Forestry Technician Doug Phelps grew up visiting Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. He never could have imagined how much the place would come to mean to him.

“I remember visiting the Homeplace and Nature Station on school field trips, and I remember riding past the South Bison Range on the back of my dad’s motorcycle,” Phelps said. “This place has so many memories for me.”

His love for travel took him all over, from serving on trail crews in the Montana Conservation Corps, to studying in Germany for four months. This love was shared by his future wife, Kim, who Phelps met at Murray State University and described as a “firecracker of a girl.”

After they graduated, the couple got engaged and decided to move back to Montana, where Phelps returned to the Montana Conservation Corps. But home came calling again-this time in the form of a job offer.

“In the summer of 2011, she got a job offer at a high school back home,” said Phelps of his fiancé. While she returned home to Kentucky, he finished up his time in the Conservation Corps while trying to decide what to do next.

“I had reaffirmed my passion for working outdoors and building things,” he said. “I discovered that a career with a land management agency could be right for me.”

Return to the Land Between the Lakes

The idea to apply at Land Between the Lakes actually came from his fiancé, and in 2011, Phelps accepted a position as an Integrated Resource Apprentice, and he hit the ground running. He loved how each day was something new and different.

“One day I was transporting tranquilized elk, another day I was setting bait cameras for Golden Eagles, other days I was responding to wildfires or lighting prescribed burns and 100 other incredible things that most people don’t get to do, much less get paid to do,” he said.

Through his career with the Forest Service, fire remained a passion for Phelps, but he didn’t want to leave Land Between the Lakes to pursue it.

“I had established very deep roots in the area, and I loved working here,” Phelps explained. “Wildland fire had become a major part of my identity.”

He also credited the relationships he formed with his coworkers as a reason he stayed. In 2012, Phelps got married. Shortly after, his wife was diagnosed with cancer, and his coworkers became like family to support them both through treatment.

It’s clear Phelps’ work family feels the same way about him. Lacy Risner works as an archeology technician, ensuring the preservation of important sites all over Land Between the Lakes, and said that Phelps always shows up for others.

“Doug Phelps is the kind of leader who looks out for everyone,” she said. “He is someone you can not only trust to protect heritage sites, but also your life.”

That value on connection also applies to the fire community Phelps and Risner are both part of.

“Fire is a small community, we look after each other,” he said. “I can go out to a random place in the middle of nowhere in Oregon and run into somebody that I met in Florida.”

Everything changed for Phelps in 2019. A new fire management officer built a new program, and Phelps took a detail as an assistant engine captain. By September of that year, he was in the assistant captain position permanently. However, only a few months before, his wife lost her battle with cancer and passed away.

There and Back Again

After this, Phelps returned to traveling, accepting fire assignments in Colorado, Texas, Oregon, California, and Florida. He rescued an elderly woman in the Rocky Mountains at high elevation, had smoke jumpers land on a fire he was working in the wilderness, got caught in a winter storm in Colorado and cut down a four foot-plus diameter tree in California. But eventually, it all caught up with him, and he decided he needed a change.

“Traveling and working so much when my homelife was shattered to pieces led to burn out,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave fire, but I needed to do something different for my mental health. I had lost my sense of direction in life.”

In February 2023, Phelps accepted a fuels tech position, which kept his job centered at Land Between the Lakes.

What ties Phelps to the area so strongly?

“This area has just always been home,” he said, explaining that it has everything he needs, professionally and mentally. His family is here. He can hunt, kayak and bike, and only has to drive a couple hours to rock climb.

Phelps also said he likes the uniqueness of Land Between the Lakes.

“I’ve always liked that this place is different,” he said. “This place kind of has a different purpose, a different need, different objectives to meet with the public, and I like it being unique and different. It’s attractive.”

The idea of home can mean various things to different people. For Phelps, it has meant a good life, a career, a future and a good deal of healing.

“It’s my home,” he finished. “No matter where I’ve gone, I’ve always come back to it, and it’s always welcomed me back.”