Reader Participation Day: What Deviations From National Park Standards Have You Seen?

Long ago in a galaxy far, far away...NW trail crew seasonals were required to wear the standard 'green & gray'. The synthetic fabric and tight fit were totally unsuited for hiking, working and living in 'the land that dry forgot'. The uniforms would be shed at the trailhead and left in the crew truck for the day, or the week, until returning to Hindquarters. There also seemed to be quite a black market in hats, arrowhead insignias, and such, especially among volunteers.  I think the bosses were clueless, so everybody was happy.

There are certain bars in lower Manhatten were it is not unusual to see uniformed NPS personnel having a few drinks. For whatever reason there are always a few who didn't want to change out of the uniform after their shift.

I've seen volunteers criticize park policy to visitors and get into arguments with visitors. I've seen volunteers refuse to wear shoes while volunteering. I've seen volunteers call private businesses to do repairs on park facilities.

I've seen NPS personal hanging out, chatting, and smoking cigarettes in public areas. I've seen staff obviously under the influence at work.

I could go on and give more examples and more details but that would risk my nom de guerre. But it seems the worst of it among the NPS employees is in the urban parks while problems with volunteers are all over. Sadly, the worst of it is in interpretation. There are many wonderful volunteers as well but in a way even being too wonderful is kind of a bad thing with volunteers because it only causes the agency to rely on them more and more.

Retail stores, hotels, and other public accommodations use "secret shoppers" to check up on staff performance and bust the worst offenders. I'd like to see the NPS create a corps of secret visitors to go around and do the same. I am sure it doesn't happen because they fear what they would find.

PS

I suspect the percentage of miscreants in the NPS/Volunteers is no more than any other random population. Probably less.

ecbuck, don't you think the NPS ought to shoot for a percentage of miscreants that is dramatically below what is in a random population? Don't you think we should have higher expectations than that?

And I'm not talking about difficult to solve problems here much of this penny ante stuff could be ended simply by simple supervisory presence and control over their staff. This kind of stuff goes on because of supervisors who either don't care or rarely get out from behind their computer screens.

don't you think the NPS ought to shoot for a percentage of miscreants that is dramatically below what is in a random population?

It would be nice, but I can think of many other places within government and the private sector where I prefer to see the effort/money spent.

When I visited NPSA [National Park of American Samoa] the trail crew was working on the sides of steep mountains battling invasive trees, and often had nothing better than flip flops on their feet as they were trying to both stand upright and climb the soft soil of the hillside and also swing machetes. A temp administrative person made an executive decision and bought them - I believe it was rugby or football cleats. Not exactly a uniform standard but the perfect footwear for what they were doing. That's a common sense exception to standards.

One of the old time rangers at Grand Canyon said on the North Rim they used to run around in any old thing, even though the superintendent at the time required class A uniforms at all times. When the super was coming over to the north side, the copter pilot would call them so they had time to change into their good clothes. One day the super was coming back from a conference in Utah and decided to drive to the North Rim. His wife started to tell the entry station who they were, but he said, "No, pay to get in. It will be worth it." The story goes that the first ranger who saw the super radioed everyone else, and they were changing into their class A's in their cars, in the bathrooms, and behind the trees while he stood there and chortled.

As a visitor to parks I often experienced instances where I thought the visitor was being ill served. I have also been involved in, as well as the subject, of the management evaluation process. Too often a management evaluation focused on whether the T's were crossed and the i's dotted from an administrative standpoint. The result was that most evaluations were of the parks administrative functions. I have always thought a management evaluation should emphasize how the visitor is served and the resources were bring managed. The first step in that process should be two to four individuals visiting a park doing what any other visitor would do and without the knowledge of park management.
It is not that employees are uncaring, but more a case of being unaware of anything beyond their immediate concern. I recall a meeting in the Chief Ranger office in Yosemite. Each of us went through what we thought was happening in the park, when one of the naturalists reminded us of what the birds and other park wildlife were doing. Often as a ranger I would walk around in uniform oblivious to the visitors I was passing, being lost in my own thoughts about my job. I think we all tend to be that way and it takes an outside force to make us realize what we are doing.

There is a wonderful story about Frank Kowski and the Southwest Region's forester Es Lampi. (I've heard it from a couple of good sources, so I think it's actually true.)

Once upon a very long time ago, Frank and Es and some other regional office folks were on the north rim of GRCA when someone asked if a lightning fire on an isolated chunk of rock might spread to the forest on the rim. Es replied that it could and to illustrate his point, he made a paper airplane and tossed it off the edge of the canyon. It caught a thermal, climbed and circled gracefully and finally landed back in the forest.

Boys will be boys, and soon the whole gang was making airplanes out of any paper they could find and were having a gleeful contest to see whose could fly farthest.

Someone reported it and a brand-new seasonal ranger arrived. He took a look at all the paper strung around the forest. Approaching the group, he is supposed to have said something like, "Gentlemen, I'm sorry, but this littering is simply inexcusable. I'm going to have to write citations. May I see your driver's licenses?"

Frank stepped forward and handed his to the young ranger. The ranger clamped it in his clipboard and started writing. Then he paused, looked at the license and then at Frank. "Uh, Sir, do you happen to be the same Frank Kowski who is the Southwest Regional director of the National Park Service?"

Frank allowed as how he was and introduced his companions. The young ranger is said to have chewed on his lower lip for a while before he took a deep breath and said, "Well, Sir, if anyone should know better, YOU should." Whereupon he finished writing the tickets.

Frank and the others left the north rim, visited the magistrate at the south rim and paid their fines. Frank is said to have told the young ranger later that, " . . .if you had backed down, I'd have had your badge on the spot."

If the story is indeed true, I believe that young ranger retired a few years ago as superintendent of one of our larger park areas in Utah. I never met him, so never had a chance to ask.

They just don't make 'em like Frank any more.

Roger's comment is right on the mark.

But y'know, there is something we could all do when we visit a park. When I see something worthy of praise, I get the name of the ranger, maintenance person, volunteer or whoever. Then I send a letter of thanks to the superintendent asking that the compliment be passed to the person who earned it.

A couple of years ago I received a note from a superintendent who they have occasional complaints in that small area, but she couldn't remember ever having had someone write a compliment. She seemed shocked that I took the time to do it.

On the other hand, when I've noticed something that I felt needed to called out, I found a way to get a note or email directly to the employee. I've been surprised how often I've received a thank-you from the person for pointing it out.

I've never had to -- and hope I never will -- take issue with something grossly out of line. But if it happens, I'll not hesitate to write to the superintendent, too.

What's the saying? Praise in public, criticize in private.

Agreed, Lee. I'm spending my summers driving a tour bus now around the park and it warms my little heart when I'm out and about and see the Chief of Maintenance or the Museum Curator or the Building Preservation Specialist [all true memories] walking down the street about their behind the scenes duties suddenly respond to a visitor's query as well as an Interp would have. On the other hand, I've been in other parks where the front line interps were obviously Retired In Place and it is disgusting.

Once upon a long time ago, I was a new chief of interpretation and resource management at Wupatki/Sunset Crater when a visitor asked me a question about a flowery bush. I told her what it was and then turned back to the Navajo maintenance worker I'd been talking with.

"Lee," he said, shaking his head, "that not rabbit brush, that big snake weed. You tell her wrong."

I called the lady back and confessed my error and then stood there with her while we both listened spellbound as Tommy Dempsey spent about half an hour teaching us both about the medicinal uses of several desert plants. When time came for seasonal training, Tommy was one of the instructors. We never were able to convince him to try giving an evening program, but if he had, it would have been a hit.

One thing I used to really hate about working with volunteers, bookstore employees, and sometimes even other NPS employees at a visitor center is how they would hi-jack your visitor contacts. They look at the work we do as just hanging out and chitchatting with the public but it is supposed to be much more than that. A good interp ranger is always looking for opportunities turn a contact into more than just simple dispensing of information, but where appropriate, to find a way to help that visitor make a deeper connection to the park. Or sometimes you sense that the person just needs to know exactly what they asked and wants to be on their way. But so often as I would be about to nail down some important point I had been leading to with a visitor -they are completely enthralled- and the VIP or book store employee will butt in and take things in a completely different direction --sometimes to topics that have nothing to do with the park. It is incredibly frustrating. And you can't really say anything to them and the bosses are so happy to have the free labor they won't say anything to them. Then you get the rep as someone who doesn't like volunteers because you take all that NPS interp training seriously and try to implement it.

"Mary was a ranger who had to learn things the hard way. Like Rule Number One: Measure your head before you order your ranger hat---or you'll have to stuff paper towels inside the headband to keep the hat from falling down over your eyes. Rule Number Two: If you must wear mascara to work, make it waterproof---the guys will laugh at you when you turn into a raccoon during a water-sprayed rescue mission under Yosemite Falls. Rule Number Three: Say "I don't know" if a park visitor asks a question and you don't know the answer---There will always be a crowd standing around you when a camper asks "Oh ranger, what kind of squirrel is that?" And If you draw a blank and say, "Uh? A bushy-tailed squirrel?", a guy with a video camera will be there to correct you. "It's called a California gray squirrel," he'll say, the disgust dripping from his voice."