Science and Stewardship

2023 Pacific West Region's Annual Science and Stewardship Highlights

Please enjoy the twenty-seven highlights from across the region. Divided into nine categories, these stories from 2022 illustrate the ways NPS preserves and protects our parks for future generations.

These snapshots of NPS efforts across the region exemplify how scientific initiatives can lead to new discoveries, form partnerships, and reveal the unseen stories of the world around us. Sharing these stories is a chance to celebrate the dedicated people and extraordinary ecosystems that parks protect.

Here we invite you to celebrate this sampling of Regions 8, 9 ,10, & 12 (formerly known as the National Park Service Pacific West Region) science and stewardship stories with us. They reflect high-impact interdisciplinary work, innovations, discoveries, and new ways to engage with parks.

Dave Goto, arborist at Manzanar National Historic Site. Dave has been awarded a Regional Cultural Resource Award for his role in restoring the historic Japanese and rose gardens at Merritt Park and the adjacent Wilder Apple Orchard. A grandson of Japanese Americans who were incarcerated at Manzanar, Dave sees his work as an important legacy. While he is working to care for the garden that incarcerees built, and the same fruit trees they tended, he is also setting up a legacy.

Blanca A. Stransky was awarded a Regional Cultural Resource Award for skillfully integrating cultural resource concerns into the broader planning efforts at the park. In 2023, she led a whole-park effort to address safety concerns in Bear Gulch, where park housing, offices, and the museum collection are threatened by wildfire.

In May 2024, the Pacific West Regional Office awarded the Wahhoga Committee a Partnership Excellence award, in conjunction with a Cultural Resource Specialist award for Echo Davenport, Yosemite’s Archeological Compliance Program Manager for their roles in restoring the Wilson Cabin to its historic location in Yosemite Valley. 50 years in the making, this restoration effort was led by the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation.

Winners of the 2021 Pacific West Region Cultural Resource Awards.

The Pacific West Regional Awards for Cultural Resources recognize employees for their expertise and outstanding contributions caring for the nation’s cultural heritage. In 2022, Laura Kirn collaborated with Tribal partners to develop a Backcountry Wilderness Management Plan that balances the needs of visitors, protects over 3,000 archeological sites, and serves as a model of co-stewardship for other parks in the NPS.

The Pacific West Regional Awards for Cultural Resources recognize employees for their expertise and outstanding contributions caring for the nation’s cultural heritage. In 2022, Joseph Kaiama spearheaded a project to restore historic buildings in the Hansen’s disease settlement of Kalaupapa on Molokai. Kaiama trained his young crew on preservation skills, passing on his knowledge to the next generation of stewards.

The Regional Awards for Cultural Resources recognize employees for their expertise and outstanding contributions caring for the nation’s cultural heritage. In 2022, Tom Leatherman helped establish and lead the new Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) Working Group, an internal NPS group whose mission is to provide leadership for sites associated with the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII.