Dr. Patti Happe, who retired in June after 28 years as the wildlife branch chief at Olympic National Park, recently received the National Park Service Director’s Award for Professional Excellence in Natural Resource Stewardship.

The award is a national honor recognizing outstanding contributions of individuals in “understanding, protecting, and managing park resources,” park officials said.

Happe began her career at Olympic National park as a Ph.D. student studying elk populations in the mid-1980s. In 1996, she returned to the park as a wildlife biologist and branch chief.

Over the course of her career, Happe made contributions to restoring native wildlife and ecological balance on the Olympic Peninsula, park officials said, pioneering and facilitating studies of elk movement and ecology, monitoring of northern spotted owl populations, and research foundational to the Elwha River restoration.

Beyond these scientific endeavors, Happe led park efforts to prevent human-wildlife conflict while “providing exemplary leadership for the Olympic wildlife management program,” park officials said.

In recent years, she headed the removal of more than 500 non-native mountain goats from the park, with more than 300 reintroduced to their native habitat in the North Cascades. The effort was a multi-decade project involving tribal, federal, state, nonprofit and volunteer partners.

In addition, she has been a key partner in restoring the Pacific fisher to Olympic National Park, the first such effort in Washington state where the species was believed to be extirpated.

Happe also trained and mentored more than 70 volunteer citizen scientists to monitor changes in the distribution and status of the Olympic marmot, a species unique to the Olympic peninsula and vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

“Patti accomplished the kinds of things in her 30-year career that people will remember and rely on for decades,” said Sula Jacobs, Olympic National Park Superintendent.

“Her contribution to Olympic National Park and the National Park Service mission is remarkable, and we thank her for the incredible work she has done,” Sula said.