Have a Nice Day Job: My career as a park ranger, ecologist, and superintendent
David H. Van Cleve spent thirty-two years with California State Parks.  He was a park ranger, a park ecologist, and finally, a park superintendent.  He was educated at the University of California, Santa Cruz with a BA in Geography and Environmental Studies and at UC Santa Barbara with an MA in Geography.  He credits the original  Earth Day, in the spring of 1970, with giving him a permanent nudge towards a career in conservation.  He lists the most important  achievement of his life as creating the "Banana Slugs" as the mascot for the sports teams at UC Santa Cruz in 1970, which has since become regarded as one of the most iconic college mascots in the nation.