Ranger Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson was raised in the California bay area town of Los Gatos shortly after World War Two and served as a signalman in the U.S. Navy in Viet Nam from 1966 to 1969.  After his naval service he attended Humboldt State University where he graduated with a degree in Wildlife Management in 1972.

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Steve worked for five years with the United States National Park Service as a Park Ranger in Grand Teton National Park while in school and worked as a Wildlife Technician with the California Department of Fish and Game at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge after graduation.  ln 1973 Steve began working as a California State Park Ranger at Folsom Lake, California and continued to Pismo Beach State Recreation Area, Morro Bay State Park, Morro Bay Natural History Museum, Fort Humboldt State Historic Park in Eureka California, and finally served as a resident Ranger in Sugar Pine Point State Park on the west shore of Lake Tahoe.  He also worked as a ski instructor at Homewood Ski Area and a Ski Patrolman at Diamond Peak Ski Area.  After retirement in 2003, Steve moved to Reno and worked for a time as a Public Safety Officer for the Northstar Ski Area and with the Wildlife Bear Safety team in Grand Teton National Park.

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Having experienced the dramatic population increases in California’s coastal towns and central valleys from 1945 to 2003, Steve became acutely aware of the environmental stress these population increases were placing on California’s environmental health.  Steve’s work in the mountains of California provided a front row seat to the devastation caused by the California water crisis and increasing global temperatures.  In 2017 Steve began work on a photographic series titled “HEAT” which will document the dramatic changes in California’s ecosystem, and which he hopes to one day have published.  Images from that series are presented here.  

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 Also presented in this collection are several series of images following his interests including the avian community surrounding Reno, waterfalls, Japanese swords and knife making, musicians of Irish and Scottish music presented at the Ceol pub in Reno, First Nations people of the Northern Nevada area, Captain Jack and the Northern California lava beds, fireworks of the Tahoe area and Reno at night.  Steve has shown his work at the annual Truckee Meadows Community College Student Art and Design Exhibition, the Sparks Heritage Museum, The Friends of Nevada Wilderness Art Exhibition, The Nevada Conservation League’s Public Lands Photo Contest, and the McKinley Arts Center art gallery.

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Steve’s work was awarded the Curator’s Choice Award for three of his images at the Truckee Meadows Community College 44th Annual Student Art and Design Exhibition in 2018 and two Nevada Fine Arts Awards at the same exhibition. He was also awarded an honorable mention in the Truckee Meadows Community College 45th Annual Student Art and Design Exhibition in 2019 and the people’s choice award at the Nevada Conservation League’s Public Lands Photo Contest in 2018.  

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Steve may be contacted at 775-240-3910