'COWBOY' MAINTAINS THRIVING ECOSYSTEM ON OPEN MISSILE RANGE.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. You wouldn't single out Craig Nathe as your average civil servant. Strapped up in chaps and spurs, mounted on his quarter horse, Nathe's office is the open range. The open missile range, that is. "I think I've probably got one of the best jobs on the base," Nathe told an interviewer. "I enjoy it a lot, and it's outdoors quite a bit. I've always got an excuse to go outdoors." A cowboy among rocket scientists Rocket Scientist In the world of finance, these are people with science and math degrees who work in the finance field building highly advanced quantitative finance models. These models help banking, insurance and investment firms to price financial instruments. , Nathe monitors a lot of outdoors as rangeland management specialist for the 30th Engineering Squadron at the seaside missile test base. At Vandenberg, the Air Force tests intercontinental ballistic missiles intercontinental ballistic missile: see guided missile. , firing several unarmed rockets a year across the Pacific toward Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands Marshall Islands, officially Republic of the Marshall Islands, independent nation (2005 est. pop. 59,000), in the central Pacific. The Marshalls extend over a 700-mi (1,130-km) area and comprise two major groups: the Ratak Chain in the east, and the Ralik Chain in . Satellites also are launched into orbit from the base. Neighboring neigh·bor n. 1. One who lives near or next to another. 2. A person, place, or thing adjacent to or located near another. 3. A fellow human. 4. Used as a form of familiar address. v. federal prisons graze about 800 head of cattle on 24,000 acres of base range, and Nathe's job is to make sure they graze in the right place. It requires protecting threatened and endangered species endangered species, any plant or animal species whose ability to survive and reproduce has been jeopardized by human activities. In 1999 the U.S. government, in accordance with the U.S. and wetlands. "There's just kind of a plethora of things," he said. Aerial photos, computers and math formulas go into Nathe's cow accounting. He uses studies outlining vegetation density and composition. He also keeps a thick binder of photos, before-and-after images documenting the operation's successes. Landscapes scarred and eroded nine years ago now bear wildflowers and grass. Nathe, a 38-year-old graduate of Montana State University Montana State University, at Bozeman; land-grant; coeducational; chartered 1893. It is primarily a technical institution specializing in agriculture, engineering, and applied sciences. The Museum of the Rockies is there. in Bozeman, has ridden the Vandenberg range for about 18 months. He was with the Forest Service for 13 years. His last job, he said, kept him about 10,000 feet above sea level, and now it's good to work with a different collection of plants. He spends about two days in the office, the rest of his workdays outdoors, often aboard Kato, his 7-year-old quarter horse. Kato spends his nights in a prison stable. "They take care of him, I just ride him," he said. "It doesn't get any better than that." |
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