By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Logan Wild, a lifelong Sitkan, has been named 2018 Engineer of the Year for the Alaska Region of the U.S. Forest Service.
“Logan’s technical engineering expertise has contributed to the Forest Service’s success in facilities management and long-term planning of facilities needs for a complex portfolio including two world class visitor centers and more than 60 administrative buildings across eight Ranger Districts,” the Forest Service said in its announcement.
Wild, 34, was born and raised in Sitka and is a 2003 graduate of Sitka High School. Growing up, he studied trombone, and earned his bachelor of arts in music from Rice University in 2007.
But he’s also always loved spending time outdoors, and during college took summer jobs in the Sitka Ranger District of the Tongass National Forest, clearing trails, cutting wood, digging outhouses and keeping cabins in working order, mostly living in the cabins and shelters during the work week.
“I liked working outdoors,” Wild said. “As I was spending time doing that, I learned about the work that engineering was doing to maintain and improve recreation areas and recreation facilities. That was my initial hook before I went to (engineering) school.”
Logan Wild (Photo Provided)
After graduating from Rice, he continued working outdoors, in the Gallatin National Forest in Montana and Olympic National Park in Washington, before deciding to get a civil engineering degree at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. During his junior year at UAF he was selected for the Pathways program, which allowed him to job shadow a Forest Service engineer during the summer.
“That’s what connected me to a career in the Forest Service,” Wild said.
Wild was hired by the Forest Service as an engineer in 2011, and currently works in the supervisor’s office in Sitka, where he has enjoyed collaborating with other engineers and natural resource professionals on projects.
“The biggest learning experience for me was working with Barth Hamberg (USFS landscape architect) on recreational enhancement projects throughout the forest,” Wild said.
“The White Sulfur bathhouse stands out,” he said, referring to the replacement of the hot springs bathhouse in the West Chichagof Wilderness Area, 65 miles north of Sitka.
He and Hamberg also traveled together on a three-week detail to national parks in Uganda, where they helped management agencies with recreational master planning, specifically helping the parks create projects to generate income to protect wildlife.
His work on the North Prince of Wales District with Petersburg engineer Tim Chittenden was also a rewarding experience, he said.
Wild said working as a civil engineer for the Forest Service was not exactly what he thought it would be – in a good way – and it has continued to afford him more opportunities to work outdoors.
“What I like about Forest Service engineering is I’m involved in cradle-to-grave management,” he said. “From the initial scoping and planning, through planning, survey and design; construction administration; operation and maintenance; and eventually decommissioning. Being involved, you see the big picture. It’s pretty illuminating, compared to the private sector where you may be dealing with just one aspect.”
Hamberg said he was pleased to see Wild honored, although he had tried to steer him into another Forest Service career year ago.
“When I recommended Logan (for the award), I told the story of how I tried to talk him into being a landscape architect, before he went to engineering school,” Hamberg said. “I thought he had such potential. He’s widely educated, and open minded, and a creative thinker. These are great qualities to bring to the engineering profession.”
Sitka District Ranger Perry Edwards has enjoyed working with him, too.
“Logan is amazing,” Edwards said. “He has the ability to deal with the technical experts but also able to deal with contractors in common, plain language.”
Edwards said Wild was instrumental with the conversion the old warehouse into the new District headquarters, which he called a huge achievement.
“Logan was in charge of that project,” Edwards said. “Early in his career he did a project that’s bigger than many engineers have in their entire career, and he handled it. He’s just very people-oriented.”
Wild is the son of Jane Eidler and Mike Wild, whose own career included 20 years in the Forest Service maintenance department.
Logan is married to Kenley Jackson.
