NATURE NOTES FROM CRATER LAKE

	Park Centennial Edition Volume XXXII-XXXIII - 2001/2002
Presented by
National Park Service Crater Lake National Park		Crater Lake Natural History Association

Great names rise to the big occasion, or so goes the old adage. Several authors in this edition were intrigued by the idea of a double issue to mark the centennial of Congress acting to establish Crater Lake National Park. Others responded once they knew that the writer intends to retire as editor of Nature Notes from Crater Lake with the appearance of this publication for the tenth consecutive time since 1992. Whatever their reasons for contributing, authors have once again offered an engaging mix of topics for the largest issue ever published.

This edition will cap an experiment that began as part of a symposium held over three days in May 1992 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Crater Lake's designation as a national park. I wanted to find out how long a publication focused on natural history at the local level might last, given that all the contributions would have to be volunteered. The hiatus in printing Nature Notes from Crater Lake had lasted for more than three decades, with the end of a second string of publishing it on an annual basis coming at a time when ranger naturalists (later called seasonal interpreters) still had project time to complete their submissions.

The relative luxury of interpreters having project time to produce articles for Nature Notes had long since disappeared by 1992 due to a variety of factors, so I had to cast a wider net to reach potential contributors. Some of the interpreters responded, as did employees in more specialized resource management positions. Several park alumni became a mainstay for contributions and often produced exceptional submissions in giving certain issues a more robust quality than ones solely dependent upon what paid staff could produce on their own time. Authors who had never worked for the National Park Service gave a few volumes the necessary variety of topics and a fresh perspective. To everyone who helped I wish to extend a most sincere thank you!

This third series of Nature Notes from Crater Lake was not possible without an audience whose support allowed the Crater Lake Natural History Association to, in some measure, come close to breaking even on printing costs. With most volumes now out of print, I heartily recommend the park's official website for those interested in reading back issues. Please visit www.nps.gov/crla, then go to "Park History" and click on "Nature Notes." Randall Payne, Jamie Halperin, and June Jones deserve the credit for making this kind of access to the archives possible.

The Crater Lake Natural History Association sponsors this publication as part of an ongoing commitment to the educational and resource management programs of the National Park Service. Please join them in this effort by becoming a CLNHA member and in the process receive a 15 percent discount on all items sold by the association at Crater Lake National Park and Oregon Caves National Monument. A list of these items is available from the Business Manager, Crater Lake Natural History Association, P.O. Box 157, Crater Lake OR 97604; (541) 594-2211, ext. 498.

Crater Lake National Park Museum & Archives Collections

Now gather friends of every race
Who hold this as a sacred place
This ring of mountains strong and fair
Cradling blue beyond compare
Sky and water's pure refrain
Pray us worthy to remain
Guardians for these hundred years
Where Evening Star and Coyote's tears
Became the Sea of Silence

Now to the Sea it must seem strange
How every season brings such change
So many Guardians here and gone
Who loved her well and then moved on
How many lifelines here have merged
And with the Sea's great soul converged
But in our hearts She sure must know
Remaining though we come and go
There dwells the Sea of Silence

So to the dawning century turn
And ask Her what we yet may learn
From mountain hemlock's whisperings
And from the song the junco sings
From canyons deep and lofty peaks
Of nature's treasures oft she speaks
Then pray our children find them still
And ever young hearts drink their fill
Around the Sea of Silence