November 26, 2024 • 34 mins
"We honor our profession and we're proud of what we do to remember those that we lost."
Park Rangers often dedicate their life to the preservation of nature. There is another side of the work that is less known; Uncovering the forgotten stories of those who paid the ultimate price. My conversation with Jeff Ohlfs, retired chief ranger of Joshua Tree National Park, explored the often-overlooked sacrifices of park rangers worldwide. Read more about his work in the blog.
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Association of National Park Rangers
Park Rangers Association of California
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to the Park Leader Show, where we are changing the landscape of
leadership in parks and conservation. I'm your host,
Jody Mayberry, and I am happy to introduce to
you a long time friend now, Jeff Olffs, the retired
chief ranger of Joshua Tree National Park. Now Jeff's
position was chief ranger Joshua Tree when I met him.
(00:24):
He has since retired and has not done very well at
retirement. Have you, Jeff? Yeah. It's not catching on.
Well, it's here's the thing. Jeff just keeps giving back to
the community, keeps giving back to parks, and we will get to some of
that. But, Jeff, let's start out with your history
with the outdoors and how you became a park ranger. Well,
(00:46):
I don't wanna say it's kinda one of those cliches. I wanted to be a
ranger since I was 5 years old. But, yeah, it it actually was my
kindergarten teacher, Granny Mac. I was the wife of the chief naturalist
at Yosemite. And while my most of my grandparents had passed
away by age 5, she kinda became my, you
know, pseudo grandma, so called Granny Mac.
(01:07):
And she I grew up on the stories of the National Park Service of
her, her husband living in all the parks, working with Mather and
Albright and things like that. So both of my folks were also
outdoors related. Dad grew up in a logging camp. Mom was a grew
up on a ranch. The Boy Scouts, it just kinda naturally fell
into being a ranger. So that's what I progressed towards. I
(01:30):
only knew you during your time at Joshua Tree,
but tell us about some of the stops along your way along
the way during your career with the National Park Service. Well, I'll start out
by saying I started out as a park ranger explorer in
a San Jose, California City Parks Department Explorer post. That
was my first adventure. Then, you know, volunteered for the County of Santa
(01:52):
Clara, California State Parks, US Forest Service,
National Park Service. My first paid federal
seasonal job was with the Army Corps of Engineers in California
as a park aid. Then the next summer I switched while I was going to
college, next summer I switched over to the Bureau of Reclamation as a park
technician for them at Ne Moloney's Lake for 2 seasons. And
(02:13):
then it was the National Park Service. It's starting seasonal
with, gosh, what was it? I think Crater Lake, Redwood,
Whiskey Town. No, actually, those came later, but Crater Lake for sure.
While I was there, I took the Clerk Type Test like most of the people
did back in days and actually was offered a GS. My first
current position was a GS3 Clerk typist for the Office of Inspector
(02:35):
General of the United States Department of Agriculture in San Francisco as a Clerk
typist typing up those investigations. Having had, you
know, been a seasonal law enforcement ranger, the background was intriguing
to them, but that didn't quite suit me,
on that obviously. So, Whiskey Town took me back as
a seasonal. I never lost had a break in service from my
(02:57):
permanent status because once you're permanent, even going back to seasonal, you maintain
your, you know, as long as there's no break in service, you maintain your your
theoretically permanent status in the sense of benefits and things like that.
So whiskeytown, the Redwoods, and then, got my first permanent
position at the C and O Canal, Great Falls District Lower 32 Miles
of the Potomac River. And, yeah, that I bounced
(03:19):
across the country back home to California. Back home. I
didn't know that, and I was wondering as you were telling your career
whether it was going to be entirely in the state of California,
but you escaped that. I thought that was gonna be the story. But
it brought you back to California, and not only did you
finish your career there, you just keep giving back to the state of California
(03:42):
and back to park rangers. And I don't
wanna glance off such a wonderful career you
had. There are other things, though, that I want I want
to get to, the International Ranger Federation, the work you've done
there. Before we do, let's look at your the end
of your career, though, with such a great position in
(04:03):
a great park. Why did you finally decide
it was time to retire? How does a park ranger know? Okay.
It's finally time to hang it up? It was just
time. I won't go into details on that, but it was just time. It was
just time. Well, that's as good of answer as any. It was when
it's time, it's time. Okay. I mentioned the International
(04:26):
Ranger Federation, and Jeff has been involved
in ranger associations here in the United States
helping just helping them do well, thrive. I've been
with Jeff at I think I've been to 2 California Parks Training
Conferences now. We've we were together at those. We were together
at the 2 or 3 Ranger Rendezvous. We've been together at the World
(04:48):
Ranger Congress. So we've got to see each other quite a bit over
the years. And I noticed every time
you are I don't know if you think of this as yourself, but this is
what I notice. Like, people come to you. You're like
this authority for people, like a friendly, trusted
voice when it comes to Ranger associations, when it comes to issues
(05:11):
involved in ranger associations. So you were always the one
I thought of when I thought of ranger associations and being involved in
the International Ranger Federation. So it's really neat to
see you continue to be involved with them. And you were recently
recognized at the last World Ranger Congress,
which I was too bad I missed that one. I really wanted to attend that
(05:33):
one in France, but just for other reasons, I just couldn't
couldn't attend, but hope to be see you at the next one.
So tell us about what is it that drew you and
pushed you to work so hard for Ranger Associations?
Well, it's been my career. I mean, it's been my life. I don't want to
say I live, sleep and breathe it. I love visiting parks. I love everything about
(05:54):
being a park ranger, all the duties, all the assignments. You know, I'm still
theoretically doing it. Once I retired Governor Brown,
then Governor Brown appointed me to as a director to the Mount San
Jacinto Winter Park Authority. So it's a state entity
that is a park authority, not the state parks. It's its own separate
entity. And I'm actually chairperson this year. So I'm
(06:17):
on a board of 7 and the governor's appointee to that. So
we help with Mount San Jacinto State Park and the management of that. Most people
know it as the Palm Springs Tran, and most people don't realize Palm Springs Tran
is a park authority. And so that just keeps me in that,
and I'll just I'll give one final thing on that is, yeah, as soon as
I retired, FEMA asked me to come play with
(06:38):
them. So as a retired annuitant, I'm a division
supervisor, the response to disaster. But as an annuitant tech, I only work 30
days a year because of federal regulations, but I'm there to help FEMA
respond to disasters. And of course, with the search and rescue background of being a
national park ranger and all my ICS with that, it fell in. And
so technically, I'm still a government employee. As I
(07:00):
said, Jeff does retirement very poorly. So
the one other thing I wanna talk about again before we get to
the international ranger stuff is the
Association of National Park Rangers. Jeff is very
involved in that. I've been a member for many years.
And, Jeff, I know one of one of the
(07:22):
challenges with ANPR is attracting
younger park rangers and getting them involved and at
Ranger Rendezvous. And so what is the benefit if I'm
new in my parks career? What's the benefit in being
involved with the Ranger Association? Well, I'm going to parallel
that besides ANPR, as you mentioned with, as you know, PRAC, Park
(07:44):
Rangers Association of California. It's the California version of
ANPR, except it's any ranger at any agency level of government in the
state. Very similar. They both started roughly about the same time.
So the thing with both of them, and I've been a member of both of
those since probably 'seventy 9 or 'eighty or
so, is the networking, the training, the people that
(08:05):
have become not just friends, but
close friends. I'll say first in networking.
Now, never really worked for anybody that I met
through ANPR directly as a supervisor, but a
lot of people there shared their thoughts, their insights with me
along years, guided me, gave me guidance, I could ask for help. And
(08:28):
that was, you know, that's hugely important for anybody. And I think
I'm not sure that and this goes probably for any organizations
having a hard time, you know, getting members is that I wanna say
nobody wants to belong, but I don't think they don't realize the
extent of having that network. You know, learning from
these, you know, they always said, well, you know, this is the way we've always
(08:49):
done it, and you come in with a new idea. I mean, that's always been
one of those challenges of working. And but, you know,
learning from the people who have gone before me. And then, like I said,
just the social aspect of meeting these people,
becoming friends, seeing most of them, gosh, every year, watching their
kids grow up, staying at their house, they come visit when they come
(09:10):
through, things like that. It's just it's a good friendship. It's a
good community. It's the Ranger it's the Ranger family. So and that
applies for both ANPR and PRAC. And I think, you know, both
organizations are having those same issues, and I just
don't I can't you know, one time was highly into training. I
got a lot of good training education from both of those
(09:32):
organizations, and they're still kinda coming back from that, slacked off a bit.
But, you know, just the networking and training, you know, education, you know,
these are things that can help you in your career down the line. I wish
the younger generation, hate to say it that way, I'm not I don't think myself
that old, you know, can understand that and, you know, start appreciating
that and understanding the value there. I mean, even as a retiree, I go back
(09:54):
every year to both organizations' annual conference just because, a, I wanna see what's
going on. I wanna keep abreast of things, and I wanna make new friends.
Well, that is one thing that I noticed about
the ANPR meetings in particular because it
is a it covers the whole country. I mean, it's rangers from all over
the country. And if you are a younger ranger and go,
(10:16):
now you're in the same room having conversations with
park superintendents, chief rangers, chief interpreters
that you may never get the chance to meet otherwise. And
now they know your name. And when someone knows your
name, it's a lot easier to reach out and ask a question because they
remember your face. They remember what you talked about at the conference. And then the
(10:39):
one in in California, same thing. It is a big
state and it covers all the agencies. It's not just
California state parks. It from national parks, state,
city, county, water districts. And you all have
we all have the same problems. It's just we wear a different
uniform and being able to get to know because if you are a
(11:01):
California State Park Ranger, you may end up
working alongside some of these other rangers from other
agencies. And now you've already met them at the California
Parks Training Conference because you're both in the same association. So Jeff is
right on about the networking, and now you've got the ability to reach out and
ask questions. Now that is one thing I noticed at the World
(11:23):
Ranger Congress. If I remember right, the one I went to, there
were rangers from 62 countries there. I
could be off by 1 or 2 countries in either direction. And one of them
would talk about a problem in Australia. But then a
gentleman from France might say, woah. We had that
problem, and I had not thought of that solution. And that was
(11:46):
so neat to see. Here's another Jeff, you can
confirm this since you were just at another World Ranger Congress. The
one I was at, I did notice any time there was a
ruckus, a loud noise, a commotion, it was usually the
Australians that were involved. And South Africans.
Yes. Just having a good time. But that's well, what an honor it
(12:09):
was for me to get the chance to speak at the the World Ranger Congress
in 2016, and that is unlike anything that I've
been been to, to have rangers from all over the world
mingling together, talking together, just hanging out and enjoying
time together. But as park people do, the conversations
always turn to parks and how can we get better and what
(12:31):
have you done about this and do you have any ideas for this? So
it goes back to what Jeff was saying about being involved in a ranger
association. It's just the networking with people and
other and the conversations, the other ideas. I think that's the
real value in it. And then the opportunity to be there for
each other. If anyone in the association needs help, there's a
(12:54):
network that will step up and help. So true. Alright.
So Jeff was acknowledged and recognized at
the most recent World Ranger Congress for the
work that he's done with what is called the Honor Roll.
And so I will take you to 2,016. I'm
at my very first World Ranger Congress. I met some
(13:15):
people early on and talked with them, but then the real
festivities begin. The actual congress begins
and they call us out to the flagpole and everyone
that from all over the world gathers at the flagpole. They raise
the flags and then read off the
name of every park ranger who has passed since
(13:38):
the last World Ranger Congress. Is that right or is it within the
last year, Jeff? I think it was within the last year. That was
actually the only World Ranger Congress where they actually read them off. So I think
it was the previous role of honor from that July 31st. Okay. And
that that just really that to me, that's one of
the more memorable things from that World Ranger Congress because
(14:00):
I hadn't it just had never dawned on me. Sometimes you'll
see in the paper or online an article
about a park ranger that passed away. But when you see the honor
roll and read every name, read the
country they're from and read how they passed away,
it just really gives you a sense of, okay, our
(14:23):
days are full of squirrels and trees and sunshine.
But worldwide, this is still a dangerous profession.
And we lose a lot of brothers and sisters in uniform
every year, and it just didn't dawn on me until that
World Ranger Congress. So, Jeff, give us the background
behind the honor roll, your involvement, because you've been am I right?
(14:45):
It's, like, 17 years you've been involved with this? Well, actually, it goes
back longer than that. Does it really? Okay. When I was at Hot
Springs, about 1988, I'd learned that a park
ranger was killed there in 1927. He was murdered.
And I'd not heard of it. It was a totally, you know,
like, what? Because everybody talked about Ken Patrick who passed
(15:08):
away at McRae murdered in the seventies. And it's like, wait a minute. This is
1927. So I spent a great deal of time researching that,
publishing the history of that whole story. And that kinda got me started
on what my wife says I see dead people. So
at that point, I started gathering information specific with the National Park
Service on fatalities in our agency, and not
(15:31):
just necessarily law enforcement. But as, you know, with the IRF role of
honor, you know, it's anybody who works in a protected area.
So it could be anything from, you know, heart attacks at death, trail,
maintenance, electrocution, drowning by boats, motor vehicle accidents,
anything that's on duty or in the line of duty. So
then the National Park Service right now, there's probably, at least to my
(15:54):
best knowledge, about 282 NPS employees that
have died within those parameters. And we created
a website for their memorial. So npshistory.com/employee/memorial.
Most people might be aware of the NPS history website filled with a wealth
of information on parks and protected areas, but you can go on
(16:16):
there and you'll see all the what we have listed on that. So
that was my big challenge and was my primary
project. Then along the way, of course, I
started hearing and reading about, you know, the rangers around the world
that were, you know, losing their lives also. And so I started
compiling. It was more of a side thing. You know, just if I ran
(16:38):
across something, I I kept a note and made a note of it. And so
then the IRF was formed, the International Ranger Federation. I was
on the ANPR's committee for international.
And ANPR, of course, is one of the founding 3 founding members of the International
Ranger Federation. Now there's over a 100 associations.
Then along came something that we started called World Ranger
(16:59):
Day. And I suggested that
in 2005, promoted it with the board
for the IRF. In 2006, we had the 1st World Ranger Day. So,
I like to think that, my course of expanding as father of
World Ranger Day, one of the things that we do during World Ranger Day, of
course, is honor this role of honor in all these
(17:21):
names. And so we produce it, and I'll get to that here
in a second, every year for that specifically for that day.
So that World Ranger Day is twofold. We honor our profession,
the fact that what we do, and we're proud of what we do. And then
we remember those that we lost the previous year, basically.
So with World Ranger Day going on since 2006,
(17:44):
I'll just throw a note. We have a really big one every year here in
California. So some place in the state, and I help coordinate that
sponsored by a particular agency. But we started acquiring
we've had our 1st IRF World Ranger Congress in Zacapani.
And then the second one, that's that was 95. 2nd one was Costa Rica
97. So this started coming up also with
(18:07):
these line of duty deaths. And so I I'd
started this, and I worked with an Uruguayan ranger named Juan Carlos
Gombarada, who was also on the IRF board, and we started compiling,
putting together this listing. And Juan
published a paper about ranger fatalities, and I'm
trying to think of who I think there was somebody else that kinda came in
(18:29):
after Juan. And then about, oh,
2009, we actually started
producing the role of honor. And at that
time, Roger Cole came in, and Roger got the same award I
did along with the Lifetime Achievement Award at this last World Ranger Congress.
I've been working with Roger specifically since roughly about
(18:52):
2009 when we actually physically started
producing it as a document, as something to be used at World Ranger
Day. So and we've been going on since then. Roger has
I've kind of been in the background over the years,
starting the whole idea of of documenting
and compiling the listing. Right now, I think we
(19:14):
have almost well, we have over 36 100 names
going back to about 1801. It's not just
that we of course, the role of honor is for the previous
year with some exceptions that we may have missed the year
before. But we also try to I mean, as I go through
and I'm an avid reader of ranger stories and ranger tales and ranger history
(19:37):
books and things like that, and I find, oh, wait a minute. Somebody passed away
back in 1940, whatever. We will add those names
also to the overall listing. And so we
actually published a paper a couple years ago with
the IUCN and World Commission of Protected Areas
on a basically, an overview of ranger fatalities
(19:59):
about I think it was 2009 to 2021, and don't
quote me on those years, but it was it was a good, you know, span
period there. And we had the statistics on what we had already
determined and, you know, breaking it down between all the different categories from
animal to motor vehicle to natural deaths to, you know,
things related firefighting, airplane crashes.
(20:21):
Yeah, I mean, rangers work in some of the remote
areas of the world. And there are rangers as it was pointed out, and we
were reminded, rangers on every continent. At least 3 countries sends
their national park rangers to Antarctica to staff their research
stations, particularly Argentina, Chile, and Australia. And a
couple of the Argentine Rangers have been signed to Antarctica with the last World
(20:43):
Ranger Congress. So, you know, we can say that there are rangers on every
continent. So with that, we've been doing this
now recording these names, and it's it is, you know, no one
person. I mean, it's a team effort, and it has to be a huge team
because we're talking about the world here. Not a lot of agencies want
this to be known. There's not a lot of information. We glean
(21:05):
it from hearing it from either Rangers in that country directly,
newspaper articles, the Internet, of course, now is just you
can put in Google searches and anything where something comes back, and you can see
what's going on anywhere in the world. So Roger and I were the
2 primary keeping that the master database as we
call it. Roger has now passed the baton. And so
(21:28):
we still have help also from the Thin Green Line Foundation, which is
a nonprofit that supports the widows and children and training of
widows and children, so those that have passed away, but also training of rangers around
the world and equipment, things like that. They, along with the Ranger
Foundation in California, give out grants to fallen
families to fallen rangers. You can imagine that and
(21:49):
and you take any, I'll just call it, 3rd world country, and, of course, rangers
don't make as much. And these grants help
them. I know the Ranger Foundation because I'm the vice president of that.
Once the money used towards either a scholarship fund for one of the children
to help the spouse establish a new business because they just lost
their primary breadwinner, So, you know, those two organizations
(22:12):
support the fallen rangers across the world. But through all
this and through how we learn in the reporting of them, the request for grants,
I mean, it's there's a lot of people involved. Roger and I just basically
kept the database and and kept our eyes and ears. And
Roger was really good into the social media, so, you know, we compile
it. We are firm believers in making sure that it's accurate to the
(22:34):
best of our knowledge. Sometimes we miss people because we just don't know about them.
Other times we, you know, we may not put somebody on there because there's just
not enough good information or there's a question as to was it
really connected with the job. So that's
the rule of honor and how it's been produced every year. And,
again, we put it out just before World Ranger Day in conjunction with World
(22:56):
Ranger Day. So, yeah, I've been at the very beginning of of
that based on my work, which I started in Hot Springs, to
honor our fallen comrades. In this time that you've been
tracking and honoring fallen park rangers, have you
seen trends happen? Like, are there times
for example, the shocking thing to me when you read
(23:19):
it is the amount of and maybe it's isolated
to Africa or not isolated, but it happens there more than
other places. But the amount of park rangers killed by
poachers, that was a big shock to me because here in the United States,
we don't have that concern. Sure. It could happen, but it's
not an active concern that I thought about when I was out in the
(23:42):
field. But have you seen trends like that? Like,
sometimes park rangers killed by poachers is
is higher than other years or or other things that have led
to park ranger deaths? You know, that's I
hate to say it as really a hard thing. There's no specific trend
just because we're dealing with the world. There may be countries, you know, where it
(24:06):
is a trend. I mean, you know, you think about the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Oh my god. Yes. I mean, you know, that's all. A lot of it's either
done by rebel groups or poachers. So it is, I
wanna say, more country specific when it comes to that than it
is just an overall trend in the world. And I
don't think there's any one, you know, place or one way
(24:27):
that's you know, leans towards. You know, it's a hazardous
job from the standpoint of, the type of work that we do
and the environment that we're in. So, yeah,
it'd be hard to say whether it's I think we break it down. So our
the role of honor besides the listing of names is done by regions,
countries, and it's done by types of, you know and it's used, like I
(24:50):
said, natural, animals, motor vehicle, accents,
or or kind of the 3 big 3 big categories.
Yes. I remember read if I'm right, I
think this past year, there were no
deaths in the United States involved in the line of duty. Is that
right? I believe that is correct. And, of course,
(25:12):
that changed very quickly. Yeah. I was surprised to
see it. That's a good year, though, if we can make it 1 year with
none in the country. And, yeah, there was it did change very
quickly. And that's the nature of the job is it
is just so dangerous. It's more shocking to see there
were 0 in a 12 month span. And
(25:34):
it. Yeah, it did. It's it's this is always,
a fascinating thing to talk about, the work that you do, the dedication
you put in to making sure all the park rangers get honored.
But it's also a conversation that can be tough to have because
you don't want to take it lightly. And here I'm celebrating. We
have a 12 month span with nothing, but also recently there was
(25:58):
a park ranger death. So it's hard to talk about 1 and not
acknowledge the other just because we do lose a lot of park
rangers every year worldwide. But it was
noticeable that we had a a good span in
our country where we didn't lose any. How many in
a typical given year, how many park rangers do you
(26:20):
think we lose every year? We're averaging
between a 100 to a 150. You know, we
always wish that, you know, we have no
work cut out for us, but, unfortunately, it's inevitable.
I actually just, found the art was in Parks Magazine,
May of 20 22, volume 28.1.
(26:44):
And that was an article that you people can refer
to. It was a 16 year period. We did 2006 to
2021, had a total of 2,351
ranger related, duty deaths. And it says
that, you know, felonious deaths, which is homicide accounted for
42% of the loss of rangers.
(27:06):
Accidents, illness, wildlife attacks, and work related casualties were
the other amounts. So from that particular study that
we did, obviously, murder was the,
was the big one. And, of course, we've now lost
this year. We've now lost 2 here in the United States in the
last few months. So we just had a firefighter state park aide
(27:30):
from New York who was fighting the New York fire who
was killed by a tree falling on him. So not a good
year. Every year is not a good year in our profession when we lose
anybody. Yeah. That number of murder
is considerably higher than I expected. And
w here in Washington state where I live, we had
(27:52):
2 well, maybe just in our state, it was high
profile, but it felt pretty high profile. We had 2 park ranger
murders a number of years back that were pretty shocking.
1 at Mount Rainier and then 1 in the Olympic National
Forest. And there it just gets your attention
because even as a law enforcement officer,
(28:14):
I went to work every day thinking, sure, something might
happen, but I rarely went to work today thinking somebody
might murder me. And maybe maybe that's a that
you have to have the mindset that it could happen any day. But
it's easy to get comfortable as a park ranger that everybody loves
park rangers because for the most part, they do. Yeah.
(28:36):
And, again, it's not necessarily that, you know, somebody's gonna go out
and they're looking, but wrong place, wrong
time. You know? That's what a lot of them may end up
being. But in Africa, it's a lot of them are well, you know,
in India too. Africa and India are the two largest numbers that we
get. And I know India is not a continent, but, it's big enough
(28:59):
to be in a sense. So, you know, they've got a
lot of militias, you know, rebel groups, and and things like that.
They got people who wanna and, you know, same thing in the Philippines. So
they, there was a few murders there because they were trying to
stop timber theft or mining. It's not just wildlife either.
It's the plants. It's the earth. It's you know?
(29:21):
So don't necessarily think that they're all poachers, but
that'll be a big chunk. Rebels, militia groups, that's a
big chunk. And then you have people who do not want the Rangers
to have them stop what they feel is their livelihood. Well, Jeff, this
has been a great conversation. I'm glad we could talk
about the work that you do and the honor roll.
(29:44):
It is it's just such a wonderful thing,
and you've put so many years of work into it with
without recognition, even though you did just get recognized. I know you've
done a lot of this behind the scenes without people knowing,
without recognition, and you still showed up and did it every year. So thank
you so much for doing that. It's a great service
(30:08):
to park rangers. I also though we spent so much time
talking about park rangers dying. I wanna end on a
couple different notes that are a little more feel good.
If you could see Jeff's office, you would be impressed with
his library, an entire wall, floor to ceiling
of books, many of them park related. So,
(30:30):
Jeff, off the top of your head, and I know you didn't know this was
coming, what are a few of the best park ranger or park
related books? Gosh. I don't know if I can
single anything out. I I know I enjoy you know, if
you want a good read, there's Butch Farabee's book on the the history of the
National Park Ranger. That's a good read for background on
(30:52):
what the National Parks are specifically. You know, there's a lot
of a lot more in the last few years of retired
rangers doing, you know, publishing their memoirs, so to
speak. And I kid you not, there's a lot. So,
whether it's Glacier, Great Smokies, Grand
Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mount Rainier, you can,
(31:14):
you know, find the stories. And and while
I just like to chuckle when I read them because it's, oh, yeah. I
remember we had to do something like that, you know, kind of a thing. And,
yeah, and they're done that. So it's great for me, you know, in a retired
position to sit there and and, remember and and smile
with one of these quick side story. We had World Ranger Day this last,
(31:38):
summer up at East Bay Regional Park District because they lost 2 of their officers
50 years ago, and they wanted to hold it in California. And I just gotten
done reading a book that a ranger who retired from
Golden Gate had written. And I can't think of the name off the top of
my head, but and I read about, oh, wait a minute. He's the mayor of
the town next door. So it was about 10 o'clock at night. I
(31:59):
sent an email off to his mayorship's email account,
and, he got back to me and was able to show up the next day
at the, at the memorial with his son. And so that was
just from reading a book that I I literally had just finished that
night. So, and now I have a new friend too. What a
great story. Well, with the wonderful career you had
(32:21):
with the National Park Service and all your dedication to
parks, what advice do you have for an up and coming park
leader who wants to have an impact? Knowledge is good.
Education. Learn as much about everything that you can. I mean, you know, they
call us a jack of all trades, masters of none for a particular
reason, for everything that we have our fingers involved in. I mean,
(32:43):
I I was, you know, tort claims officer. I was, you
know, wilderness manager. I mean, you know, firefighter, EMT,
searcher. I mean, all these things that we do and
reading about them, learning. And that's not just going to a training class,
and training classes are great. But, you know, read the books. Read
the, you know, what might be considered textbooks. Remeath the stories
(33:05):
of your fellow rangers. Get that knowledge and education about,
you know, managing parks out there. And the
other thing is I can't speak highly enough about networking.
And whether it's I mean, you're joining agencies
or within your agency, you know, these people, you
(33:25):
know, you can call back upon years years. I mean, with
the National Park Service, of course, we're federal law enforcement officers, so I maintain
it. I think I had a contact on just about every federal law
enforcement, including some you probably have never even heard of in my years
because you never can tell when, hey, I may need some help with something.
And I remember I used to meet this guy. And
(33:47):
so, so and I still maintain some of those contacts over
the years. So networking, training, education, and I'll give you another
funny you know, World Ranger Day a couple years ago was in San Diego,
and, we had, 2 city rangers from 2
adjoining cities who met there. Again,
adjoining cities that never knew that either city had a park ranger program,
(34:10):
and they just met. And, you know, I'm sure they're going on and doing bigger
and better things. But, you know, networking. Networking, education,
knowledge. Read, learn, train, get your fingers into
get as much information as you can. Alright. That is
great information. And, Jeff, I'm so pleased to finally
have you on the show after all these years of knowing each other. Thank you
(34:32):
so much for sitting with us today. My pleasure, Jody. Enjoy
your podcast. And thank you for listening to the Park
Leader Show.
Welcome to the Park Leader Show, where we are changing the landscape of
leadership in parks and conservation. I'm your host,
Jody Mayberry, and I am happy to introduce to
you a long time friend now, Jeff Olffs, the retired
chief ranger of Joshua Tree National Park. Now Jeff's
position was chief ranger Joshua Tree when I met him.
(00:24):
He has since retired and has not done very well at
retirement. Have you, Jeff? Yeah. It's not catching on.
Well, it's here's the thing. Jeff just keeps giving back to
the community, keeps giving back to parks, and we will get to some of
that. But, Jeff, let's start out with your history
with the outdoors and how you became a park ranger. Well,
(00:46):
I don't wanna say it's kinda one of those cliches. I wanted to be a
ranger since I was 5 years old. But, yeah, it it actually was my
kindergarten teacher, Granny Mac. I was the wife of the chief naturalist
at Yosemite. And while my most of my grandparents had passed
away by age 5, she kinda became my, you
know, pseudo grandma, so called Granny Mac.
(01:07):
And she I grew up on the stories of the National Park Service of
her, her husband living in all the parks, working with Mather and
Albright and things like that. So both of my folks were also
outdoors related. Dad grew up in a logging camp. Mom was a grew
up on a ranch. The Boy Scouts, it just kinda naturally fell
into being a ranger. So that's what I progressed towards. I
(01:30):
only knew you during your time at Joshua Tree,
but tell us about some of the stops along your way along
the way during your career with the National Park Service. Well, I'll start out
by saying I started out as a park ranger explorer in
a San Jose, California City Parks Department Explorer post. That
was my first adventure. Then, you know, volunteered for the County of Santa
(01:52):
Clara, California State Parks, US Forest Service,
National Park Service. My first paid federal
seasonal job was with the Army Corps of Engineers in California
as a park aid. Then the next summer I switched while I was going to
college, next summer I switched over to the Bureau of Reclamation as a park
technician for them at Ne Moloney's Lake for 2 seasons. And
(02:13):
then it was the National Park Service. It's starting seasonal
with, gosh, what was it? I think Crater Lake, Redwood,
Whiskey Town. No, actually, those came later, but Crater Lake for sure.
While I was there, I took the Clerk Type Test like most of the people
did back in days and actually was offered a GS. My first
current position was a GS3 Clerk typist for the Office of Inspector
(02:35):
General of the United States Department of Agriculture in San Francisco as a Clerk
typist typing up those investigations. Having had, you
know, been a seasonal law enforcement ranger, the background was intriguing
to them, but that didn't quite suit me,
on that obviously. So, Whiskey Town took me back as
a seasonal. I never lost had a break in service from my
(02:57):
permanent status because once you're permanent, even going back to seasonal, you maintain
your, you know, as long as there's no break in service, you maintain your your
theoretically permanent status in the sense of benefits and things like that.
So whiskeytown, the Redwoods, and then, got my first permanent
position at the C and O Canal, Great Falls District Lower 32 Miles
of the Potomac River. And, yeah, that I bounced
(03:19):
across the country back home to California. Back home. I
didn't know that, and I was wondering as you were telling your career
whether it was going to be entirely in the state of California,
but you escaped that. I thought that was gonna be the story. But
it brought you back to California, and not only did you
finish your career there, you just keep giving back to the state of California
(03:42):
and back to park rangers. And I don't
wanna glance off such a wonderful career you
had. There are other things, though, that I want I want
to get to, the International Ranger Federation, the work you've done
there. Before we do, let's look at your the end
of your career, though, with such a great position in
(04:03):
a great park. Why did you finally decide
it was time to retire? How does a park ranger know? Okay.
It's finally time to hang it up? It was just
time. I won't go into details on that, but it was just time. It was
just time. Well, that's as good of answer as any. It was when
it's time, it's time. Okay. I mentioned the International
(04:26):
Ranger Federation, and Jeff has been involved
in ranger associations here in the United States
helping just helping them do well, thrive. I've been
with Jeff at I think I've been to 2 California Parks Training
Conferences now. We've we were together at those. We were together
at the 2 or 3 Ranger Rendezvous. We've been together at the World
(04:48):
Ranger Congress. So we've got to see each other quite a bit over
the years. And I noticed every time
you are I don't know if you think of this as yourself, but this is
what I notice. Like, people come to you. You're like
this authority for people, like a friendly, trusted
voice when it comes to Ranger associations, when it comes to issues
(05:11):
involved in ranger associations. So you were always the one
I thought of when I thought of ranger associations and being involved in
the International Ranger Federation. So it's really neat to
see you continue to be involved with them. And you were recently
recognized at the last World Ranger Congress,
which I was too bad I missed that one. I really wanted to attend that
(05:33):
one in France, but just for other reasons, I just couldn't
couldn't attend, but hope to be see you at the next one.
So tell us about what is it that drew you and
pushed you to work so hard for Ranger Associations?
Well, it's been my career. I mean, it's been my life. I don't want to
say I live, sleep and breathe it. I love visiting parks. I love everything about
(05:54):
being a park ranger, all the duties, all the assignments. You know, I'm still
theoretically doing it. Once I retired Governor Brown,
then Governor Brown appointed me to as a director to the Mount San
Jacinto Winter Park Authority. So it's a state entity
that is a park authority, not the state parks. It's its own separate
entity. And I'm actually chairperson this year. So I'm
(06:17):
on a board of 7 and the governor's appointee to that. So
we help with Mount San Jacinto State Park and the management of that. Most people
know it as the Palm Springs Tran, and most people don't realize Palm Springs Tran
is a park authority. And so that just keeps me in that,
and I'll just I'll give one final thing on that is, yeah, as soon as
I retired, FEMA asked me to come play with
(06:38):
them. So as a retired annuitant, I'm a division
supervisor, the response to disaster. But as an annuitant tech, I only work 30
days a year because of federal regulations, but I'm there to help FEMA
respond to disasters. And of course, with the search and rescue background of being a
national park ranger and all my ICS with that, it fell in. And
so technically, I'm still a government employee. As I
(07:00):
said, Jeff does retirement very poorly. So
the one other thing I wanna talk about again before we get to
the international ranger stuff is the
Association of National Park Rangers. Jeff is very
involved in that. I've been a member for many years.
And, Jeff, I know one of one of the
(07:22):
challenges with ANPR is attracting
younger park rangers and getting them involved and at
Ranger Rendezvous. And so what is the benefit if I'm
new in my parks career? What's the benefit in being
involved with the Ranger Association? Well, I'm going to parallel
that besides ANPR, as you mentioned with, as you know, PRAC, Park
(07:44):
Rangers Association of California. It's the California version of
ANPR, except it's any ranger at any agency level of government in the
state. Very similar. They both started roughly about the same time.
So the thing with both of them, and I've been a member of both of
those since probably 'seventy 9 or 'eighty or
so, is the networking, the training, the people that
(08:05):
have become not just friends, but
close friends. I'll say first in networking.
Now, never really worked for anybody that I met
through ANPR directly as a supervisor, but a
lot of people there shared their thoughts, their insights with me
along years, guided me, gave me guidance, I could ask for help. And
(08:28):
that was, you know, that's hugely important for anybody. And I think
I'm not sure that and this goes probably for any organizations
having a hard time, you know, getting members is that I wanna say
nobody wants to belong, but I don't think they don't realize the
extent of having that network. You know, learning from
these, you know, they always said, well, you know, this is the way we've always
(08:49):
done it, and you come in with a new idea. I mean, that's always been
one of those challenges of working. And but, you know,
learning from the people who have gone before me. And then, like I said,
just the social aspect of meeting these people,
becoming friends, seeing most of them, gosh, every year, watching their
kids grow up, staying at their house, they come visit when they come
(09:10):
through, things like that. It's just it's a good friendship. It's a
good community. It's the Ranger it's the Ranger family. So and that
applies for both ANPR and PRAC. And I think, you know, both
organizations are having those same issues, and I just
don't I can't you know, one time was highly into training. I
got a lot of good training education from both of those
(09:32):
organizations, and they're still kinda coming back from that, slacked off a bit.
But, you know, just the networking and training, you know, education, you know,
these are things that can help you in your career down the line. I wish
the younger generation, hate to say it that way, I'm not I don't think myself
that old, you know, can understand that and, you know, start appreciating
that and understanding the value there. I mean, even as a retiree, I go back
(09:54):
every year to both organizations' annual conference just because, a, I wanna see what's
going on. I wanna keep abreast of things, and I wanna make new friends.
Well, that is one thing that I noticed about
the ANPR meetings in particular because it
is a it covers the whole country. I mean, it's rangers from all over
the country. And if you are a younger ranger and go,
(10:16):
now you're in the same room having conversations with
park superintendents, chief rangers, chief interpreters
that you may never get the chance to meet otherwise. And
now they know your name. And when someone knows your
name, it's a lot easier to reach out and ask a question because they
remember your face. They remember what you talked about at the conference. And then the
(10:39):
one in in California, same thing. It is a big
state and it covers all the agencies. It's not just
California state parks. It from national parks, state,
city, county, water districts. And you all have
we all have the same problems. It's just we wear a different
uniform and being able to get to know because if you are a
(11:01):
California State Park Ranger, you may end up
working alongside some of these other rangers from other
agencies. And now you've already met them at the California
Parks Training Conference because you're both in the same association. So Jeff is
right on about the networking, and now you've got the ability to reach out and
ask questions. Now that is one thing I noticed at the World
(11:23):
Ranger Congress. If I remember right, the one I went to, there
were rangers from 62 countries there. I
could be off by 1 or 2 countries in either direction. And one of them
would talk about a problem in Australia. But then a
gentleman from France might say, woah. We had that
problem, and I had not thought of that solution. And that was
(11:46):
so neat to see. Here's another Jeff, you can
confirm this since you were just at another World Ranger Congress. The
one I was at, I did notice any time there was a
ruckus, a loud noise, a commotion, it was usually the
Australians that were involved. And South Africans.
Yes. Just having a good time. But that's well, what an honor it
(12:09):
was for me to get the chance to speak at the the World Ranger Congress
in 2016, and that is unlike anything that I've
been been to, to have rangers from all over the world
mingling together, talking together, just hanging out and enjoying
time together. But as park people do, the conversations
always turn to parks and how can we get better and what
(12:31):
have you done about this and do you have any ideas for this? So
it goes back to what Jeff was saying about being involved in a ranger
association. It's just the networking with people and
other and the conversations, the other ideas. I think that's the
real value in it. And then the opportunity to be there for
each other. If anyone in the association needs help, there's a
(12:54):
network that will step up and help. So true. Alright.
So Jeff was acknowledged and recognized at
the most recent World Ranger Congress for the
work that he's done with what is called the Honor Roll.
And so I will take you to 2,016. I'm
at my very first World Ranger Congress. I met some
(13:15):
people early on and talked with them, but then the real
festivities begin. The actual congress begins
and they call us out to the flagpole and everyone
that from all over the world gathers at the flagpole. They raise
the flags and then read off the
name of every park ranger who has passed since
(13:38):
the last World Ranger Congress. Is that right or is it within the
last year, Jeff? I think it was within the last year. That was
actually the only World Ranger Congress where they actually read them off. So I think
it was the previous role of honor from that July 31st. Okay. And
that that just really that to me, that's one of
the more memorable things from that World Ranger Congress because
(14:00):
I hadn't it just had never dawned on me. Sometimes you'll
see in the paper or online an article
about a park ranger that passed away. But when you see the honor
roll and read every name, read the
country they're from and read how they passed away,
it just really gives you a sense of, okay, our
(14:23):
days are full of squirrels and trees and sunshine.
But worldwide, this is still a dangerous profession.
And we lose a lot of brothers and sisters in uniform
every year, and it just didn't dawn on me until that
World Ranger Congress. So, Jeff, give us the background
behind the honor roll, your involvement, because you've been am I right?
(14:45):
It's, like, 17 years you've been involved with this? Well, actually, it goes
back longer than that. Does it really? Okay. When I was at Hot
Springs, about 1988, I'd learned that a park
ranger was killed there in 1927. He was murdered.
And I'd not heard of it. It was a totally, you know,
like, what? Because everybody talked about Ken Patrick who passed
(15:08):
away at McRae murdered in the seventies. And it's like, wait a minute. This is
1927. So I spent a great deal of time researching that,
publishing the history of that whole story. And that kinda got me started
on what my wife says I see dead people. So
at that point, I started gathering information specific with the National Park
Service on fatalities in our agency, and not
(15:31):
just necessarily law enforcement. But as, you know, with the IRF role of
honor, you know, it's anybody who works in a protected area.
So it could be anything from, you know, heart attacks at death, trail,
maintenance, electrocution, drowning by boats, motor vehicle accidents,
anything that's on duty or in the line of duty. So
then the National Park Service right now, there's probably, at least to my
(15:54):
best knowledge, about 282 NPS employees that
have died within those parameters. And we created
a website for their memorial. So npshistory.com/employee/memorial.
Most people might be aware of the NPS history website filled with a wealth
of information on parks and protected areas, but you can go on
(16:16):
there and you'll see all the what we have listed on that. So
that was my big challenge and was my primary
project. Then along the way, of course, I
started hearing and reading about, you know, the rangers around the world
that were, you know, losing their lives also. And so I started
compiling. It was more of a side thing. You know, just if I ran
(16:38):
across something, I I kept a note and made a note of it. And so
then the IRF was formed, the International Ranger Federation. I was
on the ANPR's committee for international.
And ANPR, of course, is one of the founding 3 founding members of the International
Ranger Federation. Now there's over a 100 associations.
Then along came something that we started called World Ranger
(16:59):
Day. And I suggested that
in 2005, promoted it with the board
for the IRF. In 2006, we had the 1st World Ranger Day. So,
I like to think that, my course of expanding as father of
World Ranger Day, one of the things that we do during World Ranger Day, of
course, is honor this role of honor in all these
(17:21):
names. And so we produce it, and I'll get to that here
in a second, every year for that specifically for that day.
So that World Ranger Day is twofold. We honor our profession,
the fact that what we do, and we're proud of what we do. And then
we remember those that we lost the previous year, basically.
So with World Ranger Day going on since 2006,
(17:44):
I'll just throw a note. We have a really big one every year here in
California. So some place in the state, and I help coordinate that
sponsored by a particular agency. But we started acquiring
we've had our 1st IRF World Ranger Congress in Zacapani.
And then the second one, that's that was 95. 2nd one was Costa Rica
97. So this started coming up also with
(18:07):
these line of duty deaths. And so I I'd
started this, and I worked with an Uruguayan ranger named Juan Carlos
Gombarada, who was also on the IRF board, and we started compiling,
putting together this listing. And Juan
published a paper about ranger fatalities, and I'm
trying to think of who I think there was somebody else that kinda came in
(18:29):
after Juan. And then about, oh,
2009, we actually started
producing the role of honor. And at that
time, Roger Cole came in, and Roger got the same award I
did along with the Lifetime Achievement Award at this last World Ranger Congress.
I've been working with Roger specifically since roughly about
(18:52):
2009 when we actually physically started
producing it as a document, as something to be used at World Ranger
Day. So and we've been going on since then. Roger has
I've kind of been in the background over the years,
starting the whole idea of of documenting
and compiling the listing. Right now, I think we
(19:14):
have almost well, we have over 36 100 names
going back to about 1801. It's not just
that we of course, the role of honor is for the previous
year with some exceptions that we may have missed the year
before. But we also try to I mean, as I go through
and I'm an avid reader of ranger stories and ranger tales and ranger history
(19:37):
books and things like that, and I find, oh, wait a minute. Somebody passed away
back in 1940, whatever. We will add those names
also to the overall listing. And so we
actually published a paper a couple years ago with
the IUCN and World Commission of Protected Areas
on a basically, an overview of ranger fatalities
(19:59):
about I think it was 2009 to 2021, and don't
quote me on those years, but it was it was a good, you know, span
period there. And we had the statistics on what we had already
determined and, you know, breaking it down between all the different categories from
animal to motor vehicle to natural deaths to, you know,
things related firefighting, airplane crashes.
(20:21):
Yeah, I mean, rangers work in some of the remote
areas of the world. And there are rangers as it was pointed out, and we
were reminded, rangers on every continent. At least 3 countries sends
their national park rangers to Antarctica to staff their research
stations, particularly Argentina, Chile, and Australia. And a
couple of the Argentine Rangers have been signed to Antarctica with the last World
(20:43):
Ranger Congress. So, you know, we can say that there are rangers on every
continent. So with that, we've been doing this
now recording these names, and it's it is, you know, no one
person. I mean, it's a team effort, and it has to be a huge team
because we're talking about the world here. Not a lot of agencies want
this to be known. There's not a lot of information. We glean
(21:05):
it from hearing it from either Rangers in that country directly,
newspaper articles, the Internet, of course, now is just you
can put in Google searches and anything where something comes back, and you can see
what's going on anywhere in the world. So Roger and I were the
2 primary keeping that the master database as we
call it. Roger has now passed the baton. And so
(21:28):
we still have help also from the Thin Green Line Foundation, which is
a nonprofit that supports the widows and children and training of
widows and children, so those that have passed away, but also training of rangers around
the world and equipment, things like that. They, along with the Ranger
Foundation in California, give out grants to fallen
families to fallen rangers. You can imagine that and
(21:49):
and you take any, I'll just call it, 3rd world country, and, of course, rangers
don't make as much. And these grants help
them. I know the Ranger Foundation because I'm the vice president of that.
Once the money used towards either a scholarship fund for one of the children
to help the spouse establish a new business because they just lost
their primary breadwinner, So, you know, those two organizations
(22:12):
support the fallen rangers across the world. But through all
this and through how we learn in the reporting of them, the request for grants,
I mean, it's there's a lot of people involved. Roger and I just basically
kept the database and and kept our eyes and ears. And
Roger was really good into the social media, so, you know, we compile
it. We are firm believers in making sure that it's accurate to the
(22:34):
best of our knowledge. Sometimes we miss people because we just don't know about them.
Other times we, you know, we may not put somebody on there because there's just
not enough good information or there's a question as to was it
really connected with the job. So that's
the rule of honor and how it's been produced every year. And,
again, we put it out just before World Ranger Day in conjunction with World
(22:56):
Ranger Day. So, yeah, I've been at the very beginning of of
that based on my work, which I started in Hot Springs, to
honor our fallen comrades. In this time that you've been
tracking and honoring fallen park rangers, have you
seen trends happen? Like, are there times
for example, the shocking thing to me when you read
(23:19):
it is the amount of and maybe it's isolated
to Africa or not isolated, but it happens there more than
other places. But the amount of park rangers killed by
poachers, that was a big shock to me because here in the United States,
we don't have that concern. Sure. It could happen, but it's
not an active concern that I thought about when I was out in the
(23:42):
field. But have you seen trends like that? Like,
sometimes park rangers killed by poachers is
is higher than other years or or other things that have led
to park ranger deaths? You know, that's I
hate to say it as really a hard thing. There's no specific trend
just because we're dealing with the world. There may be countries, you know, where it
(24:06):
is a trend. I mean, you know, you think about the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Oh my god. Yes. I mean, you know, that's all. A lot of it's either
done by rebel groups or poachers. So it is, I
wanna say, more country specific when it comes to that than it
is just an overall trend in the world. And I
don't think there's any one, you know, place or one way
(24:27):
that's you know, leans towards. You know, it's a hazardous
job from the standpoint of, the type of work that we do
and the environment that we're in. So, yeah,
it'd be hard to say whether it's I think we break it down. So our
the role of honor besides the listing of names is done by regions,
countries, and it's done by types of, you know and it's used, like I
(24:50):
said, natural, animals, motor vehicle, accents,
or or kind of the 3 big 3 big categories.
Yes. I remember read if I'm right, I
think this past year, there were no
deaths in the United States involved in the line of duty. Is that
right? I believe that is correct. And, of course,
(25:12):
that changed very quickly. Yeah. I was surprised to
see it. That's a good year, though, if we can make it 1 year with
none in the country. And, yeah, there was it did change very
quickly. And that's the nature of the job is it
is just so dangerous. It's more shocking to see there
were 0 in a 12 month span. And
(25:34):
it. Yeah, it did. It's it's this is always,
a fascinating thing to talk about, the work that you do, the dedication
you put in to making sure all the park rangers get honored.
But it's also a conversation that can be tough to have because
you don't want to take it lightly. And here I'm celebrating. We
have a 12 month span with nothing, but also recently there was
(25:58):
a park ranger death. So it's hard to talk about 1 and not
acknowledge the other just because we do lose a lot of park
rangers every year worldwide. But it was
noticeable that we had a a good span in
our country where we didn't lose any. How many in
a typical given year, how many park rangers do you
(26:20):
think we lose every year? We're averaging
between a 100 to a 150. You know, we
always wish that, you know, we have no
work cut out for us, but, unfortunately, it's inevitable.
I actually just, found the art was in Parks Magazine,
May of 20 22, volume 28.1.
(26:44):
And that was an article that you people can refer
to. It was a 16 year period. We did 2006 to
2021, had a total of 2,351
ranger related, duty deaths. And it says
that, you know, felonious deaths, which is homicide accounted for
42% of the loss of rangers.
(27:06):
Accidents, illness, wildlife attacks, and work related casualties were
the other amounts. So from that particular study that
we did, obviously, murder was the,
was the big one. And, of course, we've now lost
this year. We've now lost 2 here in the United States in the
last few months. So we just had a firefighter state park aide
(27:30):
from New York who was fighting the New York fire who
was killed by a tree falling on him. So not a good
year. Every year is not a good year in our profession when we lose
anybody. Yeah. That number of murder
is considerably higher than I expected. And
w here in Washington state where I live, we had
(27:52):
2 well, maybe just in our state, it was high
profile, but it felt pretty high profile. We had 2 park ranger
murders a number of years back that were pretty shocking.
1 at Mount Rainier and then 1 in the Olympic National
Forest. And there it just gets your attention
because even as a law enforcement officer,
(28:14):
I went to work every day thinking, sure, something might
happen, but I rarely went to work today thinking somebody
might murder me. And maybe maybe that's a that
you have to have the mindset that it could happen any day. But
it's easy to get comfortable as a park ranger that everybody loves
park rangers because for the most part, they do. Yeah.
(28:36):
And, again, it's not necessarily that, you know, somebody's gonna go out
and they're looking, but wrong place, wrong
time. You know? That's what a lot of them may end up
being. But in Africa, it's a lot of them are well, you know,
in India too. Africa and India are the two largest numbers that we
get. And I know India is not a continent, but, it's big enough
(28:59):
to be in a sense. So, you know, they've got a
lot of militias, you know, rebel groups, and and things like that.
They got people who wanna and, you know, same thing in the Philippines. So
they, there was a few murders there because they were trying to
stop timber theft or mining. It's not just wildlife either.
It's the plants. It's the earth. It's you know?
(29:21):
So don't necessarily think that they're all poachers, but
that'll be a big chunk. Rebels, militia groups, that's a
big chunk. And then you have people who do not want the Rangers
to have them stop what they feel is their livelihood. Well, Jeff, this
has been a great conversation. I'm glad we could talk
about the work that you do and the honor roll.
(29:44):
It is it's just such a wonderful thing,
and you've put so many years of work into it with
without recognition, even though you did just get recognized. I know you've
done a lot of this behind the scenes without people knowing,
without recognition, and you still showed up and did it every year. So thank
you so much for doing that. It's a great service
(30:08):
to park rangers. I also though we spent so much time
talking about park rangers dying. I wanna end on a
couple different notes that are a little more feel good.
If you could see Jeff's office, you would be impressed with
his library, an entire wall, floor to ceiling
of books, many of them park related. So,
(30:30):
Jeff, off the top of your head, and I know you didn't know this was
coming, what are a few of the best park ranger or park
related books? Gosh. I don't know if I can
single anything out. I I know I enjoy you know, if
you want a good read, there's Butch Farabee's book on the the history of the
National Park Ranger. That's a good read for background on
(30:52):
what the National Parks are specifically. You know, there's a lot
of a lot more in the last few years of retired
rangers doing, you know, publishing their memoirs, so to
speak. And I kid you not, there's a lot. So,
whether it's Glacier, Great Smokies, Grand
Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mount Rainier, you can,
(31:14):
you know, find the stories. And and while
I just like to chuckle when I read them because it's, oh, yeah. I
remember we had to do something like that, you know, kind of a thing. And,
yeah, and they're done that. So it's great for me, you know, in a retired
position to sit there and and, remember and and smile
with one of these quick side story. We had World Ranger Day this last,
(31:38):
summer up at East Bay Regional Park District because they lost 2 of their officers
50 years ago, and they wanted to hold it in California. And I just gotten
done reading a book that a ranger who retired from
Golden Gate had written. And I can't think of the name off the top of
my head, but and I read about, oh, wait a minute. He's the mayor of
the town next door. So it was about 10 o'clock at night. I
(31:59):
sent an email off to his mayorship's email account,
and, he got back to me and was able to show up the next day
at the, at the memorial with his son. And so that was
just from reading a book that I I literally had just finished that
night. So, and now I have a new friend too. What a
great story. Well, with the wonderful career you had
(32:21):
with the National Park Service and all your dedication to
parks, what advice do you have for an up and coming park
leader who wants to have an impact? Knowledge is good.
Education. Learn as much about everything that you can. I mean, you know, they
call us a jack of all trades, masters of none for a particular
reason, for everything that we have our fingers involved in. I mean,
(32:43):
I I was, you know, tort claims officer. I was, you
know, wilderness manager. I mean, you know, firefighter, EMT,
searcher. I mean, all these things that we do and
reading about them, learning. And that's not just going to a training class,
and training classes are great. But, you know, read the books. Read
the, you know, what might be considered textbooks. Remeath the stories
(33:05):
of your fellow rangers. Get that knowledge and education about,
you know, managing parks out there. And the
other thing is I can't speak highly enough about networking.
And whether it's I mean, you're joining agencies
or within your agency, you know, these people, you
(33:25):
know, you can call back upon years years. I mean, with
the National Park Service, of course, we're federal law enforcement officers, so I maintain
it. I think I had a contact on just about every federal law
enforcement, including some you probably have never even heard of in my years
because you never can tell when, hey, I may need some help with something.
And I remember I used to meet this guy. And
(33:47):
so, so and I still maintain some of those contacts over
the years. So networking, training, education, and I'll give you another
funny you know, World Ranger Day a couple years ago was in San Diego,
and, we had, 2 city rangers from 2
adjoining cities who met there. Again,
adjoining cities that never knew that either city had a park ranger program,
(34:10):
and they just met. And, you know, I'm sure they're going on and doing bigger
and better things. But, you know, networking. Networking, education,
knowledge. Read, learn, train, get your fingers into
get as much information as you can. Alright. That is
great information. And, Jeff, I'm so pleased to finally
have you on the show after all these years of knowing each other. Thank you
(34:32):
so much for sitting with us today. My pleasure, Jody. Enjoy
your podcast. And thank you for listening to the Park
Leader Show.
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