55 Years on the Job and Still Loving It
He Knows Every Rock
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Edwin Drummond
– USFWS photo |
"Drum is an encyclopedia for the refuge," exulted Forestry Technician Mike McKenzie, talking about Edwin Drummond, who on March 29 celebrates nearly a lifetime – 55 years, to be exact – of working at Wichita Mountains NWR, Okla., the land he has called home for all but two of his 76 years.
"He knows every rock here. He is as much a part of this refuge as Sunset Peak," McKenzie said. To a person, the refuge staff agrees.
The son of a ranger who worked on Wichita Mountains Refuge for 31 years, Drum, maintenance foreman, is part of the refuge's history. He worked for four summers during high school and was credited with a year of service. Since he joined the refuge staff fulltime in 1949, he has seen visitation grow from 150,000 to 1.7 million last year.
He played a role in the creation of the "excess program," in which extra buffalo and Texas Longhorn calves annually are sold to private owners. Indeed, his father helped re-establish the pure strain Longhorn herd that is the only cattle herd on any refuge. Each year, Drum is stationed at the same gate at the end of the sales arena, a place informally known as Drummond's Gate. Wichita Mountains Refuge was also the first federally owned land to re-establish the nation's buffalo herd.
Drum worked on the refuge as its management passed from the US Forest Service to the Bureau of Biological Survey, then to the Bureau of Sport Fisheries & Wildlife and finally to the USFWS. Indeed, both of his children grew up on the refuge, as he did along with his childhood friend, Lynn Greenwalt, who became director of the USFWS.
Today, he is responsible for a maintenance staff of eight who keep 100 miles of road, parking lots, bridges and other facilities safe for visitors. He and his staff are also responsible for keeping the large Visitor and Environmental Education Center in top shape, maintaining 90 miles of fencing, and operating heavy equipment. Drum figures he must have moved every rock on the refuge at least three times.
"I've been over most of the refuge, one time at least, and most of it several times," recalled Drum of the 59,000-acre refuge. "There's no season that I like the most. I like to see the changes that go with each season, to see how the animals change their ways."
The refuge staff recognizes that his insights and experience are priceless. "Drum's commitment to the refuge is unstinting," said Refuge Manager Sam Waldstein. "His passion for this place is boundless. His understanding of the landscape is total. He once told me, 'There's no such thing as an expert. You can always keep learning.'"
Drum agrees. The nicest thing about working on the refuge, he says, is that everyday is a new experience.
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