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Yellowstone National Park was established
in 1872 as a place in which natural and cultural resources would
be preserved for future generations—"for the benefit
and enjoyment of the people." Over time it has become one
of the best-loved and most famous of parks in the world.
In Yellowstone’s first decades,
when the concept of a national park was still novel, the park’s
managers realized that public support would be essential to its
survival. They aggressively promoted the park and developed its
infrastructure to provide a variety of services that would attract
a broader range of visitors than those willing to rough it and
fend for themselves in a wildland. Their efforts, along with the
new convenience of travel by automobile, led to a steady increase
in visitors during the 1920s and ‘30s, and an upsurge after
World War II. By now, more than 110,000,000 visits to the park
have been tallied, including many by people who have come back
year after year. For countless more, Yellowstone exists as a vivid
icon of the imagination they hope to see some day.
But as Yellowstone has grown in
popularity, so has the need for setting some limits on visitor
activities. Gone are the days when a family could pull its wagon
off into the woods anywhere they chose, pitch a tent, and set
up housekeeping for several weeks. The ban against killing wildlife
began in 1883 after thousands of elk and other animals had been
shot in just one year. Visitors are now required to keep a safe
distance from the dangerous geothermal features that once were
damaged by visitors who climbed on them, bathed in them, and even
used them to do laundry. Fishing and camping are subject to rules;
collection of flowers, antlers, petrified wood, and artifacts
is illegal except by permitted researchers; and the feeding of
wildlife, once popular for visitors and staff alike, is strictly
prohibited. When justified by concern for park resources and human
safety, such restrictions have brought few objections from the
public.
Until the 1960s, the solution to
growing national park visitation was thought to be simply more
rules and the construction of more facilities, which led to large
developments like those at Grant and Canyon villages. But after
a decade of "Mission 66" (a 1955 initiative to build
national park facilities across the United States by 1966), a
new era of environmental consciousness prompted a shift toward
the view that visitor accommodations should be located outside
the parks, in nearby communities.
Since the 1970s, some funding has
been allocated to improve Yellowstone’s infrastructure through
upgraded roads and facilities. Over the long term, however, the
net effect has been to enable the park to accommodate more visitors
without increasing the staff and facilities needed to maintain
both the resources and the quality of visitors’ experiences.
As at many other national parks, burgeoning visitation at Yellowstone
has led park managers and visitors to wonder if it is possible
to satisfactorily provide the desired experiences for so many
people.
Experiments with alternative transportation
systems, day-use permits, and other restrictions on visitor use
will increase in the future. While the park’s responsibility
to both present and future park visitors may require such limits
in order to protect its natural and cultural resources, Yellowstone
must also remain a place of inspiration, rejuvenation, and learning.
Decisions about how the park is to be managed must provide not
only for the people who arrive at Yellowstone through its traditional
entrances, but for those who want to experience Yellowstone through
off-site programs and the use of evolving technologies such as
the Internet, CD-ROMs, and television productions.
Preserving the Park Through Interpretation
and Education
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Educating visitors about Yellowstone’s
natural and cultural features is an essential part of providing
for their enjoyment "in such manner and by such means as
will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."
Ideally, interpretation begins before a visitor arrives and has
an influence that lasts long after the visit ends, enabling each
visitor to experience Yellowstone in a personal way while meeting
the park’s goals for resource preservation and support.
All NPS, Yellowstone Association,
and concessioner employees who talk with visitors contribute to
this learning process. Thousands of written requests, phone calls,
faxes, and electronic mail messages asking for everything from
employment advice to help with student homework are referred to
staff throughout the park. But the primary responsibility for
using interpretation to enhance visitor experiences and protect
park resources is met by Yellowstone’s
interpretive staff—22 permanent and an average of 60 seasonal
employees. Their mission is to increase public understanding and
appreciation of park values and resources through a variety of
formal and informal personal contacts, indoor and outdoor exhibits,
publications, and audiovisual media. During 1998, 189,909 people
attended interpretive programs and more than twice that many visited
the park’s official website. An interpretive specialist has
been assigned to enhance this website through "virtual tours"
of park attractions, interactive maps, and information retrieval
on a wide range of park topics. The use of this technology and
others such as interactive computer kiosks holds great promise
for broadening the
park’s services to more non-traditional
and diverse audiences. (See "Communications Systems")
INFORMATION AND ORIENTATION
Before arriving. Thousands of people
contact the park or its website in advance of a planned trip,
requesting maps and information about weather, where to stay,
and what to do. Each year park staff in several offices answer
more than 29,000 phone calls, mail the Yellowstone Guide, a vacation
planner, to more than 40,000 individuals and
groups, and send 9,000 letters
in response to specific requests for information.
Stewardship Goals
Current State of
Resources/Programs
Professional staff keep abreast of critical issues and use innovative
skills and techniques to help the public understand and appreciate
the park’s primary mission, values, and resources.
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Visitor centers have well-designed
and up-to-date exhibits and sufficient staff to operate at convenient
locations and times to meet visitor demand.
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Yellowstone provides a broad range
of high-quality interpretive and educational programs that enhance
visitor experiences while addressing the park’s mission of
resource conservation.
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Advanced interpretive technologies,
publications, and outreach activities are proactively used to
inform diverse audiences in and outside the park.
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Interpretive services, products,
and facilities promote public safety and resource conservation
through both the information provided and the way in which it
is presented.
Neither the permanent nor seasonal staff receive adequate training
to develop the skills needed for their positions.
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Facilities are outdated and too
small and/or poorly located to provide the services expected by
the public: a fund-raising campaign is underway to construct a
new visitor center at Old Faithful through donations.
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Summer campfire programs and walks
are well-attended, but few programs are offered during the rest
of the year. The popularity of new exhibits and the Junior Ranger
program indicate an interest in greater program variety.
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The demand for books, newspapers,
web sites, other printed information and off-site programs outstrips
the park’s ability to provide the variety and quality needed.
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Traditional programs are conducted
with minimal impact on other visitors, and convey messages that
promote visitor safety and conservation of natural and cultural
resources.
Breaking News
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As the world’s first national park, Yellowstone occupies
a unique place in history and in the hearts and minds of people
around the world. In 1988, wildfires burned across the western
United States in other parks and forests, but the fires in Yellowstone
dominated the headlines because of its name recognition. The intense
media attention and simmering debates about how national parks
should be managed often put pressure on Yellowstone to respond
with immediate answers to a variety of audiences.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Yellowstone has a public affairs staff to handle the thousands
of requests each year from the media and public for information
about current events. Reporters may call to check simple facts
and dates, or to ask for detailed information on complex issues
and expect that park staff are available to be interviewed on
or off camera, sometimes immediately. Park rangers and managers,
seldom trained to deal with such publicity, are put on the spot
to explain park news in effective sound bites. Two full-time public
affairs officers and an administrative assistant respond to many
of the media requests for information and interviews, and facilitate
hundreds of interviews with the park staff who are responsible
for high-visibility programs such as wolf restoration, bison management,
and lake trout control.
When news is breaking, the public
affairs specialists write and issue press releases, call international,
regional, or local media with updates; and arrange and conduct
press conferences. They provide film footage, slides, and photographs
to accompany news stories, and to assist reporters, researchers,
and advocacy groups they must often be on call at all hours, seven
days a week. They handle 25 to 50 requests made each year under
the Freedom of Information Act, which can take hundreds of hours
to research and respond to. The demand for information has grown
tremendously over the past decade.
Answering other audiences.
The public affairs staff works closely with national and state
legislators, providing prompt information to respond to constituents’
concerns and inform elected officials about park-related issues.
They are the park’s primary means of keeping other government
officials, including those in regional and Washington offices
of the NPS, the Department of the Interior, and sister agencies
like the U.S. Forest Service, informed on Yellowstone issues.
The public affairs staff also make an effort to keep Yellowstone’s
own staff informed on current events affecting the park, especially
employees stationed in remote parts of the park where radio reception
is limited and newspapers are not delivered.
Stewardship Goals
Current State of
Resources/Programs
Professional public affairs staff maintain proactive efforts to
provide the media, visiting dignitaries, and other audiences with
timely and accurate information, photo images, and other assistance
to enhance appreciation of Yellowstone.
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Staff plan and conduct special
events to support the conservation and education objectives of
the park and surrounding ecosystem; they also represent the park’s
interests in efforts by other groups to promote tourism in the
area.
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Media activities, commercial filming,
and other special events are conducted safely and with minimal
impact on park resources and other visitors’ enjoyment of
the park.
Most media contacts are reactive rather than proactive in nature.
Public affairs specialists prepare news releases and handle requests
for interviews, information, photo images, and other assistance
from news media and other groups and individuals in a timely manner.
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Staff have limited contact with
neighboring communities, tourism officials, and chambers of commerce
regarding promotion of park use and its relationship to Yellowstone’s
mission.
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Media activities, commercial filming
projects, and special events are conducted safely with well-coordinated
logistics and staff to protect resources and avoid disrupting
other visitors.
Accommodating Visitors
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When Yellowstone was established in 1872, no tourist services
of any kind existed in the park, but it was soon recognized that
such amenities would be needed to make Yellowstone a place people
want to visit. As the first NPS Director, Stephen Mather, pointed
out, "Scenery is a hollow enjoyment to a tourist who sets
out in the morning after an indigestible breakfast and a fitful
sleep on an impossible bed."
Among Yellowstone’s first
visitor attractions were its grand hotels—the National Hotel
(1883), the Fountain Hotel (1891), the Lake Hotel (1891), the
Old Faithful Inn (1904), and the Canyon Hotel (1910). Accommodations
in the Old Faithful Inn and the Lake Hotel are more in demand
than ever, while the other hotels have succumbed to the ravages
of time and been replaced with less ambitious architectural structures.
Although some visitors would prefer a totally undeveloped landscape,
the park’s historic hotels have a constituency as devoted
as that for wildlife or geysers.
The consensus on what constitutes
necessary or appropriate visitor amenities has changed over time,
with an overall trend in the last 30 years toward elimination
of activities that do not directly contribute to the visitor’s
enjoyment of the park’s natural or cultural features. Consequently,
the type and quantity of visitor conveniences and activities available
today reflect both the park’s traditions and what the long
line of park administrators has been able to build or eliminate
in a sometimes contentious political climate.
Although an application to build
an elevator to the foot of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
was denied in the 1880s largely because it would be "a very
unsightly structure," many small and often unattractive buildings
were put on the canyon rim and across the park landscape prior
to the 1920s. But some magnificent structures were also built;
the third Canyon Hotel was considered the equal of the Old Faithful
Inn when it was built in 1910.Yet due to its construction on unstable
soils and a trend toward modern architecture in the 1960s, the
Canyon Hotel fell into disrepair and was removed. Canyon Village,
which was constructed in the early 1960s as part of a broad effort
to improve visitor facilities throughout the national park system,
was widely regarded as too "suburban" in appearance
by the 1980s. In the 1990s, most new park structures were returning
to the more rustic look of the 1930s in their design.
In keeping with Yellowstone’s
Master Plan, visitor accommodations and services have been consolidated
into areas at Canyon, Lake, Grant Village, Old Faithful,
Mammoth, and Tower-Roosevelt, and
Fishing Bridge/Bridge Bay. However, these areas can become congested
during the peak season, and give an impression of near urban development
in contrast to the park’s natural aesthetic values.
Stewardship Goals
Current State of
Resources/Programs
Yellowstone visitors are satisfied with the availability, accessibility,
diversity, and quality of commercial facilities, services, and
activities provided in the park.
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Government-owned facilities and
equipment are maintained to the highest standards, and the historic
integrity of structures is preserved.
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Management of contracts and capital
accounts benefits the taxpayer and park visitors; the activities
offered and the uses of park facilities are compatible with protection
of natural and cultural resources.
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Basic and emergency public safety
and health needs are provided for park visitors and employees.
Visitors are generally pleased with the range of services available,
but more food service and budget lodgings are needed; campgrounds
and infrastructure need major renovations.
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Concessioner services, facilities,
and equipment are regularly evaluated to identify deficiencies
and set priorities for correction, but funding is inadequate to
meet needs. All projects are carefully planned to preserve natural
and cultural resources.
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Amfac’s contract has reinvested
about $130 million in park facilities since 1979; close monitoring
ensures protection of natural and cultural resources. New legislation
could significantly reduce the funds available for these projects.
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Emergency medical services are
provided by concessioner-provided medical staff and trained park
rangers as needed; the public health inspector position is only
partially funded.
Backcountry Use
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Despite the well-known attachment of tourists to their cars, vans,
and RVs, about 75 percent of Yellowstone’s visitors do get
out to walk along a park trail for a better view of the scenery
and wildlife. A far smaller portion, less than 10 percent, go
into the backcountry to experience a sense of solitude and distance
from more populated landscapes.
Although the term has no official
definition, more than 95 percent of the park is considered "backcountry,"
or generally undeveloped land away from park roads, hotels, stores,
and campgrounds. In compliance with the Wilderness Act, a study
completed for Yellowstone in 1972 recommended that more than two
million acres of the park be formally designated as wilderness.
Congress has not acted on this proposal, but areas recommended
for wilderness status are managed so as not to preclude such a
designation in the future. The backcountry remains undeveloped
except for a network of 38 patrol cabins, five fire lookouts,
and a relatively sparse trail system.
About 20 percent of the hikers
found on park trails during the summer use a backcountry campsite;
the others are just out for the day. Most trail use originates
from within the park although some groups, primarily horse parties,
enter on trails from adjacent national forests. To protect the
soils and vegetation, overnight stock use is not permitted until
July, and is restricted to certain campsites, but only a few trails
are off-limits to stock. To prevent resource damage and conflicts
with other users, bicycles are not permitted on any backcountry
trails or off-trail. Cyclists can use service roads not open to
vehicle traffic, abandoned road beds, and some front country developed
area trails.
Stewardship Goals
Current State of
Resources/Programs
Trained staff perform regular backcountry patrols to make visitor
contacts, conduct searches and rescues when necessary, and monitor
and protect resources and wilderness values while accommodating
reasonable uses. Backcountry cabins are well maintained and sustainable
operational practices have been adopted.
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Staff proactively inform and educate
the public about opportunities for backcountry experiences, resources,
risks, and minimum-impact practices through up-to-date exhibits,
programs, printed information, and personal contacts.
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Visitors can receive backcountry
use permits and orientation in a timely manner at many convenient
locations during high-use hours and seasons.
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Sufficient and well-trained trail
crews complete cyclic trail clearing, maintenance, and reconstruction
with minimal adverse impact on visitor experiences and park resources.
Backcountry opportunities are plentiful and generally provide
satisfactory visitor experiences; but staff struggle to maintain
training and regular backcountry patrols for safety, resource
monitoring, and visitor contact.
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A backcountry trip planner and
maps provide information for those requesting it on-site or in
advance, but proactive orientation and interpretive exhibits,
programs, and minimum-impact outreach efforts are limited.
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Backcountry offices are often inconveniently
located, too small, and not sufficiently staffed to operate at
needed hours and locations.
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Backcountry management plans outline
desired conditions for trails, campsites, stock grazing sites,
and park resources, but staff are limited in time and funds available
to meet the standards.
WINTER USE
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Winter presents challenges to both visitors and park managers.
With snow piled six feet high along the road, it can be disconcerting
to round a bend in an open snowmobile and find a belligerent half-ton
animal who does not want to yield the right-of-way. But if it
is an unsettling experience for the visitor, it is even more so
for the moose or bison, whose bolting may waste precious calories
needed to sustain the animal until spring.
When Yellowstone was established
no one foresaw that a frigid, snow-covered landscape would one
day be enticing to visitors. While the road from the park’s
North Entrance was plowed at least as far as the Lamar Valley
for visitors in the 1930s, deep snow and cold temperatures kept
all but the most intrepid travelers out of the park’s interior
from November through March. In 1949, snowplane tours escorted
35 visitors into the park, and in 1955, the first snowcoaches
brought 507 people to enjoy the winter wonderland. The first private
snowmobiles—all six of them—joined the snowcoach riders
in 1963, traveling on ungroomed roads. At that time, Yellowstone
in winter had fewer than 1,000 visitors and no hotels or restaurants,
gas stations, or warming huts.
By the late 1960s, under increasing
pressure from the surrounding states and communities to plow park
roads, Yellowstone chose instead to encourage winter visitation
by grooming interior roads for more comfortable travel by snowmobile
and snowcoach. In this way, technological improvements have made
the park a wonderful place for a broader range of visitors to
enjoy winter scenery and wildlife. Sub-zero temperatures make
steam from hot springs appear much more dramatic, and animals
are easily spotted against the snowy backdrop, often congregating
at thermal areas. The unfrozen waters enable ducks, geese, and
other birds to spend the entire winter in the park.
National park policy permits snowmobile
use only on designated routes and when it is consistent with the
park’s resource values and safety considerations. In light
of such concerns, snowmobiles were prohibited at Yosemite, Sequoia-Kings
Canyon, and Lassen Volcanic national parks after an initial period
of limited use. Glacier National Park has never allowed snowmobiles
on Going-to-the Sun Road. At Voyageurs National Park, snowmobiling
is a popular but controversial winter recreation.
Stewardship Goals
Current State of
Resources/Programs
Through sound decision-making, managers implement strategies to
determine and maintain appropriate levels and types of winter
use.
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A full complement of trained staff
develops proactive programs to protect, interpret, and maintain
resources and facilities to serve needs of winter visitors and
protect the park environment.
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Researchers assess effects of winter
use on migrating wildlife, air and water quality, noise levels,
vegetation, cultural resources, and other issues to provide park
managers with information needed to help meet long-term goals.
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The safety of visitors and staff
is emphasized in Yellowstone’s severe and life-threatening
winter environment; programs are in place to orient and educate
winter users of the park.
Burgeoning winter use has out-paced the ability of park staff
and facilities to provide high-quality visitor services in balance
with resource protection objectives.
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Park operations have not made a
good transition from a mostly summer-season operation to addressing
busy shoulder and winter seasons. Protection, interpretive, and
maintenance efforts are mostly reactive. Despite a new winter
lodge, warming huts, food services, and medical facilities are
inadequate in winter.
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Controversy surrounding issues
of noise, air quality, wildlife, and human use levels complicates
management of winter use and requires major research efforts,
which are only partially funded.
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Park newspapers, interpretive programs,
ranger patrols, and snowmobile road-grooming efforts contribute
to winter safety, but weather conditions, roads and terrain, and
geographic isolation continue to make winter trips a challenging
and distinctive experience.
PROTECTING VISITORS
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According to NPS management policies, the saving of human life
takes precedence over all other considerations. Park staff, especially
all those who wear the ranger uniform, share responsibility for
protecting visitors from harm while they are in the park. Visitor
safety and protection are achieved by:
Enforcing of applicable laws and
park regulations;
reducing hazards and maintaining
trails, campgrounds, and other facilities used by visitors; .
educating visitors about how they
can help protect the park and themselves; and
providing search, rescue, and emergency
medical assistance when needed.
THE ENFORCERS
The primary responsibility for
law enforcement and visitor protection in Yellowstone lies with
the Division of Resource Management Operations and Visitor Protection.
The park, which was established before the states of Wyoming,
Idaho, and Montana, is an area of exclusive federal jurisdiction
and the park’s law enforcement rangers are authorized by
Congress to enforce all applicable federal and state laws. Two
district rangers oversee visitor and resource protection in 13
subdistricts and five entrance areas. Each of these has a ranger
station that issues permits; provides information to visitors;
and conducts daily patrols to check for safety hazards, resource
impacts and violations, and opportunities to inform and educate
visitors. Educating visitors about low-impact ways to enjoy park
resources without danger to themselves or the park is the preferred
and often the most successful law enforcement technique.
But when signs, park newspapers,
and persuasive conversation fail or a willful violation of law
occurs, rangers are prepared to use stronger tactics, such as
issuing violation notices or making an arrest. During the 1998
peak season, Yellowstone had 63 full-time patrol rangers and 53
seasonals workers who were specially trained and commissioned
to enforce laws and regulations. To facilitate cross-boundary
law enforcement, 20 Yellowstone rangers were also deputized as
deputy sheriffs in one or more of the five counties adjacent to
the park. Four criminal investigators, two of whom also served
as Deputy U.S. Marshals and all of whom were deputy sheriffs,
and a legal clerk followed up on serious crimes, advised park
rangers on laws and procedures, and presented criminal cases before
the resident park magistrate stationed in Mammoth Hot Springs
or a federal district court judge.
THE HAZARDS OF YELLOWSTONE
Yellowstone and other parks appear
deceptively tranquil to the millions of visitors who arrive in
full vacation mode. Unsuspecting and distracted, travelers are
at risk from traffic, an unfamiliar environment, and sometimes
from each other.
Environmental hazards. Each year
some of the visitors who wander off a boardwalk or trail in thermal
areas are seriously burned when they fall through the thin crust
into scalding water; these falls occasionally result in death.
Wading in thermal pools is illegal, but that doesn’t stop
some visitors from doing it.
Trees that fall as a result of
natural causes or human disturbance pose a risk to human safety
and property. A high wind event in August 1996 blew down at least
583 trees in developed areas and resulted in 4 reported personal
injuries and 29 incidents of property damage with a total estimated
monetary damage of $54,000. As rangers spend more time removing
trees that have fallen or that lean over trails, they are less
available to patrol busy trails and meet with visitors to answer
questions and explain backcountry rules.
Park regulations prohibit approaching
within 100 yards of bears or 25 yards of other wildlife. However,
elk and bison are often closer than that to roads and sidewalks
in developed areas and such easy proximity tends to create an
illusion of safety. The major cause of injury by wildlife occurs
when visitors seek too close an encounter—a ground squirrel
may bite the hand that feeds it, and bison have gored photographers
coming in for a close-up. Since the era of roadside bear feeding
ended in the 1970s, visitors are more likely to get hurt by a
bison, but bears still pose a potential danger, especially to
backcountry users who do not follow basic precautions. Rangers
spend significant time educating visitors about how to avoid harassing
and being injured by animals.
Traffic hazards. While park managers
hope that Yellowstone provides a respite from urban crowds and
the fast pace of the workaday world, the vast majority of park
visitors arrive in the same six-week period between early July
and mid-August each year—and most want to see the same highlights
during their two-day visit. Combined with natural distractions
and deteriorating road conditions, this heavy traffic makes for
hazardous traveling for the unwary driver. As on other highways
across the nation, drunk drivers pose a threat to themselves and
other pedestrians and motorists. Rangers documented 518 traffic
accidents in the park during 1998 which resulted in $2.1 million
in property damage and 799 personal human injuries, some of which
were serious or even fatal.
Other surprises. Accidents that
range from overturned boats to visitors tripping from canyon overlooks
have befallen vacationers and park workers. Rangers are called
to respond to domestic quarrels, some of which turn violent, in
park campgrounds and housing areas. The park is subject to litigation
for perceived acts of negligence; an average of 50 claims are
filed each year. While most are for small amounts, a man injured
in a snowmobile accident outside the park near West Yellowstone
filed a claim for $40 million, contesting the medical aid provided
by park rangers who assisted U.S. Forest Service employees.
Crime and punishment. While most
park visitors leave Yellowstone after a safe visit, some are victims
of offenses such as burglaries, automobile break-ins, and an occasional
assault or murder. In 1998, Yellowstone rangers issued 19,560
verbal warnings and 3,888 citations for violations of federal
regulations; 97 people were arrested. The park maintains a two-cell
jail, built by the Army in 1911, which still holds prisoners when
necessary, pending a hearing before a judge. Although 98 percent
of the recorded crimes in 1998 were misdemeanors—traffic
violations, minor assaults, petty thefts, disorderly conduct,
and illegal use of drugs or alcohol—163 known felonies were
committed. Rangers on a typical patrol shift must be prepared
to deal with anything from a quiet night of educational visitor
contacts to a life-threatening attack on themselves, other employees,
or park visitors.
Lost in paradise. As a routine
part of their job, rangers are called upon to search for missing
visitors anywhere from the top of Thunderer Mountain to the depths
of Yellowstone Lake, and in conditions that range from desert-like
in summer, in the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone River, to winter
blizzards with "white-out" visibility. Only a tiny fraction
of park visitors turn up missing, and most search-and-rescue operations
cost less than $500, but the length, logistics, and cost of such
episodes vary tremendously. Since 1994, the number of search-and-rescue
incidents has ranged from 9 to 44 a year, costing the park from
$20,000 to more than $147,000 annually. An increasing number of
backcountry users appear reluctant to leave the convenience of
modern technology behind. A call for help from a cellular phone
can cut hours or even days off the standard notification and rescue-response
time, or may enable a ranger to guide a stranded party out of
a predicament. On the other hand, inexperienced visitors may view
their cell phone as a substitute for adequate skills, gear, or
reasonable precautions and perseverance, confident in the belief
that "help is just a phone call away."
RENAISSANCE RANGERS
In order to protect visitors from
the myriad hazards they may face in Yellowstone,
rangers must possess varied technical
skills, training, and experience in structural fire, accident
prevention and investigation, conflict resolution, and emergency
response. The conventional expectation that park rangers can provide
nearly any type of public service is increasingly complicated
by the standards required for certification or performance of
duties, such as technical rescue, law enforcement, and medical
treatment.
Emergency medical services. Rangers
respond to medical calls ranging from twisted ankles and dehydration
to more serious illness and accidents in park hotels, along park
roadways, and in the backcountry. They also routinely provide
medical care and transportation for park employees and for residents
and visitors in Cooke City, West Yellowstone, and Gardiner, Montana.
The necessary treatment is determined and performed in cooperation
with the park’s contracted medical providers. (See "Medical
Care,")
Yellowstone’s isolation from
advanced medical facilities, as well as techno-logical advancements
and liability issues have increased the need to have highly trained
park staff and equipment on hand to perform emergency extrication
and defibrillation, and to respond to hazardous materials spills
and deal with blood-borne pathogens. The park encourages all permanent
field rangers to be certified as Emergency Medical Technicians
(EMTs), which requires 120 hours of initial training plus 48 hours
of continuing education and a 24-hour biennial refresher class.
All park rangers must at a minimum be trained to serve as "first-responders"
and have received cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training
and certification. An emergency medical services coordinator arranges
or teaches classes for rangers, other employees, and local citizens
who wish to receive the training.
In 1998, the park ranger staff
included 80 emergency medical technicians, 38 first responders,
15 park medics, and 2 paramedics. They provided basic or advanced
life support care to 730 people, conducted 311 ambulance transports,
and coordinated 39 air ambulance transports; only 6 of nearly
3 million park visitors died in Yellowstone.
Law enforcement. To become a permanent
commissioned law enforcement ranger, applicants are required to
complete 480 hours of specialized coursework at an approved federal
training academy, in addition to field training experience at
Yellowstone or another park. Permanent employees receive the time
off for training at the park’s expense, but to become a seasonal
ranger candidates typically spend their own time and money to
attend a school certified to provide a condensed 360-hour course.
Both seasonal and permanent rangers must also attend an annual
40-hour basic law enforcement refresher; additional training is
required for such skills as fingerprint classification, defense
tactics, radar certification, and firearms instruction.
Compliance with the mandated requirements
to conduct background investigations before granting police powers
to an employee has been time-consuming and costly. In 1998, the
park submitted paperwork to the federal Office of Personnel Management
to check on 52 seasonal and 42 permanent rangers, for a total
cost of nearly $232,000. So far the NPS Washington office has
paid the cost of these investigations. The park’s criminal
investigators performed similar background checks on security
guards and armored-car drivers contracted to work in the park,
and on park staff who handle money.
Search and rescue (SAR).
Yellowstone rangers manage and conduct search-and-rescue operations
in the park and, when requested, outside the park. A 21- member
advanced technical rescue team specializing in high-angle rock
and technical river operations trains together six times each
year and teaches basic rescue skills to other park employees.
Five certified SCUBA divers make up the park’s dive team,
which is used in searching for boats and victims lost in lakes,
rivers, and under the ice. Divers must make at least 12 dives
each year and attend a biennial 40-hour refresher course to maintain
their certification. Yellowstone’s certified dive master
also conducts training and examinations for other nearby parks,
such as Grand Teton and Bighorn Canyon.
In 1998, the park had one SAR-dog
team that trained at least once each month with a statewide SAR
organization and met NPS standards for certification. A SAR-dog
team found two 11-year old girls missing over a rainy night in
the Canyon area in 1995. These teams have also located three avalanche
victims in various incidents near West Yellowstone, bringing closure
to these tragedies and reducing the effort and danger faced by
other searchers.
To enhance employees’ ability
to deal with winter survival and rescues, the park sponsors one-day
training sessions in avalanche awareness and safety precautions
for all interested staff. More advanced three-day winter survival
training is required of all employees who venture into snow-covered
backcountry on duty; after a classroom session on preparedness,
winter first-aid, and proper clothing and equipment, participants
venture out on skis or snowshoes, construct snow shelters, and
spend the night winter camping.
Yellowstone is fortunate to have
a helicopter stationed in the park during the 100-day fire season
(see "Wildland Fire," page 2–29). When not in use
for fire management, the helicopter is available for searches
and rescues throughout the park and surrounding area upon request.
Specially trained members of the helitack crew can perform highly
technical rescues, including being slung on a cable beneath the
aircraft in a harness with a victim. The helicopter flies 20 to
60 hours each summer on SAR missions, often helping in a dozen
or more major park incidents. When necessary, rangers call for
life flights to transport seriously injured victims from the park
to regional hospitals.
General assistance. The typical
patrol shift does not require all of a ranger’s specialized
skills in law enforcement, medical assistance, or search and rescue,
but providing assistance to park visitors is also important, and
ranges from helping them find a needed facility or popular destination
to extracting keys from an accidentally locked vehicle. Visitor
service is also provided at ranger stations, where staff, student
interns, and volunteers provide information and issue permits
for boating, angling, and backcountry use. Broad knowledge of
park resources and services is required of all rangers, as is
patience and a courteous attitude.
RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Removing hazards. Rangers and other
employees are expected to be alert for safety hazards. Along roadsides,
rangers direct traffic and keep visitors at safe distances from
animals and passing cars. Broken boardwalks and guardrails, major
potholes in roads, scattered glass or hazardous trash, and leaning
trees must be tended to by rangers
on patrol or reported to maintenance
crews for major repair. The ever-changing thermal
features sometimes require re-routing
visitors in thermal areas as the forces of geology
overtake a trail.
Saving human lives. During the
1990s, on average nine visitors died in the park each year. Park
staff continue to seek better training and equipment to reduce
the incidence of these tragedies. The EMS program has acquired
eight ambulances since 1993 to replace transport vans and suburbans
which were being used as for emergencies. Each of the new vehicles
has defibrillation equipment that, when used by staff trained
in advanced life support techniques, has enabled rangers to save
one or two lives each year that otherwise would have been lost.
Two new oversnow ambulances and avalanche safety gear, including
beacons and probe poles that can be used by employees heading
into the backcountry, provide for improved winter safety. Throughout
the park, rangers’ rescue caches are being supplied with
updated equipment for SAR missions.
Assisting neighboring communities.
For Yellowstone’s gateway communities, the park rangers are
often the only trained personnel available to help with law enforcement,
search and rescue, and emergency medical incidents. The park has
mutual aid agreements with Park and Gallatin counties in Montana
where, at the request of law enforcement authorities, Yellowstone’s
SAR teams have searchers, dog teams, and helicopter assistance
for incidents outside the park. They have also conducted training
for employees of Park County, Montana and Park County, Wyoming.
Since 1993, Yellowstone has participated
in the national Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program,
aimed at kindergarten through fifth-grade youngsters. The park’s
DARE officer spends several days each week during the school season
working with local communities. Program goals are to enhance drug
and alcohol awareness and promote positive alternatives to substance
use among youths.
In January 1998, the park received
$2,400 from Montana’s Gallatin Project
for a new computer system to track
domestic violence and child victimization cases in and near Yellowstone;
rangers have been involved in investigating eight such cases under
a new cooperative agreement. A collateral benefit from all these
community efforts is improved rapport between park rangers and
local residents.
• ADDITIONAL STAFF AND STREAMLINED
SERVICE. Obtaining qualified seasonal staff has become more difficult
as job requirements have increased and funding has not kept pace
with growing visitation, and with the lengthening of the peak
season into spring and fall months. While visitation grew 32 percent
between 1987 and 1996, the number of seasonal rangers dropped
by 33 percent. This staff reduction limited the park’s ability
to both carry out routine activities and respond to emergencies.
Despite the best efforts of existing staff, rangers are spread
thinly throughout the park. A common visitor complaint is that
"you can never find a ranger when you need one."
Improved facilities and sharing
training and responsibilities that are split between two uniformed
divisions and facilities could help Yellowstone continue to provide
basic services to the public. To maintain optimum levels of proactive
ranger patrols and provide better visitor service, more positions
are needed.
The park would also benefit from
the addition of full-time SAR and EMS program coordinators to
oversee more professional programs with better planning, training,
interagency cooperation, logistics, and managing for incidents.
These specialists would also undertake more proactive efforts
to educate visitors, employees, and local community residents
in how to prevent accidents and SAR incidents.
• EQUIPMENT. Costs to meet
agency-mandated standards for rangers’ personal protective
equipment such as firearms cleaning kits and targets, soft body
armor, and ammunition have escalated. Each subdistrict ranger
station needs SAR equipment to meet the area’s needs. Some
stations need whitewater rescue gear, while others need ropes,
webbing, and other technical climbing equipment; many need All
Terrain Vehicle
(ATV) wheeled litters and a "sailing
winch" to extricate and transport victims from backcountry
accidents. Needed EMS equipment includes more oversnow ambulances
or transport vehicles, automated digital blood- pressure machines,
evacuation chairs, and care-provider restraint systems for park
ambulances, some of which will need to be replaced soon.
• TRAINING BUDGET. Funding
is also inadequate to support the continuing education and training
of park rangers. While many supervisory rangers have taken basic
training in search management,
it has been five years or more since most have received any refresher
in new skills and techniques. More employees should receive basic
training in EMS and SAR, and practical field-training exercises
should be conducted at least twice a year to keep staff current.
Staff turnover creates a continual need to provide new members
of EMS, SAR, SCUBA, and other skills teams with the knowledge
and experience needed to protect the safety of park visitors,
other employees, and themselves.
Stewardship Goals
Current State of
Resources/Programs
Fully trained professional staff proactively protect visitors
and enhance visitor enjoyment through high-quality visitor service
and assistance throughout the year and throughout the park.
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Rangers reduce safety risks and
increase public safety awareness through on- and off-site patrols,
actions, and educational outreach efforts.
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Visitors are assured of rapid response
to emergencies and receive appropriate assistance in keeping with
the setting and other park goals.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rangers assist neighboring communities
and jurisdictions with law enforcement, search and rescue, emergency
medical situations, and other needs as requested or appropriate.
Most visitors have safe and satisfying park visits, but rangers
receive minimal training needed for their own and visitor protection,
and limited staff results in barely adequate resource protection
and safety patrols.
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Rangers respond to immediate safety
threats, but staff have little time for proactive programs in
or out of the park.
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Top priority is given to missing
or injured persons, reported crimes and other emergencies, resulting
in an overall low incidence of visitor accidents and victimization.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mutual-aid agreements with gateway
communities are well-established and appreciated; special programs
such as DARE and shared training have increased cross-boundary
cooperation.
STRUCTURAL FIRES
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While the programs aimed at managing landscape fires have received
much attention since the Yellowstone wildfires of 1988 (see "Wildland
Fire," page 2–29), fire protection for national park
facilities and the people using them has not always received similar
attention. During the peak summer
season, Yellowstone’s overnight population may reach more
than 18,000 and its daytime population 32,000, yet its capabilities | 
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