JAS 2000 Quarterly Rpt. sidebar
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Auke
Bay Laboratory Staff
Get High Honors
(Quarterly
Report for July-Aug-Sept 2000)
JEEP RICE RECEIVES NEW NOAA AWARD
At surprise
ceremonies held at the Auke Bay Laboratory on 24
August 2000, Dr. Stanley “Jeep” Rice, manager of
the Auke Bay Laboratory’s Habitat Program was
presented NOAA’s Best Practices Award by
NOAA Deputy Under Secretary Scott Gudes. “I’ve
seldom seen Jeep at a loss for words, but he was
this time,” said ABL biologist Mandy Lindeberg.
The Best Practices Award is a new NOAA award which
recognizes managers or management groups who foster
model working environments where employees can
flourish. Jeep was secretly nominated for the
award by his coworkers. According to team member
Adam Moles, the idea to nominate Jeep for the Best
Practices Award was a groundswell effort. “Jeep is
universally respected by his staff, and we all
worked on the nomination,” Moles said. About 18 of
them collaborated on the nomination , which is
another reflection of their successful teamwork.
“I’ve worked for Jeep for 30 years, and he
is the best at helping you do what you really want
to do as a scientist, while ensuring the work fits
in with the government’s mission and goals,”
said Moles. Moles went on to say that Jeep
uses his experience as a sports coach to instill the
value of teamwork and designs assignments tailored
to each employee’s abilities and interests. The
Habitat Program has evolved into a network, with
Jeep at the center receiving input and providing
resources and guidance toward achievement of the
goals. Jeep’s team wanted the
“coach” to be recognized for his exemplary
leadership. During the 30 years under his
leadership, Jeep’s team has produced well over 100
peer-reviewed scientific articles on the effects of
human perturbations and natural fluctuations on the
aquatic species and habitats of Alaska, including
noteworthy findings on the effects of the Exxon
Valdez oil spill.
Rice said the Best Practices Award is special.
“Their names are all on it. I get an
awful lot of work out of them. I support
them, they support me. It’s close to (being
a) family.”
By Carol Tocco and Susan Calderón.
KOSKI RECEIVES GROUP SILVER MEDAL
Dr. K Koski of the
Auke Bay Laboratory was awarded the Department of
Commerce Group Silver Medal for his leadership and
performance in helping to establish the NOAA
Community-Based Restoration Program for habitat
vital to living marine resources. The Silver
Medal is the second highest honor bestowed upon
employees by the Department of Commerce.
Dr. Koski is the principal investigator for the Duck
Creek Restoration Program which he organized in the
early 1990s as a community-based program to restore
water quality and anadromous fish habitat to Duck
Creek. Duck Creek is a small anadromous fish stream
located in the Mendenhall Valley, the most populated
residential area of Juneau, Alaska. Once an
important salmon stream, the creek was listed by the
Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation as
impaired because of urban runoff, poor water
quality, and degraded habitat. Koski worked to
establish the Duck Creek Advisory Group, which is
comprised of over 25 organizations and partners
including the City and Borough of Juneau, State and
Federal agencies, private businesses, conservation
organizations, and individual homeowners. Under his
leadership, the group provides education to the
community, collects field data, holds monthly
meetings, publishes a newsletter, and recently
drafted the Duck Creek Watershed Management Plan.
The Duck Creek Plan emphasizes needed enforcement,
management, and restoration to control urban runoff
and to develop better land-use practices.
Restoration projects have included replacement of
inadequate culverts with bridges and bottomless
arches, installation of snow fences, revegetation of
streambanks and riparian areas, removal of sediment
in spawning areas, channel reconfiguration, and
creation of storm water treatment wetlands. In
1999, the Duck Creek Advisory Group was awarded
Coastal America’s National Partnership Award for
its success in developing cooperative partnership
programs in restoring important coastal resources
and was selected as one of 12 watersheds in the
nation to be showcased for stream corridor
restoration activities.
By Susan Calderón.
LARSEN AND HOLLAND AWARDED BRONZE MEDAL
Marie Larsen and
Larry Holland, research chemists at the Auke Bay
Laboratory, were presented the
NOAA bronze award for “adapting pressurized
fluid extraction technology - improving our science,
saving dollars, and reducing solvent use by 90%.”
Larsen and Holland, who work in ABL’s Exxon Valdez
Oil Spill group, identified a new method for
evaluating oil contaminated sediment and marine life
tissue samples by adapting a recently
developed process within industry for extracting
water insoluble semivolatile organic compounds from
waste solids and sludges. The process uses a
pressurized fluid extractor which requires only
one-tenth the volume of solvent traditionally used
in the chemical analysis of marine samples. Larsen
and Holland realized that if the technology could be
adapted for analysis of marine tissue samples, the
associated 90% reduction in solvent use would not
only reduce airborne emissions and potential health
risks to researchers, but also greatly eliminate the
generation of hazardous waste.
The adaption of this new technology will result in
savings for taxpayers; increase the safety of
employees, visitors, and the environment; enable
scientists to accurately process twice the number of
samples in one-half the time; require the purchase
of fewer solvents, and generate almost no hazardous
waste requiring disposal; the technology is expected
to pay for itself in three years.
By Carol Tocco and Susan Calderón.
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