Helen Clough

The Coast Guard took my family to Alaska when I was a small child and while I also lived elsewhere, it has always been home.

After graduating from the University of California at Davis, I began my federal career with the Bureau of Land Management in the California Desert in 1974 and enjoyed the challenge of working on the original California Desert plan.  Alaska kept calling to me and in 1981 I returned to work for the Forest Service where I was the manager of one of the first national monuments under that agency. In 1989 I moved to Dillingham, Alaska and began my Service career as a regional refuge planner located first at Togiak Refuge and later at Alaska Peninsula/Becharof Refuges.

I spent 23 years with the Service and ended my career with 6 years as the Chief of Refuge Planning and Policy in the Alaska Regional Office. During my Service career, I traveled across the country visiting every regional office, and teaching over 1,000 service employees about refuge planning at the National Conservation Training Center.  I retired in January 2013.

Since retiring I have kept busy on non-profit boards, especially the River Management Society where I am completing a 3-year term as president of the board. I volunteer in a variety of capacities including spending an incredible 3 weeks at Midway helping with the annual albatross census in 2014. My husband, our dog and I spend a lot of time on our 40-foot trawler fishing and boating around southeast, Alaska, British Columbia and Washington.