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An Interview with National Park Service Data Manager Brent Frakes (Ph.D. '98)
July 11, 2003
For more information, check the
National Park Service's
Inventory and Mapping Division Web site:
www.nature.nps.gov/im
At Penn State, Brent Frakes studied atmospheric circulation and climatology with Dr. Brent Yarnal. Now he works in the Inventory and Monitoring division of the National Park Service. He's based at the Wilson's Creek National Battlefield in Missouri, but he helps park rangers and Park Service employees collect and manage data all across the Midwestern U.S.
When did you first become interested in Geography? How did you discover GIS?
I did my undergraduate work at the University of Denver, and their program is very strong in physical and environmental sciences. I became interested in either meteorology and climatology or urban planning. Penn State had strong meteorology and geography programs.
I was originally turned off from GIS as an undergrad because the user interface was so terrible. It was so new that it didn't even have a graphical interface yet. So I never took a GIS course at Penn State. I taught myself later on. But I had friends who were GIS gurus, so I must have learned something through osmosis.
After I received my Ph.D. from Penn State, I taught for two years but discovered that I didn't like teaching. So I turned to the private sector and realized that I needed GIS skills. I quickly learned that unless you have GIS skills, you couldn't get your foot in the door as a geographer in the private sector.
So many people are coming out with narrow skills. It's important to have a comprehensive understanding of different skills and disciplines, and how they interact and work together. Unlike other physical sciences like meteorology, hydrology, and biology, geography is not focused on one system. It's interconnected. To understand one component, you have to understand others, and the social systems too.
I'm able to work in all different disciplines and integrate them. For example, in water quality issues, I need to understand soils, acid deposition, land cover, and the social issues such as laws, regulations, and attitudes about water quality. All these factors are playing into the larger issue. Most people don't have a real appreciation of all issues.
How did you become interested in climatology? What experiences or interests led you to research atmospheric circulation?
I grew up in Denver, so I grew up experiencing massive storms: hail storms, lightning, and tornadoes. These massive storms that ravage the Midwest start in the mountains of Colorado. At the University of Denver, I got a different perspective on atmospheric sciences. I became more interested in atmospheric circulation than meteorology. Studying climatology gave me the opportunity to study how the atmosphere interacts with other systems and how weather events play out over time.
At Penn State, I was originally funded by the Susquehanna River Basin Experiment (SRBEX) project as a research assistant. I became fascinated with the interaction between the atmosphere and hydrosphere. I wanted to study how the atmospheric circulation affects the hydrosphere and causes flood events. It's a three-step process: circulation in the atmosphere leads to rainfall, which results in a response in the local watersheds. I wanted to develop better predictive models for flood events based on the atmosphere.
An example of how these predictive models could help was the flood of 1997 at Penn State. If meteorologists had looked at the entire picture: the atmosphere, the groundwater, local factors, they would have predicted massive flooding.
How did this research prepare you for your current position in the National Park Service?
Geography prepares you to work with so many different scientists and areas of research that it really prepares people for almost any position.
Brent Yarnal never handed me a script. He never said, "You have to do this, exactly." Instead, he encouraged me to figure out how to do it. So I could really focus on problem solving. His technique encouraged me to take initiative.
After teaching, I went into the private sector in environmental consulting. I ended up in Missouri, and the company needed people to work in geophysical sciences. Many staff scientists said they didn't have training in that area, so I asked them to let me figure it out. Having an interdisciplinary background with problem-solving skills gave me the confidence to try. So I read until I understood the problem.
As a result of Brent's encouragement, I learned GIS on my own. As a consultant, I learned ERDAS for remote sensing because I volunteered to try to figure it out when no one else would. I stayed up all night one night, but I got it done. It's scary, it can be frustrating, but it's by far the most empowering situation to be thrown into.
What do you enjoy most about working for the Park Service?
This is my niche. I'm good at data management, and I love GIS now. The whole information management field that involves data collection, management, archiving, and presenting is really where I belong.
It's an integrated setting: I work with biologists, hydrologists, remote sensing, and imagery, so I get to keep my hands in all these different pies. It's fascinating to work on the back end of things too, helping people optimize the flow of information.
Working for the government is great. It's really the best situation for me. I don't have to work more than 40 hours per week, which is great because I want to have a personal life too. I enjoy traveling, and my job has lots of travel perks. Last week I was at a conference in Phoenix. I get to go to all parts of the U.S., and it's all in the name of good research.
I was just in Buffalo, Arkansas, working with a hydrologist to develop data recording methods. Then I was in Cuyahoga, Ohio, getting data and a system in place for aquatic data outside of Cleveland. I enjoy helping out behind the scenes.
The Inventory and Management program I'm working on now is fairly new. We're still working to define what the program is about. It's both scary and very exciting. Our motto is "Parks for science and science for parks," so we also do a lot of collaborating, especially with educational institutions, other government agencies, and nonprofit organizations.
Could you describe a recent project or experience you've had in your job? What skills did you use? What did you learn or enjoy?
I'm working right now to get land use change data acquired. I'm getting satellite imagery and aerial photographs orthorectified with a contractor. We have four major time periods completed, so now I can pull the results into a GIS to show people the changes.
It's really exciting because the parks view themselves in terms of their surrounding regions, and land use change maps allow them to see how they fit into a larger context. Graduate students and researchers can start to use the data to see changes too. In Arkansas, a lot of dramatic changes have occurred over the past four years. So land use change maps tend to be the most dramatic and best document of that change.
It's fun and interdisciplinary. The process of developing an integrated system and coordinating data across agencies and space is tough, and I'm just starting, but I enjoy it.
Would you like to share any advice to current students interested in climatology? Or current students interested in working for the Park Service?
I would encourage undergrads and grads to know about opportunities in the government sector. It's really easy to get into. I would encourage students to also do some volunteer work, internships, or get experience in the private sector.
Try to see potential options other than academia. There are an incredible number of opportunities in the government sector for geographers. You have to have the tools (like GIS), but then you're so marketable in areas of government work.
In government work, even if you're in part of the country that you don't want to be in, you can move around easily. It's so mobile that after one year, so many opportunities all over the country open up that you can go anywhere from Alaska to the Channel Islands, to the Virgin Islands, to Maine.
For more information, visit the National Park Service's Inventory and Monitoring Division: www.nature.nps.gov/im