Years of dedication earn award

Real people

WASILLA — After nearly 50 years of work involving Alaska's forests and state parks, Ted Smith, a Willow resident for many years, has been selected to receive a prestigious award from the Alaska Conservation Foundation.

"I'm bedazzled," Smith said in a recent interview. "I didn't object [when I was informed of my nomination] but I didn't really expect to win anything."

Smith will receive the Lowell Thomas Jr. award for outstanding civil service, in a ceremony that will take place Sept. 29 at the Campbell Creek Science Center in Anchorage. The award recognizes a current or retired elected or appointed public official who has demonstrated extraordinary commitment to conservation.

The criteria specifies that the candidate should have achieved significant accomplishments to protect and preserve Alaska's wildlife, wilderness areas, ecosystems and sustainable communities for present and future generations.

One could, after reading Smith's résumé, check off every item on the foundation's list of criteria.

Smith is a current appointed public official, serving on the Mat-Su Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) board, as president of the Pacific Rim RC&D board, and on the National RC&D councils' board of directors.

He is also a retired elected public official, responsible for successfully introducing bills to designate nine state parks — all designated during or shortly following his two-year term as an Anchorage representative. Prior to and following that, Smith worked in several capacities at the state level.

When Smith, after schooling to become a forester at the University of Washington, came to Alaska in 1958, he inventoried timber for timber sales with the Alaska Lumber and Pulp Company in Sitka.

Smith laughed when describing the difference in the timber sales of the ‘50s and those of today. In those days, he said, the person interested in cutting the timber would simply call the office and he would meet them in the field, gauge the size of the timber sale — "You see that scrubby tree over there? From there to the bent tree over here" — and write out the agreement on the hood of his red International pickup.

Today, timber sales are, to say the least, a little more involved.

Smith worked in several non-management positions within the state Division of Lands, moving up to become the chief of the Parks and Recreation section, where he completed the state's first outdoor recreation survey and plan.

Smith moved on to become the first director of the Alaska State Park System in 1970, writing the first five-year plan for the park system. He oversaw the increase of the park acreage from 32,000 to more than 4 million acres during his four years in the position. He also helped inaugurate the first ranger program and a fee system for campground use — an idea that was not popular at the time.

The fee system, Smith said, was to be instituted in 1974.

"Unfortunately, 1974 was an election year," Smith said. He was asked by a commissioner to recall the program altogether, but Smith said he had garnered a lot of support from local convention and visitors bureaus, which favored the plan because private campground owners generally charge a fee and putting in a fee system would create more equality.

Smith refused to recall the program — a decision with weighty consequences.

"I couldn't recall it, so I had to resign," Smith said.

That particular fee system was eventually recalled and it took several years for the existing fee system to be put in place.

The fee system decision wasn't the only unpopular decision Smith made during his career. In fact, after resigning from his position as director of the park system, he was elected to the Legislature and began his mission to set aside land for state parks. He introduced legislation to set aside 11 parks through his 1975-1976 term. Five of the bills were passed in 1976 and another four were passed after his term ended.

Of the nine parks established, Smith said the two he was most proud of were the most hard-fought battles — Nancy Lakes State Recreation Area and Chugach State Park.

"Both were sources of some contention that stuck in my mind," Smith said.

Smith remembered a public hearing on the designation of Chugach State Park that took place in an Eagle River bar, but he said the biggest problem about setting land aside as a park was setting down what, exactly, the park boundaries were.

"We needed to get a description of the boundaries of the [park]," Smith said. "I arranged to come in on weekends and help write up a description of the state park and get that through."

The other big obstacle with both areas was general public perception that the state was snatching land out of the hands of potential owners.

"There were a lot of people talking about locking up our land," Smith said. "That was seen as a grab by the government."

Finally, the projects made it through the Legislature and Smith decided he was ready to go back to work. Like much of his career, Smith looks back favorably on what was accomplished.

"For a one-term guy, I think I left my footprints," Smith said.

If one phrase could describe what has guided Smith throughout the years, he said it would have to be what he learned as a young man in the University of Washington.

"Conservation is wise use," Smith said.

Preservation, he said, is an aspect of conservation — and therefore setting aside land to preserve it translates into wise use as well.

Smith retired from his work with the state and, in 1988, successfully ran for a seat on the Mat-Su Borough Assembly, where he continued to address decisions relating to forestry. He served one four-year term on the assembly and, in 1993, finished out another term vacated by his successor, Dorothy Jones.

"Doyle Holmes beat me that fall for the seat — I've never forgiven myself," Smith joked.

Although retired, Smith continues to remain active in the public realm. He has acted as president of the Mat-Su RC&D for three years, currently serves as the president of the Alaska Association of RC&D organizations, and serves as president of the Pacific Rim Association of RC&D councils. Through that position, he also serves on the national RC&D council's board of directors and chairs that group's committee for global climate change — not to mention the several local councils and committees on which he serves.

"I guess I've tapered off to about that much," Smith joked.

When he's not on his way to one meeting or another, Smith said he enjoys the company of his wife, Joyce. The two are looking forward to celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary.

As part of the award, Smith will receive a framed print from photographer Robert Ketchum and will be given a $1,000 grant, which can be donated to the organization of his choice.

It may seem an obvious choice — the grant will be going to one of the RC&D councils in which Smith is involved. Specifically, he said, it will be going to the Pacific Rim RC&D council, since it is presently experiencing financial difficulties.

"I know the organization well and it's in financial trouble, due to a contract that went bad," Smith said.