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Elaine Furbish

Elaine Furbish

Elaine Furbish came to Skagway, Alaska in 1999 and was employed by Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park as their second Natural Resources Manager, a position she held until 2001. During her tenure with the park, Elaine conducted baseline natural resource surveys of parklands, as well as started a study of lichen as indicators of air pollution. Elaine vacated the position when it was subsumed under a general Resources Manager who was an individual with whom Elaine did not see eye to eye. Elaine has continued to live in Skagway and as a trained scientist remains a keen observer of the natural world and is involved with the local bird club and community environmental monitoring projects.
Elaine Furbish appears in the following new Jukebox projects:
Interview Title Abstract Archive #: Oral History Project Date of Interview
Elaine Furbish

Elaine Furbish was interviewed on October 6, 2018 by Karen Brewster at the National Park Service’s restored Peniel Mission building in Skagway, Alaska. In this interview, Elaine talked about both her work as the Natural Resources Manager at Klondike National Historical Park and her research on and observations of environmental change during her twenty years of living in Skagway. Only the portion of the interview related to environmental change is included in the Observing Change in Alaska's National Park Project Jukebox. The full interview (ORAL HISTORY 2017-01-86) can be obtained through the UAF Oral History Office. In this part of the interview, Elaine talks about studying lichen to monitor for air quality, the need for scientitifc research and inventory and monitoring, the importance of citizen science projects, and some of the area's fire history and ecology. Elaine also discusses local air pollution from cruise ships and provides observations of environmental change, including a large seabird die-off in 2016, variation in winter and summer weather, appearance of different insects and bird species, and the shrinking of local glaciers.

 2017-01-86_CCexcerpt Observing Change in Alaska's National Parks Oct 6, 2018