Page 20 - summer 2018

20 Friends oF red rock canyon

By Glenn Ritt

“...there are those days that I get out of my car and I can smell the

cliff rose and see the sun shine on the sandstone escarpment and realize

that I am very blessed to come to work every day and experience the

beauty that surrounds me.”

o, what does Bureau of Land outside and teach in a different way.
S Management (BLM) Inter- I just didn’t know how to go about it
pretive Ranger Kate Sorom do on at the time.”
her day off?
After getting married, Kate and
Take a two-and-a-half mile walk her husband packed up for Reno
in the Calico Hills led by Friends’ where she graduated from the Uni-
Volunteers dedicated to the preservation of Red Rock Canyon
President Tom Lisby, demonstrating versity of Nevada with a degree in
that Red Rock Canyon represents Natural Resource Science, focusing
more than a job; it’s a passion. on forestry and range management.

A passion that she always wants “Trees and cows,” she jokes.
to share with visitors – especially
young people. “Growing up in Las Vegas, Red
Rock Canyon was always a place I
A Las Vegas native, Kate grew up thought would be neat to work at.
as a ‘city kid,’ but one whose parents In high school, I went to the new
frequently took the family camping Visitor Center to talk with a Bureau
on Mount Charleston and at Beaver of Land Management official. “How
Dam State Park on the Nevada-Utah can I work here?” I asked her.
border. “I have always loved nature,
and the idea of being a park ranger Ten years later, that same official
began when I was very little,” she became Kate’s boss.
recalls.
During those intervening 10 years,
She entered the University of Kate worked summers at Nevada
Nevada, Las Vegas as an education state parks as a seasonal aide. “This
major, thinking she would become a Kate on the back patio of the old was a good start to becoming a Park
teacher. “But, I really wanted to be Visitor Center with a craft class Ranger, learning people skills, meet-
for toddlers. Circa 1999 ing visitors from all over the world.”

the Rock - Volume 8 Issue 4