Radio Communications – A Park Ranger’s Life Line

As with any emergency worker, National Park Rangers depend on their radio systems for not only communications but safety. In many remote areas rangers work alone and there is either no backup or it is a long distance away. On The Blue Ridge Parkway a park ranger calling for assistance was lucky to get help within 45 minutes. In most cases it was over an hour. In one instance I held three armed escaped convicts at gun point for more than three hours waiting for back up to arrive.

There are two essential elements of a radio system that make it work.

The first is the hardware made up of radios, repeater towers, reliable power sources, and dispatch consoles.

The second part is the park ranger on one end and the dispatcher on the other. Some parks have professional dispatch centers, others make use of partner agencies through agreements, and many rangers in smaller areas are out there with no dispatcher at all. For much of my career when called out at night I had to depend on my wife staying up to dispatch for me. This was hard on her since as a teacher she had to face a classroom of elementary students the next morning. I remember one of those long nights she just could not stay awake and I kept calling and calling on the radio with no answer. Finally my constant static over the radio woke up another ranger at home 200 miles away and he was able to make some calls for me.

Trained and experienced dispatchers are essential for not only calling for help but to provide vital information to park rangers in the field. It is the dispatcher that lets the ranger know if they are stopping a stolen car, talking to a wanted felon, or giving information that allows the ranger to plan for an appropriate response to an emergency.

The reader’s first impression on this subject may be, “why don’t they just use cell phones?” Even today in our high tech society cellular telephone coverage is not available in all areas. Many locations of National Parks are off the main cellular grids and coverage is inconsistent and in many cases nonexistent. The Blue Ridge Parkway has many long stretches of dead zones with no cell phone availability.

If either link in this communications system is not functioning to its full potential the park ranger in the field is face with an increased exposure to danger and reduces their effectiveness to provide emergency response and care for visitors in need. I do not believe that it would be overstated to say that a radio communications system is one of if not the most important tool that a park ranger has available to ensure their safety and ability to accomplish the mission of the National Park Service.

With the technology available today no National Park Ranger should be without full radio communications with a professional dispatch center. But there are still parks with inadequate or inefficient radio systems that leave park rangers in situations where they are unable to communicate with the outside world. Budget and lack of money are the common reason for this deficiency.

The individual ranger is then forced to make tough decisions on responding to threats to their personal and public safety and develop extraordinary skills to survive.

Incredible Rescue by National Park Rangers at Yosemite National Park

Park helicopter 551 and ranger Keith Lober short-haul the injured climber off of the Nose route on El Capitan. NPS photo by Clay Usinger.

Taken from the National Park Service Morning Report: August 39, 2010.  Another incredible feat of courage by National Park Rangers to rescue visitors in trouble.


Park dispatch received a report of an injured climber on a climbing route known as The Nose on El Capitan on the evening of Tuesday, August 24th. He was a 47-year-old Korean national, part of a four-person Korean climbing team. Rangers were unable to communicate with the climbers due to a language barrier, so little information was available at the outset. It was eventually determined that he’d dislodged a large rock just below the Camp 4 bivy site, that he was in stable condition, and that he was unable to climb further. A helicopter short-haul mission was planned to extricate him from the rock face, but had to be cancelled due to the shear vertical wall at the climbing party’s location. A small technical rescue team was sent to the top of El Capitan to lower an attendant to him, but that operation had to be suspended due to darkness. A plan was formulated by IC Shannon Kupersmith to send supplemental personnel first thing the following morning to support the lowering operation. On Wednesday, additional personnel were flown to the summit of El Capitan for the technical lowering operation. Prior to the start of the mission a spotter in El Capitan Meadow was able to communicate with the climbing party and determine that the man might be paralyzed in his lower extremities. Two medics who reached the scene stabilized the climber and packaged him in a litter. An alternate plan to immediately evacuate him from the wall using the "bean bag/short-haul" technique was employed. This technique involves sending a line from the hovering helicopter to the attendant/medic. The attendant/medic then retrieves a tag line attached to the short-haul line from the helicopter while the helicopter maintains a safe rotor distance from the vertical rock face. One attendant then attached himself and the climber to the short-haul line, which was followed by immediate release from the wall anchor. He was then flown to El Capitan meadow and medevaced to a hospital. The remaining members of the climbing team were unable to lower themselves off the route due to their lack of experience and also had to be rescued. Two additional lowering operations were conducted to evacuate the Korean climbers off El Capitan’s 3,000-foot face. These operations were conducted on the hottest day of the summer to date, with the temperature over 100 degrees.

Bicycling On The Blue Ridge Parkway

In 2001 The Blue Ridge Parkway started the multi-year process of developing a General Management Plan for the park. A major component of this process was public comment. When asked what issues or concerns the public had about the park there was one subject that buried any other topic, bicycle use. What made this result interesting was that comments were split 50/50 between those that were pro cycling and those that were anti cycling. Public suggestions ranged from building a bike lane the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway to completely banning bicycles from the park. National Park Service planners and managers were amazed at the emotional dichotomy on this topic.

In 2005 a contactor was given the job of examining the bicycle use on The Blue Ridge Parkway and the feasibility of building a bike trail along 469 mile length of the park. Although cycling is commonly found anywhere on the Parkway the study conducted by David Evans and Associates found that most of the day use was concentrated in four areas.

Waynesboro Mile Post 0 – 14

Roanoke Mile Post 105 – 121

Boone/Blowing Rock Mile Post 270 – 305

Asheville Mile Post 375 – 398

The Study’s look at the possibility of constructing a multi-use or bicycle trail along the length of the Blue Ridge Parkway found that only in 20% of the park would it be physically practicable for such construction. The majority of this would be in the Roanoke area. Such construction would take millions of dollars and at present there are no plans to even plan such a major project.

For more information on planning a bicycling trip check out the link below:

http://www.nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&PageID=238496

"A Park Ranger's Life" Possibly Now In A Library Near You

The book A Park Ranger's Life: Thirty Two Years Protecting Our National Parks is now available in a number of libraries across the country.  Those known at this time are:

Washington & Lee University
James G. Leyburn Library

LEXINGTON, VA 24450 United States

Roanoke City Public Library 

ROANOKE, VA 24016 United States

Roanoke County Public Library 

Roanoke, VA 24018 United States

Virginia Tech 

Blacksburg, VA 24062 United States

Ohio State University Libraries 

Columbus, OH 43210 United States

Grand Canyon Nat Park Library 

GRAND CANYON, AZ 86023 United States

East Bonner County Library 

SANDPOINT, ID 83864 United States

Rockbridge Regional Library

LEXINGTON, VA 24450 United States

If you know of any other libraries where the book can be found, let me know in the comments section below.

Blue Ridge Parkway Does Away With Hunter Access Permits

The Blue Ridge Parkway has decided to do away with Hunter Access Permits.
See the below link for more details;

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100827/OUTDOORS/100827014

Search for Park Ranger Missing Since 1980 Continues

At 2 PM on January 13, 1980, Paul Fugate, the only member of the permanent staff at Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona on duty that day, walked out of his office to check out a nature trail. He left instructions with the only other person, a seasonal employee, that if he wasn’t back before 4:30 to begin to shut down without him.

Fugate appeared to walk down toward the Monument entrance and was never seen again. No trace of the ranger was ever found despite extensive searches by the National Park Service, The Cochise County Sheriff’s Department, The Bureau of Land Management, the US Forest Service, The Southern Arizona Search and Rescue Association, Customs, The Border Patrol and Fugate’s many friends.

All that was missing from Fugate’s home were the clothes he was wearing and his National Park Service keys.

Despite some evidence of a crime having been committed nothing has ever been uncovered to explain Fugate’s disappearance. He left behind a wife, Dody, a mother Mrs. Braxton Fugate, two brothers, three sisters, many friends with a vast hole in their lives.


The Cochise County Sheriff's Department has not given up on trying to find the answer to Paul Fugate's disappearance.  On August 25, 2010 the Sheriff's Department searched several old wells and other sites for possible bodily remains.  They are also asking for any information that may have come out in the public domain.  Anyone with information is urged to call (520) 432-9500.

Paul Fugate not long before his disappearance in 1980

Happy Birthday to the National Park Service

It was on August 25, 1916 that President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the National Park Service. Happy Birthday to one of the consistently most popular Federal Agencies ever created.

Falling Water Cascades - Blue Ridge Parkway, Peaks of Otter

On August 23^rd my hiking buddy Baird the Golden Retriever and I took some time to hike the Falling Water Cascades Trail located just north of the Peaks of Otter in Virginia on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The trail was steep going down from the Blue Ridge Parkway, but easily manageable with stone and wooden steps and bridges back and forth across the stream that feeds the falls.

                    The intrepid hiker is rewarded with beautiful close up views of impressing rock formations with mountain spring fed water splashing and dripping in long white tendrils that provide a damp coolness to the hollow you are moving through.

My partner was rewarded with a chance to cool off in one of the many pools formed by the exposed rock faces of the meandering falls.

The loop trail is 1.6 miles in length with an elevation change of 382 feet.  The physical effort and time are well rewarded by the immersion into the Blue Ridge environment and escape from the more heavily used trails I the area.

Work Continues On Access Trail - Blue Ridge Parkway, Peaks of Otter

The National Park Service Maintenance Crew from the Blue Ridge Parkway are continuing their work on the boardwalk for the handicap accessible trail around Abbott Lake at the Peaks of Otter (see blog post dated July 3, 2010).

On August 23rd workers were placing the boardwalk planking over the first section.  The planking is made of recycled plastic boards.  This section of the trail will include an approximately 6' by 6' deck where those in wheelchairs can sit and enjoy the view of the lake and lodge.  A future section of boardwalk will include a larger deck directly across Abbott Lake from the Peaks of Otter Lodge that could allow for those in wheelchairs to fish in comfort and safety.

The walkway will include bumper type curbing along the edges and handrails where the boardwalk crosses feeder streams above the lake such as the one shown above.

This project was originally planned eleven years ago and is finally coming to fruition.

Technology Leads to Visitors in Trouble in National Parks

In the later part of my career I began to see people getting themselves in trouble due to dependence and over confidence on technology. By carrying GPS units, satellite location devices, and cell phones park visitors went beyond the limits of their common sense with the mistaken perception that these devices would ultimately lead to a park ranger saving them from themselves and nature.

Another conflict lies in the individual’s definition of an emergency. When you take a person out of their own neighborhood or comfort zone their ability to identify a true threat or emergency becomes clouded. I constantly had people call my residence in the middle of the night to report what they thought were emergencies. These emergencies could range from true life threatening situations to missing pets, desire for latest weather reports so they could plan an outing, a request to notify them if their wife goes to the hospital to have their baby while they are fishing, they are tired from hiking too far and want a park ranger to pick them up and give them a ride, campers who hear sounds outside their tent at night, people in the dark that need flashlight batteries, or asking me to tell them where they are based on their telephone reception.

The image of technology that viewers see on television add to the overconfidence virus. Park visitors seem to think that park rangers have instant access to the same satellites, computers, equipment, and other technology as they see on shows such as 24.

Now you add this clouded perception to the public availability of technology to call for help and this further contributes to that false confidence of finding their way. More and more people are getting themselves in real danger while the over extended and stretched park ranger staffs finding it more challenging to provide assistance when truly needed.

Exhausted searches and dog after an all nighter looking for lost hikers who kept making panicked calls on their cell phone until the battery finally went dead.

You will find a good article on this topic with more detail in the New York Times dated August 21. Go to the link below to check it out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/science/earth/22parks.html?_r=1

To keep yourself out of trouble be realistic about you and your party's capabilities and be well prepared for changes in weather, darkness, a longer stay in the woods then you expect, and be properly dressed.