ANPR presents 12th-ever Harry Yount Lifetime Achievement Award to Mike Finley

Mike Finley, Medford resident and former Oregon Fish and Game Commissioner, was presented with the prestigious Harry Yount Lifetime Achievement Award at the October 17, 2025 Association of National Park Rangers “Ranger Rendezvous” in Virginia Beach, Va.

The Harry Yount Award has been given only 12 times to those who have served as role models, providing consistent leadership to the National Park Service (NPS) and in the iconic National Park ranger role.

“Mike’s natural leadership ability and his tireless service epitomize the values sought by the Yount award,” said Dick Martin, Jacksonville, Ore., resident and retired NPS. “This award recognizes those who have contributed to the NPS, to rangers, and to the ‘art and science of rangering’ throughout the whole of their career.”

“He has an ability to be inventive and innovative,” said John Reynolds, former NPS deputy director who supported the nomination efforts for this award. “And a drive to address basic functions with excellence.”

The award is named for Harry Yount, the first gamekeeper in the then newly designated Yellowstone National Park who, in the 1880s, through his skills and abilities, became the model for future National Park Service rangers.

Finley, over the course of his NPS career, served as a national park ranger, park superintendent, and in regional and national positions. He and his wife, Lillie, moved back and forth across the U.S. several times, for positions all in the aid of the 1916 NPS mission to  “conserve the scenery and wild life, and to provide for public enjoyment in a way that leaves national parks unimpaired for future generations.”

His last official posting, in 1994, was as superintendent of Yellowstone National Park. Bison management, reintroducing native cutthroat trout, conducting the environmental review that protected the park from mining runoff along a drainage just outside park boundaries, and wolf management are hallmarks of his tenure.

“Throughout his career, Mike has always put the resource first and worked to improve the status of the Service’s most important resource - its employees,” said former colleague and retired Olympic National Park superintendent Maureen Finnerty.

“The single most challenging natural resource issue in Yellowstone was ultimately one of Mike’s greatest career achievements, and some could argue for the whole National Park system,” Martin said.  “The reintroduction of the gray wolf (canis lupus) required Mike to create a team to conduct environmental compliance, work across the border with Canadian rangers for 14 wolves to be transferred to Yellowstone, and address local and political concerns, at a minimum.

“Mike’s tenure as superintendent of Yellowstone raised the conservation bar within that park to a level that has never been surpassed,” said Don Barry, former assistant secretary, Department of the Interior.

Finley, after retirement, carried his skill set with him as president of the Turner Foundation and as chair of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission.

“However, his achievements with NPS will live on forever,” Martin said.