volume 32, number 4 -- april 1997

Staff Notes Monthly 4-97

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Volume 32, Number 4 -- April 1997

In this issueRemote working: marvelous, perilous, or both?

Networking from home: still a challenge The ultimate telecommute

Xeriscaping at the Foothills Lab: A progress report Helping nature on the mesa

Everett Skaggs, 1923-1997 Science Briefing New Hires

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It was no April fool when three youngsters got to be VIPs for a day at the Mesa Lab. The trio won NCAR Awards forExcellence in the Atmospheric Sciences, in conjunction with the two Boulder Valley Regional Science Fairs held inFebruary and March. UCAR's Harriet Barker presented the awards on 8 March at Broomfield Heights Middle School.

Normally, one student is selected in the elementary category (grades 1-5) and one in the secondary category (grades 6-12), but this year, the elementary competition was hot enough to produce a tie. The NCAR honors went to Jenni Jones,a third-grader at Mesa Elementary, for "Air Pollution in Boulder," and to Gilbert Lemieux, a fifth-grader at BearCreek and the first-ever back-to-back winner, for "Beyond the Borders: Acid Rain." The award winner in thesecondary category was Kristen Rasmussen, a sixth-grader at Burbank Middle School and the daughter of RAP's RoyRasmussen. Her project: "Frost Forms Under What Conditions?" The NCAR-award judges were Dan Breed at theelementary level and Charlie Knight and Simon Low-Nam at the secondary level.

Each year, the NCAR visit for winners includes a stop at Jeffco and a tour through various ML labs, followed by lunchin the cafeteria, "sometimes with the people who judged their exhibit, and always with some very friendly scientistswho help draw the kids out," says Education and Tour Program coordinator Rene Munoz. NCAR and NOAAoriginated the idea of giving award winners a day at the lab. "Now," says Rene, "many of the two dozen organizationsthat give awards at the fair offer a day at their place, which we think is the most important award that could be given--a chance to see the organization up close and carry away valuable mental pictures of what that kind of work is like."The three winning exhibits are on display through this summer in the ML mezzanine, along with two other weather-related projects. Pictured (left to right) are Jenni, Kristen, and Gilbert as they drop coins in the gravity well, the newestaddition to the ML exhibit fleet. (Photo by Curt Zukosky.)

About this publicationStaff Notes Monthly is published by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder,Colorado 80307-3000. UCAR operates the National Center for Atmospheric Research, UCAR Office of Programs, andWalter Orr Roberts Institute with support from the National Science Foundation and other sponsors.

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Writer/editor: Bob HensonDesign: Liesel BrunsonPrinting: Image & Design Center, Speedy BeePrint distribution: Milli ButterworthElectronic distribution: Jacque MarshallPhotography: Carlye Calvin, Curt Zukosky

Unless otherwise noted all images are copyrighted by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research / NationalCenter for Atmospheric Research / National Science Foundation.

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Remote working: marvelous, perilous, or both?

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9704/telecommuting.html[4/19/2013 9:45:10 AM]

April 1997

Steve Sadler


Remote working: marvelous, perilous, orboth?

Tammy Sorensen starts her work week with a cup of coffee and a check of e-mail. But Tammy's typical Mondaymorning doesn't sound like most of ours. Instead of the chatter of colleagues, she hears the twittering of birds in theyard of her Longmont home.

"More and more . . . work is becoming something you do, nota place you go to."

--Woody Leonhard,The Underground Guide to Telecommuting

Tammy is one of a growing number of UCAR, NCAR, and UOP staff who spend one or more of their work days athome each week. What's unfolding is a quiet but very real and steadily growing shift in our organizational culture. Aninformal survey conducted by an inhouse committee indicates that as many as 100 staff are now regular telecommuters(or remote workers, the term preferred by people who specialize in the subject).

In any workplace, remote work has some heavy emotional baggage tied to it--managerial fears, employee fantasies,organizational uncertainty. Some conclusions about telecommuting have come to light through practitioners who havepaved the way at UCAR and elsewhere over the past few years. Yet misconceptions abound.

"There are some sensitivities out there," acknowledges Steve Sadler, UCAR's health andenvironmental safety officer. Steve chaired a subcommittee of the Human Resources AdvisoryCommittee that was formed last year to take a close look at remote-work issues at UCAR. Withthe subcommittee's work now done, the HRAC, chaired by Karon Kelly, is drafting guidelines forremote-work arrangements that will soon be available on UCAR's Web site. "We want a unifiedapproach," says Edna Comedy, associate vice president for human resources.

Who gets to work at home?

Thus far, remote-work arrangements at UCAR have been handled informally. Policy 2-4-8 statesthat "flexible work alternatives are available to all employees subject to approval of their supervisors and division orprogram directors." Not all jobs are suited to remote working, however. It's up to the employee to make a convincingcase that UCAR will benefit from (or not be hindered by) his or her working at home.

"Right now, a remote working arrangement can be as simple as a verbal agreement between an employee, his or herboss, and the division or program director," says Steve. He thinks more-concrete arrangements, such as the guidelinesnow being developed by the HRAC, will be better in the long run. "There can be a disconnect later on if things aren'twritten down."

Under current policy, says Steve, "remote work is allowed if the supervisor sees some benefit to the organization. If heor she doesn't, it's totally within his or her purview not to allow [remote work]. It must make good, sound businesssense." Along with job duties, there are other factors to consider, including the employee's demonstrated ability towork independently and her or his computer literacy. "It's possible you could have two people working in the same job

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and a manager lets one work at home and not the other." As Steve sees it, the equity questions raised bytelecommuting aren't new: "Remote working is different but not unique. How do we decide which employees are readyto take on new responsibilities? How do we determine salaries? In all these situations, you're using the same judgmentprocesses to come up with sound decisions."

Sometimes the rationale for remote work is clear. Some tasks require long periods of uninterrupted time. Othersinvolve on-call duties at odd hours that are best accommodated with the employee at home. Many other jobs and tasksare less clearly suited for remote work but still performable from a distance.

Remote working differs from an occasional stint of working at home, such as barricading oneself for a day or two towork on a performance appraisal. It's long been routine for many staff to do such ad hoc telecommuting at one time oranother. One definition of a remote worker that is gaining acceptance nationwide, says Steve, is someone whoregularly spends at least one day per week working somewhere other than a standard office.

It's a process

"The typical remote worker starts out almost euphoric," says Steve. "You get to go home! But what researchers havefound is that, over time, remote workers tend to bottom out." With the fridge always close at hand, weight gains arecommonplace. A succession of minor but time-consuming tasks, such as laundry, can encroach on one's work time."Sometimes remote workers start to get the sense that their fellow employees think they're goofing off. Some just can'ttake the isolation."

Others err in the opposite direction. Without the enforced change of scenery between office and home and theleavening effect of everyday workplace distractions, they find it hard to put their work down when the virtual whistleblows. "They overwork," says Steve. "They never disengage."

Ironically, telecommuters tend to become disenchanted just as their supervisor and coworkers come to accept theirremote working. "Typically," Steve says, "the manager starts out uncomfortable and the coworkers even more so, butin time they grow more comfortable--just as the employee is becoming anxious."

The period from six to nine months is considered the make-or-break time, when many telecommuters decide to returnto the office for good. Once beyond that time frame, all parties involved tend to become increasingly accepting.However, other factors can sometimes prod people to return to the office. For instance, any risk of downsizing canmake home-based workers feel at particular risk because of their already routine absence from the workplace.

Making it work

Just as not every employee wants to work remotely, says Steve, "not all managers like the concept itself." A keyprinciple, he suggests, is for supervisors to focus on what employees produce rather than on their physical presence inthe office. "You need to look at the job outcome and agree on the process for evaluating it." It's important, he adds,that no employee or job category be excluded from remote-work options without a sound basis for doing so.

For the newly home-based worker, discipline is key. To keep the work day clearly demarcated, some ritual such as aquick morning or evening walk around the block can be useful (once you're back, your work day has either begun orended). A clearly defined work space and a consistent work schedule--including breaks--helps keep one on track.Nonslovenly clothes should also help put you in the working frame of mind.

Though working at home has some clear benefits, such as the elimination of long commutes, it can be a misleadingsolution to problems like stormy relationships with coworkers. "Remote work isn't a panacea for interpersonal workproblems," Steve cautions. Also, though it can simplify daycare logistics (for instance, when the daycare site is close tohome), telecommuting won't allow you to watch your kids and your work simultaneously. "When people try to coupletheir work with dependent care," says Steve, "it's a disaster."



Where is the office of the future?

• In a 1995 survey of Fortune 1000 executives, almost two-thirds of the firms had telecommuting programs, half ofthem instituted in the past two years. A full 92% of those polled agreed that telecommuting brought benefits in lowercosts, increased productivity, and improved morale.

• The states of Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington have established telecommuting offices and together haveformed the Telework Collaborative to "accelerate the acceptance and adoption of telework in public and privateorganizations by understanding and addressing the needs of employers, supervisors, and managers."

• Although nobody has attempted such a calculation for UCAR, it's been estimated that some 30% of all jobsnationwide could be carried out, in part or in full, remotely.

It will take some time for remote work to find its ultimate place in our own institutional culture. How does NCARreinterpret its role as a national and international focal point for research when many staff may be working at home ona given day, rather than interacting with each other and with visitors? Might telecommuting someday lead to a growthin pooled offices, or even to the "hoteling" model used by IBM in Denver, where employees bring laptops totemporary cubicles with temporarily assigned phone lines?

For the time being, Steve foresees a continuation of our informal approach to remote work, which he sums up as"allow it but don't force it." "Some organizations will send everyone home, close a building, and save ten milliondollars. That's not the way it works around here. We have a voluntary remote-work policy."

As in many other areas, differences in funding across divisional and program lines come into play with remote work.They affect, for example, whether a telecommuter receives a computer, modem, and phone line; merely a modem; orno hardware at all. However, says Steve, "divisions and programs are obliged to cover the cost of ergonomicequipment for remote workers at home and for all staff on site. We have to make the work situation ergonomicallycorrect for everyone, whether in the office or at home." (If you'd like to arrange an ergonomic evaluation, contactGinger Hein, ext. 8555, [email protected].)

Steve notes that field programs have already provided a testbed of sorts for telecommuting, with many dispersed staffcollaborating with each other in real time. "Look at TOGA COARE [the Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphereprogram's Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment, held in the western Pacific in 1992-93]. It was theultimate example of remote working. All through the project I corresponded with people on the scene via e-mail."

To see how rigid the old paradigm of fixed-location work can be, Steve points to the educational process. "We takepeople fresh out of school, where they've been doing assignments wherever they like. We put them into an officeenvironment, plunk them down at a desk, and tell them, 'You're going to sit here eight hours a day for the rest of yourlife.' " Those days, for better or worse, appear to be going the way of McGuffey's Reader. •BH

If you have any thoughts or experiences to share regarding remote work, please send them [email protected]. We'll compile your responses and publish them (as space permits) in an upcoming issue.

Ben Domenico, Unidata

"Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't"

A few Unidata staff are now in the midst of a four-month experiment in telecommuting. "We don't havea fancy, formal plan," says Ben Domenico, Unidata's program manager. Six employees (including Ben)are participating. Three of those are already attempting to spend one day a week working at home, agoal inspired by the Denver metro area's Pollution Solution program to reduce commuting.



Because Unidata's work is so closely tied with the data it provides to universities, high-speed connections from homeare a must. "Our philosophy there--and we had this before telecommuting came up--was that we'd providecommunication software and a modem for any employee who needed it." Older computers, if available, can be takenhome, but Unidata is not furnishing new machines or paying for remote workers' phone lines.

According to Ben, the networking available for remote work isn't yet up to speed. "Often in training sessions [forremote work], the technical end is portrayed as the easy part. Strangely enough for a place like Unidata, ournetworking to [employees'] homes isn't what we'd like." The exception is for group members exploring Java-basedprogramming. "It's pretty much platform-independent, so people can do their programming on their home PC."

As for Ben's own telecommuting, "sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. I have a lot of on-site meetings, so I can'tschedule a given day off site very easily just yet. However, a lot of my coordination involves people in the universitycommunity, and I can do that just as well from home."

Dave Carlson, ATD

"We're a group problem-solving organization"

Ask Dave Carlson about telecommuting, and he may turn your question on its head. The ATDdirector, who served on the remote work subcommittee, wonders not so much whether telecommuting is practical aswhy it's seen as desirable. "If everyone's happier and more productive working away, what are the disincentives at the[office]?"

While Dave is supportive of remote work as one piece in a suite of options, he sees important reasons why NCARshouldn't mandate mass telecommuting. "The examples we've seen from the commercial realm are very formal: 'Youwill telecommute. You'll only spend two or three days a week in your central office.' At NCAR, we're a groupproblem-solving organization. Our interactions are key to how we get our work done. Can a scientist go home to writea research paper? Sure, I think anybody could. What we have to ask is, are there disincentives in terms of distraction atthe workplace that we can fix?"

Dave's home is only a ten-minute bike ride from the Foothills Lab, and he's impressed at howmuch the desire for reduced commuting is driving telecommuting. "We have a lot of staff in ATDwho come up from Denver, even southeast Denver, and their commutes are long and stressful."Even the weekend-warrior drive on I-70 is a consideration. "We have some staff who workweekends at home and take off Wednesday or Thursday to go to the mountains and avoid the skitraffic."

Dave doesn't see the institution saving much money through remote work. "Unless you can shiftpeople out of their regular offices, you won't actually achieve cost savings." However, he iscomfortable with how things are evolving. "We are in a de facto situation where many people areworking one or two days at home, and I don't consider that to be a big issue."

Tammy Sorensen, FSS

"It helps my morale"

As the facilities coordinator for Facilities Support Services, Tammy Sorensenhelps track the status of UCAR's half-million square feet of real estate. Muchof that work is now done from Tammy's home in the northeast part ofLongmont. For the past year, Tammy has telecommuted every Monday,Wednesday, and Friday. "I really, really wanted to try this. My two managers



[Pat Harris and Julie Emo] have both been very supportive."

FSS supplied Tammy with a new computer and modem for her remote work."A big part of my responsibility has been running the Space Manager softwarethat links to our AutoCAD [computer-aided design] program," she says. Mostof the needed software and data resides on Tammy's hard drive, so long-lastingphone connections and an extra phone line aren't required. Every 15 minutesher computer automatically dials up to retrieve e-mail. To keep the distractionlevel down, Tammy checks her PhoneMail frequently rather than having heroffice calls forwarded to her home.

"I really have established myself at home as I would in the office. I see it as a privilege to telecommute, so I try veryhard to make it work. I usually end up working nine hours a day instead of seven or eight. I do a lot less socializing,and instead of taking an hour for lunch, I'll go fix lunch and get back to work. It helps my morale."

For Tammy, the biggest bonus of remote working is the elimination of a 44-mile round trip to the office. "In thesummer I can go out and start my gardening right after work. I think it's the greatest thing."

Dolores Kiessling, COMET

"I'm still interested in what's going on"

Dolores Kiessling's job fairly begs for remote work. She provides data support for the visiting instructors that teachCOMET's on-site courses for federal meteorologists. The teachers often burn midnight oil during the week to get theirclasses organized, and much of the work involves access to data-intensive case studies of meteorological events.

That's where Dolores comes in. "I'm mostly manipulating the data. The instructors often prepare for classes after hours,so a lot of times I'm working at night. If not, I'm always checking my messages."

When courses are in session, Dolores's schedule varies; otherwise, shespends Tuesdays and Thursdays working at home. "At first it was toughgetting things together and keeping connected, but now it's working reallywell for the things I have to do." COMET has provided Dolores with thebasics of a complete home office: desk, chair, computer, modem, and asecond phone line.

Remote working makes it easier for Dolores to keep track of her three-year-old son and ten-month-old daughter. "I have my mother or mymother-in-law come over on the days when I telecommute to keep an eyeon the kids. I do get to spend more time with them than I would if Iworked in the office five days a week." On the other hand, Dolores hasbattled the sense of workplace disconnection common to telecommuters."Sometimes I feel like I get left out of the loop on things. It's a matter ofgetting people to remember that even though my door's closed, I'm still

interested in what's going on here."



Mike Daniels, RAF

"I lobbied for it"

Last spring, Mike Daniels spent the lion's share of his work time--three daysa week--at his home in Broomfield. It wasn't far from ATD's ResearchAviation Facility at Jeffco, but he needed the distance. Mike was chargedwith writing a new program, Xbuild, that required particular focus.

"It's a piece of software that configures a research aircraft for a particularproject," explains Mike. Xbuild tells the user where instruments are mountedand how they're configured; it also provides a header used to decode themaster tape on which most in-flight data are stored.

Mike knew beforehand that telecommuting would help him get the job done,thanks to recent versions of a PC-based Unix operating system called Linuxthat allows him to do Unix programming on his home computer. "I lobbiedfor it [remote work]. I saw the increasing amount of computer power viaLinux, which gives me a readily available platform I didn't have before. Theincreasing modem speeds also helped." Mike's modem was the only item supplied by RAF for his remote work.

On his days at home, Mike would carry out most of the debugging, testing, and compiling needed. "Then I'd wantsome interaction with the programmers here at RAF. That's when I'd bring in the software interface. It really workedout nicely."

Some of Mike's regular duties as system administrator demand on-site attention, but he hopes to eventually move to aremote working plan of one or two days a week. "It allows me to balance my time here with some programming timeat home. It's an easy way for me to partition my time between 'quiet mode' and 'putting out fires mode.' "

The ultimate telecommutePerhaps you can use it to buy a car, find a spouse, or write to the President. But is the Internet any place to get adoctorate? Brian Heckman and Vickie Johnson will find out over the next three years. The two COMET managers(Brian, the Educational Resource Center; Vickie, the Outreach Program) have embarked on a doctoral program taughton line through Nova Southeastern University, based in Fort Lauderdale. Vickie and Brian, who hold master's degreesin meteorology, are now enrolled in the school's Ed.D. program in instructional technology and distance education.



Brian Heckman (Photo by Curt Zukosky)

It's no fly-by-night arrangement. Founded in the 1960s as a graduate school in the sciences, Nova is now Florida'slargest private, fully accredited university, with 14,500 students and extensive programs in the health professions, law,oceanography, and education. The school is one of the nation's leaders in Internet-based teaching. Hundreds ofdoctorates have been completed at Nova through distance work coupled with a few intensive on-campus visits. Eachnew distance student joins a cluster, a cohort of around 30 classmates who interact through e-mail, discussion groups,and real-time chat based on assigned readings. Vickie and Brian are part of Nova's third cluster to date in their degreeprogram.

"I resisted this at first," says Brian, who had been toying with getting a doctorate since about 1990. He could thinkonly of Radar O'Reilly of "M.A.S.H." getting his training by correspondence. However, only a few other U.S. doctoralprograms exist in instructional design, and none of them would mesh with Vickie's and Brian's full-time work atCOMET. In fact, says Brian, "The University of Georgia doesn't permit you to be employed outside the program."

With each others' encouragement, Vickie and Brian took the plunge in January. They spent a week on campus inFlorida last month and will return for two-week summer intensives and other, shorter visits in between their distancelearning.

"Our cluster comes from a diverse, broad-based population," says Brian. Virtually all of them are 30 or older. "I'd saymore than half had looked at other programs and chosen this one. They weren't looking for a cheap or easy way to doit."

Vickie Johnson (Photo by Curt Zukosky)



Along with the usual doctoral-level reading load, Vickie and Brian will spend hours on line communicating with theirpeers in formats such as WEBBOARD, a World Wide Web-based forum. "It reminds me of struggling with a foreignlanguage," says Brian. According to Vickie, "if you can't type well, you're in big trouble."

COMET will benefit directly as its two doctoral students complete their work. The program requires its students notonly to be employed by an organization that is or could be using instructional design, but also to complete a practicum(in lieu of a dissertation) that addresses a relevant workplace issue. "That's one of the elements that attracted me to theprogram," says Vickie. "COMET has lots of areas that need attention but not much time in which to work on them."•BH

Networking from home: still a challengeOne of the biggest stumbling blocks in working at home is the lack of high-speed access to computers based onsite. Modem speeds continue to rise, with many now at the level of 28 kilobits per second (Kbps). However,these speeds are dwarfed by the extremely rapid access of more than 10 megabytes per second provided byNCAR's in-house networking. Marla Meehl, manager of SCD's Network Engineering and Technology Section(NETS), provides this perspective on the future of network access for remote work.

For most remote workers, high-speed access to NCAR/UCAR/UOP computing resources would be an essentialrequirement. NETS has done some preliminary research into the nature and cost of possible high-speed accessservices. Services considered include ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), cable modems, and outsourcingdial-in service. Each possibility has its drawbacks.

• ISDN is relatively expensive, not yet widely deployed in the NCAR/UCAR employee service area, and provides onlya marginal speed improvement.

• Cable modems have yet to be deployed in the NCAR/UCAR employee service area and could be quite expensive (onthe order of $150 per month) assuming deployment ever occured. However, cable modems would providemultimegabit access speeds.

• Outsourcing dial-in service means paying for employee home access to a commercial Internet access service such asMCI, Sprint, or SuperNet. The main drawback to these services is that 28 Kbps is a typical maximum access speed,though moves are being made to install both ISDN and higher-speed modems. Also, the use of a commercial Internetaccess service would raise routing, charging, security, and statistics issues.

More general issues are involved in supporting users at home. Providing hardware support can be very cumbersomeand expensive, and the access is not intended for uses unrelated to work. In any case, supporting remote workers withhigh-speed access services could require substantial effort and expense. •Marla Meehl, NETS

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Xeriscaping at the Foothills Lab: A progress report

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9704/xeriscaping.html[4/19/2013 9:47:23 AM]

April 1997


Xeriscaping at the Foothills Lab: Aprogress report

Adam's needle, banana yucca, dwarf fountain grass, pink woolly speedwell. These are some of the plants in theNCAR xeriscape gardens--islands of environmentally appropriate vegetation in the middle of the Foothills Labparking lots. In honor of Earth Day, Staff Notes Monthly takes a look at the islands' evolution from water-guzzling, asphalt-disrupting problems to oases of environmental stewardship.

After UCAR purchased the Foothills Laboratory complex in 1990, renovations to adapt the space to NCAR's needstook about two years. But the interior was not the only part of FL that needed modification. Facilities Support Services(FSS) acquired responsibility for a new landscape unlike the relatively natural environment of the Mesa Lab. Thegrounds and parking areas had landscaping more suited to the water-abundant climate of the eastern United States thanto Colorado's high plains environment.

It wasn't long before Rich Johnson of Outside Maintenance discovered that the cottonwood trees and Kentuckybluegrass on the FL parking lot islands presented a mix of problems, and an opportunity. The nursery-bredcottonwoods were planted when the lab was built in 1982. According to Rich, they were considered a good choiceyears ago because they grow quickly and are native to riparian areas of Colorado. However, in the middle of theparking lot, away from the banks of a waterway, their shallow root systems were spreading, pushing up through theconcrete and tearing up the asphalt. When it was time to mow the water-thirsty bluegrass, the mower blades would getcaught and damage the gnarled tree roots. The soft wood produced by the rapidly growing trees was weak andvulnerable; branches torn off by windstorms and early snows presented safety and maintenance problems.








Meanwhile, the Environmental Stewardship Committee was interested in conserving water and minimizing use oftoxic lawn-care products. When Rich pointed out the problems with the cottonwoods, FSS director Pat Harris felt itwas time to try something new. Rich had been investigating xeriscaping--the practice of landscaping with plantsadapted to arid climates (xeros is Greek for dry). He thought the islands might make good testing grounds.

Rich had already created a pilot project at the east side of FL1. When renovation work disrupted the landscape nearthe east entryway, he used the opportunity to test drought-resistant plants in a terraced xeriscape instead of installingsod. The next area to acquire alternative plantings was Dedication Park, the courtyard with benches at the east end ofthe main-entrance shuttle loop created in time for 15 July 1992 ceremonies inaugurating NCAR's newest facility.

The islands in the visitor parking lot at the main (south) entrance presented a new challenge. Beginning in the fall of1994, as the cottonwoods came down, Rich went in with a backhoe to plow up their extensive root systems. The nexttask was soil preparation, "the most important thing you can spend your effort on," according to Rich. He did a lot ofmulching, trying to break up the dense clay soil. (For the island at the east end of the visitor lot just now beingtransformed, Rich simply rototilled the existing soil so he can compare it with the performance of the mulchedislands.)

Now in their third season, the islands are home to flowering daffodils, crocus, and tulips and a wide variety of shrubs,bushes, and ground cover. Slow-growing burr oak, catalpa, hawthorn, ash, and Kentucky coffee trees are beginning totake root. (Planting a variety of trees reduces vulnerability to species-specific diseases.) Carefully placed buff-rock andmoss-rock borders give the islands visual texture and terrace the soil.

The buffalo grass stays dormant until the weather turns warmer. Special porous mesh material allows water and air toreach the soil while inhibiting weed growth. But weeds are still a problem, so Rich and Beau Charbonneau hand-pickand spot-spray them in the spring. Rich has cut back on routine use of herbicides and pesticides, not only on thexeriscape islands but also on the bluegrass surrounding the lab. Some of the trees have been sprayed for specificdiseases, but this will be the first season in three or four years for broad lawn spraying. For Rich, reduced spraying andxeriscaping go hand in hand: "Being that we are an environmentally conscious institution, I thought we should try toset an example."



Rich Johnson and Beau Charbonneau. (Photos by Carlye Calvin.)

The island with FL's building sign and some of its neighbors came with a sprinkler system that has been converted toprovide some sprinkler heads and some drip irrigation. New plants receive water once a week to help them get started;once established, they do well on natural rainfall alone. In contrast, the Kentucky bluegrass surrounding FL getswatered every two to three days, depending on the weather and time of year.

Visitors to the site will find crushed gravel paths to ease navigation. Handwritten signs identifying each plant fade outin the summer sun, so Rich is working on a schematic map to be placed on NCAR's Web site. A large version of themap is planned for the west end of the building sign island.

Rich has received master gardener certification from Colorado State University, read lots of literature, and sharedinformation with the City of Boulder Water Conservation Office. When it comes to xeriscaping in Colorado, he'll tellyou that "there are not a lot of examples around. We're learning as we go." The FL site was featured on a self-guidedtour of xeriscapes in Boulder last year and will be included in the next edition of the Native Landscaping Guide ofBoulder County, which is published cooperatively by the Boulder Energy Conservation Center, the city, and thecounty.

A thoughtful empiricist and meticulous craftsperson, Rich asks UCAR staff to be patient as the xeriscape gardensevolve. "It takes time and effort to get things right." Staff who want to learn more about the FL project or the potentialfor xeriscaping at home can contact Rich at ext. 1129. Copies of the Native Landscaping Guide of Boulder County areavailable from Paul Lander, Boulder Water Conservation Office, 413-7407. •Zhenya Gallon

Helping nature on the mesa

When plans to build the Mesa Lab were being considered in 1960-61,Earth Day was still a decade away, but preservation of the beauty andsensitive ecology of the mesa was foremost in the minds of itsdevelopers. In a 1961 prospectus, UCAR president and first NCARdirector Walter Orr Roberts described the intention of the NCARboard and staff to develop "a site plan and a laboratory design suitableto the high task of the center and worthy of the natural setting inwhich it is to be placed." Walt and his colleagues understood the site'sunique features and put considerable effort into discovering how bestto preserve them. The prospectus promised "preservation of the natural



The NCAR site is outlined in white in thisaerial view of Table Mountain,photographed in the early 1960s, beforethe access road or any buildings had beenconstructed.

beauty of the site, a minimum disturbance of topsoil and vegetation,[and] landscaping compatible with existing vegetation."

Installing acres of irrigated lawn was never an item for discussion.Instead, in March 1963, a few months before construction began,NCAR business manager Robert Low wrote to Donald Hervey in theCollege of Forestry at Colorado State University to ask what could bedone to restore the site's natural vegetation once construction wascompleted. In 1961 CU biologist Bill Weber had cautioned that thenatural cycle that established the mesa's particular flora had beenlengthy, and there was almost no topsoil to work with. Traditionalmethods of scraping off vegetation and top material and spreading itover finished areas would likely result in a giant weed patch, as hadhappened at Rocky Flats. Bob Low asked Hervey which kinds of grasses would best blend in with the undisturbedareas and require minimal or no irrigation.

Hervey's four-page report detailed his specifications for restoring the building site, utility cuts, and the banks of thenew road cut. To help reestablish ground cover, he suggested mixing native grasses with nonnative varieties. ErnestShapard of Shapard's Gardens (then in Boulder, now located in Longmont) was called in to advise and carry out therestoration in the spring of 1965. In consultation with CSU, he created the seed formula used at the Mesa Lab. Dubbedthe "NCAR Mix" and sold for years at Shapard's as "Foothills Mix," the recipe called for:

Canada blue grass (4.70%)crested wheat grass (22.63%)

sand drop seed (.96%)blue grama grass (4.32%)



western wheat grass (7.19%)durar hard fescue (7.91%)slender wheat grass (14.34%)Kentucky blue grass (9.84%)

annual rye grass (14.72%)sheep fescue (4.76%)inert ingredients (8.63%).

In Boulder, McGuckin Hardware sells a Foothills Mix that varies only slightly from this recipe.

The tradition of environmental responsibility that began with the selection of Table Mountain as the Mesa Lab sitecontinues through the work of the Environmental Stewardship Program. Contact Gaylynn Potemkin, ESP chair, at ext.1618 or [email protected], or visit their Web site. •ZG

Special thanks to Diane Rabson of the NCAR Archives for providing background and documents on which this articleis based.


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Everett Skaggs, 1923-1997

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April 1997


Everett Skaggs, 1923-1997One of the most familiar faces at the Mesa and Foothills sites,carpenter Everett Skaggs from Maintenance, died on Friday, 14

March, at Boulder Community Hospital. Everett, who had a history of cardiac problems,collapsed while on duty at the Mesa Lab that morning and never regained consciousness, despitethe immediate attention of the First Reponse team and paramedics.

Everett was truly a builder. In his repairs and construction tasks, he made his mark in virtuallyevery corner of the Mesa and Foothills labs and the other Boulder-area sites. But he also builtrelationships with the same care and dedication. Those human bridges, less visible, are what anumber of staff will remember most about Everett.

"He was really a wonderful friend," says Karen Friedman, who knew Everett during his entire 19-year tenure atNCAR. In 1986, after Karen suffered serious neck injuries in a car accident, "Everett built me a reading stand before itbecame an ergonomic catalog item." Karen was also one of several staff for whom Everett did freelance home repairs:"Every time I moved into a different place, he helped with construction." One night a few years ago, Karen came hometo find her entire townhouse floor flooded. "I called Everett at 11 p.m., and he came over and replaced the washerhoses. The week before he passed away, he stopped by my office and said, 'Now, I know you have your own placenow, but be sure you check those hoses.' "

Teresa Rivas and her family were close friends with Everett, who was a Realtor and helped them buy their house. "Ireally liked how diverse his interests were. If he had an interest in some legal issue, he'd march right down to the lawlibrary and look it up. He knew quite a lot, even about his own health condition. He made sure he was well informed."Occasionally, Everett would ask Teresa about some aspect of Latino language or culture so he and his wife couldbetter help a neighbor or acquaintance. "They did a considerable amount of helping people who were down on theirluck."

Born and raised in Alva, Oklahoma, Everett attended Union College and the University of Nebraska before taking upcarpentry and construction. He was a master cabinet maker for Wurlitzer Organ Company and had owned andoperated his own construction firm in Denver. Everett enjoyed nature, woodcrafts, music, and photography. He issurvived by his wife, Norma; a son, Charles Imhoff; and a grandson.

Everett's legacy, both human and physical, will live on at UCAR. "There is hardly a room at any of our facilities thatEverett has not worked in," says John Pereira, Maintenance manager. "He was very knowledgeable about his job aswell as many of the other facility maintenance crafts. Whether he actually constructed some of the walls, built abookcase, or only hung a white board, Everett left his mark. He was well liked by everyone in Maintenance and he willbe missed by the team for a long time." •BH

A memorial fund to make a donation in Everett's name has been established; Norma Skaggs willdesignate the charity. If you would like to contribute, contact Teresa, ext. 1437, [email protected].


UCARNCARUOP Edited by Bob Henson, [email protected]











Science Briefing

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9704/scibrief.html[4/19/2013 9:49:18 AM]

April 1997


Science BriefingAnother computer vendor is joining the ranks of those with a major presence in SCD.This month, UCAR signed a contract with the Hewlett-Packard (HP) Company to

purchase an HP Exemplar X-Class system. The purchase is part of a joint research and development projectbetween NCAR and HP's Convex Division, located in Richardson, Texas.

During the project, NCAR and HP expect to develop the expertise and tools needed to use distributed shared-memorysystems, such as the Exemplar, for numerical models. The X-Class is HP's fourth-generation system based on theshared-memory architecture, called CC-NUMA (cache-coherent, nonuniform memory access). The Exemplar X-Classsystem to be installed at NCAR will have 64 processors and a peak speed of 46 gigaflops, or 46 billion floating pointoperations per second.

"The Exemplar is an intriguing next step in our effort to stay abreast of new architectures and new techniques," saysSCD director Bill Buzbee. Toward this end NCAR has worked closely over the past eight years with a variety ofvendors, including Thinking Machines, IBM, Cray Research, and Cray Computer.

NCAR is procuring the HP Exemplar system under NASA's Scientific and Engineering Workstation Procurement(SEWP) program, which is open to NASA, NASA contractors, federal agencies, and federal agency contractors.

Hewlett-Packard is a leading global manufacturer of computing, communications, and measurement products andservices. See HP Exemplar Technical Servers for additional information about the Exemplar system.


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New Hires

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9704/newhires.html[4/19/2013 9:49:39 AM]


April 1997 New Hires

(left to right)Randy Armour, shuttle driver in FSS.Colleen Clark, administrative assistant II in HR.Deborah Lake, administrative assistant II in F&A.

(left to right)Catherine Clark, administrative assistant in JOSS.Barbara Tunison, administrative assistant in ISS.Reyna Meenk, Web systems administrator in F&A.Hanli Liu, postdoctoral researcher I in HAO.






New Hires

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9704/newhires.html[4/19/2013 9:49:39 AM]

Other New Hires

Robert Campbell, software engineer/programmer I in SCD.Trish Eliasson, student assistant II in RAP.Jennifer Evert, student assistant II in COMET.Gary Pereira, visitor with VSP. NOAA Office of Hydrology.Bruno Tremblay, postdoctoral researcher I with VSP.

Departures

Keith Barr, 5 MarchGuiliana De Toma, 31 MarchDenise Fay, 21 MarchPaul Johnson, 28 MarchMarjorie Miller, 26 MarchMichael Moore, 31 MarchAnji Seth, 31 MarchDiane Wade, 21 MarchJoan Westerfield, 31 MarchHerminio Avila, 14 MarchBrent Halsey, 14 MarchKymberly Kram, 17 MarchLori Lucero, 21 MarchDe-Zheng Sun, 24 FebruaryLiang Xu, 15 March


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volume 32, number 4 -- april 1997

Documents