Lonely Rangers in Paradise
A blizzard of woes is making life miserable for parks workers
It is sunup on Sunday in Yellowstone National Park and ranger Mona Divine is exhausted. She has worked an average of 15 hours for 14 consecutive days, supervising a district that includes three developed areas of campgrounds, stores and hotels, 350,000 acres of rugged backcountry and the northern half of Yellowstone Lake. She has investigated bison gorings, grizzly incursions, a dormitory fire and illegal drug use. She has ticketed speeders, arrested drunk drivers, pulled tourists from wrecked cars and helped rescue a hiker who fell into a gorge. She has also served as logistics chief for a firefighting crew working a stubborn 200-acre blaze near Pelican Creek. It has been a grueling fortnight.
As Divine begins another workday, even the ethereal beauty of a misty dawn on Yellowstone Lake fails to prompt her usual pause to savor the scene and contemplate the pleasures of working in one of America's crown jewel national parks. "It's hard to find motivation and satisfaction when you're strung out on a thin wire," she says. "You begin to wonder if it's worth it. What's the point of living here if you can't enjoy it?"
Sagging morale. When a dedicated ranger like Divine complains, there's trouble in paradise. At the end of its 75th year, the National Park Service is beset with a host of problems, none more serious than sagging morale. Meager salaries, substandard housing, lack of advancement opportunities and overwork have left the elite ranger corps angry and dispirited. The 10-year legacy of neglect by the Reagan and Bush administrations also leaves the system's infrastructure--roads, buildings and utilities--badly in need of repair. Says 15-year veteran Joan Anzelmo: "The parks are in crisis. We have more visitors, more demands. Budgets are being eaten up by inflation. Staffs are being cut. Everybody's maxed out."
In their green and gray uniforms and Smokey the Bear hats, the 12,000 federal park rangers are enduring symbols of America's finest conservation ethic, projecting an image as solid as Mount Rushmore and as reassuring as Old Faithful. Their basic mission used to be either law enforcement or interpretation--leading visitors on nature hikes. As park use has increased, so have public demands, and today's ranger may be called upon to investigate a rape, track a bear, stage a drug bust, deliver a history lecture, resuscitate a heart patient, supervise an archaeological dig or write a research paper. Yellowstone chief ranger Dan Sholly's job description is: "psychologist, policeman, firefighter, animal handler, naturalist, medic, parent, guide, scholar, clerk and cowboy--all in one day."
Rangers also work to provide a decent standard of living for their families, perhaps aspire to buy their own homes. But these goals are increasingly out of reach. Take salaries. Park rangers start at $15,808 a year, about $5,000 less than rookie police officers or firefighters. Some 70 percent of rangers have college degrees, yet the average salary is only about $25,000--modest recompense for a 10- to 15-year veteran.
Supervising rangers make more, but the slots are scarce. Before a recent promotion, Mona Divine had 15 officers on her patrol staff--half her normal complement--and earned about $31,000 a year. But rangers dedicated to traditional backcountry patrol--snaring poachers, checking trails, rescuing tenderfoots--languish at the lower pay levels. So do interpretive rangers--biologists, wildlife specialists, cultural resource experts--often with graduate degrees. They do vital conservation or historical research and guide visitors on tours of Yellowstone geysers, Antietam battle sites and Ellis Island artifacts. Says Republican Rep. Constance Morella of Maryland: "One cannot feed a family on sunsets."
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