Harbor Light News

Grizzlies, salmon, glaciers, mountains… just another day on the job for Harbor grad

Graduate Profile



2010 Harbor Springs High School graduate Shelby Flemming has worked with grizzly bears in Alaska, among other outdoor jobs. (Courtesy photo)

2010 Harbor Springs High School graduate Shelby Flemming has worked with grizzly bears in Alaska, among other outdoor jobs. (Courtesy photo)

Editor’s Note: This is another in an occasional series profiling Harbor Springs High School graduates pursuing unique and interesting paths in life. If you have a suggestion for such a profile, please email us at news@ncpublish.com S helby Flemming is not easily reached by phone, text, or email. Her job, as a Fish and Wildlife Technician IV with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Commercial Fisheries Division, in Haines, Alaska provides her with daily opportunities to revel in the wilderness free of these distractions. Flemming credits her childhood in Northern Michigan with her appreciation for the natural world. Growing up on Lake Michigan, surrounded by the woods, inspired her to explore and learn about the natural world in her own backyard and beyond. Her journey from Northern Michigan to Alaska has been an interesting one. She’s traveled to New Zealand, worked as a back-country park ranger in Yakutat Alaska, and helped with teams in Hawaii on predator control for endangered seabirds. It was a pleasure to catch up with this 2010 Harbor Springs High School graduate and hear more about her life in Alaska. From the fresh waters of Harbor Springs to the river banks she now shares with grizzly bears, Flemming is doing her part to ensure that our natural resources are protected.

 

 

EM: How long have you been in Alaska and what is your current position?

SF: My first time in Alaska was May 2012 (working as a back-country Park Ranger for Wrangel-St. Elias and Glacier Bay National Parks). I’ve been living here since 2015. My current position is with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Commercial Fisheries Division in Haines, Alaska as a Fish and Wildlife Technician IV. The Chilkat and Chilkoot River, here in Haines, are home to the largest Sockeye Salmon runs in Southeast Alaska. I assist in overseeing our three projects that monitor salmon escapement and collect data that is used in season to manage the area’s commercial gillnet fishery. The projects consist of two Fish Wheels in Chilkat River, the Chilkat Lake Weir and the Chilkoot Lake Weir. I also act as the department’s Bear monitor for the Chilkoot Lake Weir.

 

 

EM: Can you talk a bit more about what you do as the department’s “Bear Monitor”?

SF:. The position I’m in with ADF&G was just created last season, so the parameters of what it entails are flexible, based on necessity, and still being defined. That being said, the bear monitor position is one of those things we’re still figuring out.

The escapement project on the Chilkoot LakeWeir is unique in that it is located directly on the road system in the Chilkoot State Park. Most other weirs are in remote locations accessed with a bit more difficulty. For background, a weir is like a dam going across the river, but it is made up of pickets/rebar that allow water to pass through as normal, but prevents salmon from traveling up or down the river. We open a small section of the weir and monitor the fish going up or down stream. A staff member stands above the opening with a clicker for each species, counting visually for sections of time and taking breaks by closing up the gap. This causes congregations of fish at times when the runs are pushing up river. As salmon spawn and die, their carcasses get caught up on the upriver side of the weir.

Pictured: Shelby Flemming’s career in the outdoors has provided for plenty of picturesque moments. All photos courtesy Shelby Flemming.

Pictured: Shelby Flemming’s career in the outdoors has provided for plenty of picturesque moments. All photos courtesy Shelby Flemming.

As you can imagine, a lot of fish leads to an increase in bear activity. The weir becomes a hot spot for family groups of grizzly bears to feed. Since it is on the road system, it’s a pretty unique bear viewing experience. There are no boundaries separating visitors from the bears, and visitors don’t always know safe bear protocols or how much space a bear needs to feel comfortable. These bears are so used to seeing people, that they are conditioned and comfortable being in close proximity. However, too many visitors and not enough regulation leads to the bears escaping crowds by running across the weir and inevitably toward technicians trying to count fish.

My role in all of this (which as I mentioned is still in its early stages and needs developing) is to educate visitors on maintaining safe distances from bears, that petting them is a bad idea, to store their food properly, and to regulate foot and car traffic to prevent people from pushing bears onto my fellow employees that are trying to do their jobs on the weir. There are a few other agencies that also have bear monitors and a strong presence at the weir. I collaborate with them as Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Commercial Fisheries representative. We work together to protect the bears’ space and keep people safe while in the area.

EM: How did growing up in Northern Michigan influence you?

SF: I am where I am because of my childhood in Northern Michigan. I grew up on Lake Michigan in Cross Village and Harbor Springs and was rarely far from the water. Having Northern Michigan as my home, and the Great Lakes as my backyard, gave me the tools to learn so much more about myself than any classroom could ever teach me. It gave me the confidence to push myself physically and mentally in the outdoors. In comparison to where I am now, I realize how lucky I was to have woods and waters free of tides, salt, and sharks. I had yet to fully embrace all of the recreational activities I do now, but I can look back and see that these hobbies have a common denominator – an origin of Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.

EM: How did it prepare you for this type of work and career?

SF: Having access to such amazing landscapes out my front door made it tough to travel to areas even in southern Michigan where development was all the eye could see. It lit a fire in me to protect what resources and landscapes we still have and made me realize the importance of their intrinsic value. Just being outside or even looking out the window at the Great Lakes made me feel better, and with population growth, potential water wars and other problems our future may face, I wanted to gain the qualifications it takes to be a fighter for these resources’ longevity. The Great Lakes are pretty special, and they’re the key to what makes Michigan such a hidden gem of the United States.

EM: What was your path from Northern Michigan to your current position? Schools, cities, jobs…

SF: I applied to Michigan State University as an English major (inspired by my love for Broughman’s classes in high school) and quickly realized I never wanted to teach or become an author. When narrowing down MSU’s MASSIVE list of majors realistically, the only categories left were biological, recreational and environmental. When I decided to enroll in their Department of Fisheries and Wildlife I was set on the meandering road I now call my career. I worked in labs in college, studied abroad in New Zealand, and the summer of my sophomore year I set off for my first seasonal position in Yakutat, Alaska as a Backcountry Park Ranger with NPS for Wrangell/St. Elias and Glacier Bay National Parks. Though I didn’t know the horizon was full of mountains until a month in, due to a rainy summer, and made little to no friends in this TINY town, my heart has been set on Alaska ever since.

My next summer season was split doing Horseshoe Crab research in Delaware and Wildlife Management in Yosemite National Park. The focus was predominantly on bears, and I was up in the Tuolumne area of the park piloting their first season of backcountry bear management. My job was literally to chase bears around with paintball guns to negatively condition them from being comfortable around humans or depending on human foods. It was amazing. I hiked up half dome for work and regularly watched the sun set over the mountains while backpacking or patrolling the highway. I spent my next summer season in the Valley in Yosemite doing the same work, but with more of a front country focus due to the absurd number of visitors that drive into the park for day use. We captured bears both seasons with various methods to put GPS and radio telemetry collars on them to assist in better monitoring their activities as well as to give us eyes to chase them at night with a telemetry receiver.

My next season I went up to Kodiak, Alaska for the United States Fisheries &Wildlife Service. I spent two weeks in the town of Kodiak for training then took a 45-minute flight, via float plane, out to Camp Island where I stayed for 6 months.We were off the grid with nothing but a SAT phone, solar panels and a backup generator.We were a crew of six doing a research project studying the relationship between Kodiak’s prolific sockeye salmon runs and the Kodiak Grizzly. We conducted captures via helicopter and fixed wing planes to take physical data and put GPS collars on bears. We also conducted aerial surveys of grizzlies in a Super Cub float plane and were flown to different regions of Southwest Kodiak to put up game cameras to get bear data and installed game camera fish weirs across some of the heaviest bear populated salmon lakes and streams on the island. All in all – it was unreal and still feels like a dream.

Between all of these seasons, I was returning back to MSU for school studying Fisheries and Wildlife Biology and Management focusing on Fisheries Biology and management with concentrations in Marine ecosystems management and Water Science.

Kodiak was my first job out of college. I stayed through October and, due to not having a phone or internet to job search, I was left having to make a blind decision. I got a job as a barista informing them that I had never made a latte, but I had tattooed a bear. I job searched all winter and lucked upon an orca necropsy and other opportunities that only a life in Alaska can provide.

After turning down jobs that just didn’t feel right and not knowing where to go next, once Kodiak lost funding to hire again, I moved back into a fisheries focus and joined the commercial fisheries as a fish buyer. I figured if I ever expected to successfully manage a fishery in the future, I had to become a part of one to know what and who I was even managing first hand.

I had gotten a message trying to raise my morale after my first dark Alaskan winter and met the wife of a commercial fisheries biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Juneau’s Douglas Department. They were trying to find a technician for a Coho salmon tagging project in Berner’s Bay, Alaska from April through mid-June. I applied, got the job, and left my love for espresso behind.

The next few months were spent in a wall tent with only a SAT phone, surrounded by thousands of baby salmon with no days off and long days of working in the elements. I returned for a second season after a winter spent in Kauai, Hawaii.

In Kauai, I was doing predator control to protect endangered and endemic seabirds by setting seven mile trap lines along the Hono-O-Napali national park. Feral cats, rats and wild boar predate on seabirds and their eggs, so the traps are there to make sure the small populations do not become extinct. We would helicopter up to the razor edge peaks for a week or so at a time to tend to the traps.

I returned to Juneau in April and worked in Berner’s Bay and then returned to Pelican, Alaska to do pre-season work on the Shoreline Scow. I was the manager of the tender my second season, and we had a busy year where we bought over 600,000 lbs. of salmon between three women. I proceeded to go back to Kodiak to assist in some fall field projects relating to Kodiak Grizzlies again for six weeks or so. Afterward, I took the winter off and traveled, taking my first time off since starting college. I traveled to New Zealand for two months, visited Michigan and lived in Juneau, Alaska again.

EM: What do you love most about your job?

SF: There are so many things I love about my job – all of my jobs, really. But the thing I love most about them all is that every bit of effort I put into them directly aids in that resource’s longevity. Even when it feels like an uphill battle, I know that the data gathered, or the people who become educated by my efforts, help in the fight to protect our natural resources.

I love that I get paid to be outdoors, I get to push myself in a male dominated field, and have learned that at times the only confidence booster I’m going to find is myself. I go places that are inaccessible to most people and get to be in the presence of some of the most amazing animals on our planet. I often find myself surrounded by passionate and driven people.

I have learned to fully embrace my favorite mottos “there is no bad weather, just bad gear,” and “lower your standards increase your happiness,” in order to be flexible and positive in complicated situations. I have also learned the powers of perception and how far I can push myself. I still have yet to find that limit. There are so many times within my career that I have found myself giggling uncontrollably and asking myself – is this real?

The most fulfilling part about it all, though, is knowing that every bit of energy I put into my work directly affects the resource I’m working to protect. The focus of my effort is bigger than myself, and though I’m only one person, I hope the impact of my work will aid to a brighter future.

EM: Knowing what you know now, what would you tell your high school self?

SF: I would tell my high school self that you never know what or who you’re going to be when you grow up. Plan enough so that doors to new opportunities can open for you but remain flexible in order to see which door your path leads you through. I tried so hard for so long to know what was coming next and to have a plan. But I quickly learned that putting myself out there, and having an open mind, led to opportunities I had no idea even existed. That, and to stop taking myself so seriously.

EM: What have been some of your biggest challenges in this career/ job path?

SF: Not taking myself so seriously has been a tough one. It’s also pretty rough being a seasonal employee. At one point I had five jobs in one year due to their seasonal nature. Moving around, reestablishing myself as a competent employee, making friends and all of the things that go along with being transient really started to get to me. I’ve slowed down a bit, but these things may never change. It’s also a bit rough at times being a woman in the male dominated field of fisheries. But as I develop my skill sets and knowledge in the field, I hope to nurture a more encouraging and welcoming environment for everyone to be a part of.