoga Village, the site has been inhabited by Yosemite’s traditionally associated tribes for thousands of years. In the 1930s, the NPS built cabins here for Native American park employees and their families. In 1969, though, the park evicted the residents and burned the structures, sparing only the Wilson Cabin. For the first time, the Pacific West Region is awarding a Cultural Resource Specialist Award in conjunction with a Partnership Excellence Award for their work.
The Wahhoga Committee has led the effort to reestablish the village over the last fifty years. In 2023, they raised funds and successfully restored the Wilson Cabin to its original location and made substantial progress constructing a ceremonial roundhouse to host tribal events. Echo Davenport, Yosemite’s Archeological Compliance Program Manager and winner of the Cultural Resource Specialist Award, served as a bridge between the tribe and the NPS, using her knowledge of preservation policy to navigate legal compliance and coordinating the logistics of the Wilson Cabin move. While there is more work to be done, these successes make way for Yosemite Valley’s traditionally associated tribes to strengthen connections with their ancestral homeland and continue collaboration with NPS. Learn more>

The Regional Awards for Cultural Resources have been announced each spring for 50 years. More information about this and past years’ winners can be found on the National Park Service Website.
 

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About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 429 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

About NPS Interior Regions 8, 9 10 & 12. The westernmost region of the National Park Service spans 106 degrees around the globe and includes more than 60 national park sites within the eight states of California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, portions of Arizona and Montana and the territories of Guam, American Samoa, as well as the Northern Mariana Islands.