Human threat to park rangers worse than animals

Two recent shootings of wildlife officers have brought new attention to the daily risk for rangers and wildlife managers. A Pennsylvania wildlife officer was recently killed in a shooting while confronting an illegal hunter, and a Utah officer was seriously injured after a shooting during a traffic stop, Kirk Johnson of The New York Times reports. The incidents "highlighted what rangers and wildlife managers say is an increasingly unavoidable fact," Johnson writes. "As more and more people live in proximity to forests, parks and other wild-land playgrounds, the human animal, not the wild variety, is the one to watch out for." (Services for a  Pennsylvania wildlife officer who was killed by an illegal hunter in November. Photo Darryl Wheeler/Gettysburg Times, via Associated Press)

"We’re seeing a little bit more of the urban spill into the wild spaces — city violence in the country," John Evans, an assistant branch chief of law enforcement operations at the National Park Service, told Johnson. Todd Schmidt, a Colorado game warden, said he always wears a bulletproof vest on the job now, noting "I know that everybody I confront has a gun." The risk may be further heightened after guns became legal in National Parks this year.  Rangers and wardens say their mixed roles of public resource stewards and full police authority sometimes leaves them vulnerable.

"Many parks and recreation areas around the nation have also suffered staff cuts in recent years, reducing the presence of badge-wearing authority figures on patrol," Johnson writes. "But rangers and wildlife workers say the key variable defining the job has not changed: because of the vast distances to be covered, especially in the West, every ranger is a solo act." Some agencies have countered the increased threat with new equipment. National Park rangers began carrying Tasers to immobilize would-be attackers in 2007. Ty Petersburg, who manages the district west of Denver, explained that when he recently called for backup from a police station he was left alone. "'We’d like to come help you,'" he quoted the nearest urban county sheriff’s office as saying, "'But we don’t have a clue where you’re at.'" (Read more)