20070918 A Change of Scenery

The willows here in Katmai began turning yellow in mid-August. Within a couple of weeks the fireweed followed, though changing to a brilliant red. The birches and cottonwoods are yellowing as I type in mid-September. One great thing about Alaska is that you don’t have to wait long for a change of scenery, at least between May and September. Any view is temporary—sometimes ephemeral.

For another frequent change of scenery, try the seasonal life with the park service. Getting tired of the overcast and drip of the Alaska Peninsula? No worries. In a couple of months you’ll be gone to sunny south Florida. Somebody at Everglades rub you the wrong way? Not a problem. Soon you’ll be far away from that pain in the neck. Want to meet new people? Twice a year you make all new friends.

The downsides? Low pay. No job security. No retirement benefits. No health benefits. Every few months you pack up your belongings one more time for a move at your own expense. And every few months you may leave behind people who have become special in your life.

On balance I must really enjoy this transient existence, where “Home is where the park is”, since I’ve been at it ten years now. Still, I wonder sometimes.

Now is one of those times. Brooks Camp is closed for the season. I have already lost a special person. After a summer of watching bears, visiting the site of the largest volcanic eruption on earth during the 20th century, answering myriad visitor questions, and presenting walks and talks, I have been reduced to maid and clerk work. The interpretive staff is busy cleaning the visitor center and auditorium and inventorying post cards and t-shirts. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but after all the excitement we find ourselves bored and counting the hours until we leave.

Where will we go? A few will return to regular lives in towns and cities. Two return to college. The rest of us are scrambling to find winter work in national parks. Usually we know by now if we have a job in a park that hires seasonals for the the winter. This year, though, the park service has abandoned its seasonal hiring system and is funneling everyone through usajobs, the online government job listings. The transition has not been clean and the hiring process remains behind schedule.

Perhaps I’ll not be offered a position this winter. My supervisor at the Everglades, my longtime winter home, has not exactly been encouraging about the winter prospect. I haven’t heard boo from the other two parks to which I applied. I just might be forced to take the winter off, my first since the winter of 1997-98, and just relax. Or maybe travel. Is that an upside or a downside??