National Park Week: Explore Crater Lake National Parks

The Fulbright Specialist program was instrumental in fostering the technical exchange between the two sister parks – Crater Lake National Park in the U.S. and Triglav National Park in Slovenia.

John Duwe, 2017 Fulbright Specialist to Slovenia 

In celebration of National Park Week and the U.S. Department of State’s historic partnership with the National Park Service, the Fulbright Program hosted a virtual event exploring Crater Lake National Park on April 23rd, 2021. Fulbright alumni who are now associated with the National Park Service facilitated a discussion on how the National Park Service connects visitors to nature, conducts research and habitat species preservation, and works with Native American communities to preserve their cultural heritage.  

The event began with a special welcome message from the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board member Ms. Margaret Chai Maloney, who highlighted the importance of exploring amazing places and discovering stories of U.S. history and culture.  

Moderated by 2017 Fulbright Specialist to Slovenia and Crater Lake National Park ranger, John Duwe, the event also featured an overview of Crater Lake National Park and an introduction to the U.S. National Park Service. Following the overview and introductions, Crater Lake Park Aquatic Ecologist Dave Hering presented his work to restore and preserve the native bull trout, a type of fish which has suffered from the introduction of nonnative species and was named a “threatened species” in 1999.  The event concluded with stories from Klamath Tribal Elders Barbara Alatorre, John Wright, and Clarence “Boone” Jenkins, who discussed their fondest memories of Crater Lake and the story of how the lake came to be. 

“I’m so happy that Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board member Ms. Maloney talked about the feeling of spirituality in her welcome message,” noted Duwe, “because that’s really what is so special about Crater Lake. Until you go there, and feel it for yourself, you won’t really know what I’m talking about, but it’s inspiring and it’s humbling.” 

MEET THE PANELISTS 

MODERATOR 

John Duwe (2017 Fulbright Specialist to Slovenia) – John Duwe grew up both in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and the cold spring water of Northern Michigan. His father was an environmental specialist for the National Park Service and his mother was a special education teacher. After completing a course of study in geology and a tour as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia, he decided to combine his love of working in natural settings and sharing ideas with people and set out to become an environmental educator. John worked for two seasons as an interpretive park ranger at Crater Lake National Park while he pursued his Master of Science in Environmental Education and Oregon Teaching Licensure from Southern Oregon University. Since then, he has worked as a classroom teacher, a program director for an environmental education NGO, and most recently as the education coordinator at Crater Lake National Park. John traveled to Slovenia in 2017 as a Fulbright Specialist to work with rangers at Crater Lake’s sister park, Triglav National Park, sharing ideas and strengthening relationships between the parks. John now lives in Fort Klamath, Oregon with his wife Stephanie (also a park ranger) and their two retrievers. He hopes to continue to work globally as he strives to provide mutual understanding of shared resources.  

SPEAKERS 

Dave Hering – Dave Hering is an aquatic ecologist and fisheries biologist at Crater Lake National Park.  His interests include life history diversity and behavior of freshwater fish, the effects of invasive species, and conservation of native nongame fish and amphibians.  For the past 14 years, Dave has worked to protect imperiled populations of bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) in Oregon’s Upper Klamath Basin, and his recent work has emphasized partnership among multiple stakeholders to accomplish landscape-scale ecological restoration. Dave is currently engaged in a collaborative international project to restore an alpine lake ecosystem in Triglav National Park in Slovenia.  He is on the roster of the Fulbright Specialist Program and enjoys sharing expertise with international counterparts in the field of natural resource management. Dave holds a B.S in Biology and an M.S. in Fisheries Science.  He lives in Ashland, Oregon.   

John Wright– John Wright is an Elder of the Klamath Tribes. John was born and raised in Chiloquin, Oregon. At age 21, he moved to Warm Springs, Oregon, where he worked a full career in the woods and sawmills. Returning to live in Chiloquin in 2000, John supports his community through his participation on the Klamath Tribal Elder Committee and the Klamath Tribes’ Fish and Game Commission. He has also enjoyed teaching his grandchildren and other community members traditional camping, hunting, and fishing skills. John has been married to his wife Barbara (also from Chiloquin) for 54 years. Together they have seven kids, 23 grandkids, 16 great-grandkids, and 4 great-great-grandkids. John enjoys camping and working around the house.  

Barbara Alatorre– Barbara Alatorre is a researcher and historian of the tribes of Southern Oregon and is herself a member of the Klamath Tribe and a direct descendant of two signers of the Treaty of 1864. She has researched Klamath tribal history and stories for over forty years. Ms. Alatorre was recently honored as a “Star of Oregon” for years of outstanding community service, having served as president of the Portland American Indian Center, as a board member of both the Urban Indian Council and the Commission on Indian Services, and chairwoman of the Urban Ma’klaks. 

Clarence “Boone” Jenkins – Clarence “Boone” Jenkins is an Elder of the Klamath Tribes. Boone was born in 1943 in Klamath Agency, Oregon, and raised just below Crater Lake in Ft. Klamath, Oregon. He finished high school in Klamath Falls and then studied welding at the Oregon Institute of Technology. After college, he moved to Albany, Oregon to work in construction and help his parents run a bowling alley. In 1985, Boone moved to Alaska to work as a bowling alley mechanic and then moved to the western slope of Alaska to build ice roads for trucking. He moved back to Fort Klamath in 2000. Boone has five sons, four living in Oregon and one in Alaska. For fun, Boone likes to hunt, fish, and watch auto racing.