Mission Mountains Need New Ranger

Kari Gunderson was sitting in her office when it started to rain golden larch needles.

Workplace phenomena like that are common when you’re a wilderness ranger. And Gunderson has spent 35 years reporting for duty in the Mission Mountains Wilderness. This fall, she’ll stop calling the Missions her office, but she’ll still call it home.

“This is very bittersweet for me,” Gunderson said, sitting on a boulder at the edge of Glacier Slough. “But it’s time to hand it on to others. I think there are a lot of Millennials who have the interest and skill-set to do this. I hope to pass it on to people with local knowledge and credibility – who know the land.”

Few know it as well as Gunderson. Sitting on the edge of Glacier Slough, she can name every peak, recall which of the wilderness’s 225 lakes hide behind them, identify the odd mounds in the distance as muskrat lodges, and still get a tingle watching the shower of fall color blow across the view.

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