The Observer, July 2006

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Volunteer Profile: Accidental scientist is mom, canoe racer, volunteer

By SUSAN SOMMER
Project Manager

Leslie Morton was a pre-med major in college when she signed up for an introductory environmental biology class on a whim.

She did it just for fun, but taking that class with people who enjoyed the same things she did—camping, hiking, SCUBA diving—was such a turning point she never looked back.

Instead of becoming a doctor, she became an environmental scientist, earning a bachelor’s degree in biology from Randolph-Macon College and a master’s degree in environmental sciences from George Mason University, both in Virginia. Since then, she’s worked for the U.S. Senate, Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Navy.

Volunteering on the council’s Scientific Advisory Committee, or SAC, allows the stay-at-home mother of two girls to remain current on events and trends in her career while being a full-time parent.

Another motivation for participating in SAC is to promote a healthy environment.

Says Leslie, “I feel an obligation to help keep the world a good place to live. Not just for me and my family but also for plants, animals, fungi,” and other life forms.

Leslie has worked mostly in natural resource management. While with the U.S. Navy in Guam as natural resources program manager of four naval facilities in the Mariana Islands, she oversaw an annual budget of $2.2 million. It included an impressive list of tasks: wetland restoration, reforestation, erosion control, recreational fishing, brown tree snake control, feral animal control, biota surveys, and endangered species research and enhancement. The Marianas are a string of islands north of Guam in the Pacific Ocean.

While at that position in the late 1990s, Leslie jumped at the opportunity to participate in the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Women’s Executive Leadership Program, which sent her to Southcentral Alaska for two months. Based out of Seward, she studied the social carrying capacity of Kenai Fjords National Park, considered a high-use recreational area. Her research tallied the number of people and types of activities in which they participated within the park. She also got to visit Prince William Sound.

The Navy was impressed with Leslie’s work in the Marianas and in 1999 honored her with a meritorious civilian service award, highlighting her “superior resource management, unsurpassed technical competence, and superb leadership.”

Also while in Guam, Leslie worked as assistant manager for a wildlife refuge. One aspect of its long-term plan was contaminant cleanup, including petroleum products and toxic chemicals used for cleaning planes and ships.

Leslie discovered SAC in 2005 after she heard about the council on one of its radio spots broadcast in the Kenai/Soldotna area. As the announcement suggested, she surfed to the organization’s Web site where she found information on volunteering.

An Alaska resident for only three years at the time, Leslie saw joining SAC as a way to get in touch with the state’s scientific community. At the committee’s meetings, held about every two months, she has the chance to share her knowledge of ecological systems and voice her concerns for Prince William Sound. SAC sponsors independent scientific research and provides scientific assistance and advice to other council committees.

“Volunteering with SAC provides me with opportunities to continue learning,” she says. “It also allows me to have adult conversations and use multi-syllable words,” something she misses by being home so much with her daughters, ages four and nine. She plans to turn her attention back to her career once the girls are older; for now, she home-schools them.

The entire family enjoys all kinds of outdoor activities, but canoeing tops the list. Their home in Soldotna is close to the Swanson River canoe trail system and Hidden Lake, two of their favorite places to paddle.

Canoeing Alaska’s waters is a family affair, but Leslie and her husband, John, have also canoed competitively all over the world. Since marrying in 1992, they’ve raced dragon boats in China, outrigger canoes in Australia and Hawaii, and flat water canoes on lakes and calm rivers in upstate New York.

They are planning an ambitious—and international—family float for the summer of 2008: the entire Yukon River.

Leslie’s focus on family underscores the value she places on volunteering for local organizations that strive to keep the environment clean. In addition to participating on SAC, she is a board member of the Kenai Watershed Forum, a nonprofit organization dedicated to maintaining healthy watersheds on the Kenai Peninsula.

Before moving to Alaska, Leslie volunteered as a veterinary assistant and as a tutor for English as a Second Language. Volunteering, she says, is her way “to give back something to the community.”