Dennis Peters Oral History Transcript

Dennis was born in California. He is a Veteran including four years in the Air Force and serving time in Vietnam. His postsecondary education initially took him from Sacramento City College to receiving his master’s degree from Humboldt State as a fisheries major. He started with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Sacramento and later moved to Minneapolis.  After 4 years with the USFWS, he wanted to move back to the West and took a job with the Corps of Engineers in Portland, Oregon.  In an early part of his career with the Corps of Engineers, he went to a pivotal conference put on by the EPA in Corvallis, Oregon.  A new program of Wetlands Inventory was being rolled out for the USFWS and was seeking applicants. This meeting led to his decision to accept a position in 1977 with the USFWS working for the Wetlands Inventory. Mr. Peters worked as the Region 1 wetlands coordinator by helping create awareness in bringing this new classification of wetlands resources to become a national standard. He propelled this system forward in working with state, local and federal agencies until his retirement in 2001.