Fairbanks Tall Timbers: Cathie Harms

The Fairbanks Tall Timber Series was created to honor those who have served the Fairbanks community well. Join accomplished journalist Tom Hewitt either in person or via Zoom as he interviews these stalwart members of our community.

Cathie Harms is a one-woman encyclopedia of knowledge about Interior Alaska wildlife after spending three and a half decades as a wildlife biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. In addition to her work as a biologist, Harms helped manage the Creamer’s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge and the Fairbanks Hunter Education Indoor Shooting Range. She also designed the highly popular “Becoming an Outdoors-Woman” workshop series, which has helped hundreds of Alaska women develop fishing, hunting, survival, and general outdoor skills invaluable to an active lifestyle in the Interior. Her career at Fish and Game made her an authority in the intersection between humans and wild animals in Alaska, from bear attacks to wolves with rabies and everything in between. Harms’ interests are as varied as her job responsibilities were; for four decades, she has been part of the PAWS canine search-and-rescue group that helps find lost hikers and others in need of assistance in the backcountry.