More Goodbyes

Today we had a goodbye luncheon for Monica and Jennifer. Monica actually finished her internship on Monday, and Jennifer finished tomorrow as she prepares to move to New York and a permanent job with the USDA. She's already planning on moving back to Gulf Islands once a permanent biologist position opens up. Once the park is fully operational again, that may be a real possibility -- when we pull in revenue, we can hire people. How sad is it that half of the team was/is here on hurricane recovery funds, and we still are not recovered three years after the storm?

Big plans are underway for the park though. Today, efforts began to remove all the dead trees that threaten to fall on the public campgrounds at Fort Pickens. Except for Loop A, all these grounds are still closed to the public, and the road and power to the sites won't be re-established til 2009 at the earliest. The current goal, though, is to have the sites and all the buildings fully operational by the time the road is completed so the public can finally return to the park. Since we don't even have a plan for the road yet because of the new wetlands and piping plover critical habitat, not to mention the frequent overwashing of the island, it could be awhile before that vision is realized. Still, it's nice to see some forward motion. Maybe we'll even clean out that Ranger Station time capsule!

Jennifer and Monica will be missed -- I still have just as much work to do, but only one of me. I'll never have a dull day!