Saturday, June 29, 2013

Kenya To Hire 500 New Park Rangers

Due to the increases in poaching pressure on wildlife in Kenya, that country is going to add 500 more park rangers to their parks.  According to the below linked article, "Poachers killed 360 elephants and 19 rhinos in 2012," within Kenya's National Parks.

As world economies suffer, we will see a continuing increased presence of wildlife and other resources theft with parks world wide.  Meanwhile, in the United States we will be seeing fewer park rangers in our National Parks this summer due to budget constraints.  That leaves us with fewer protectors of our nation's wildlife during a time when illegal taking of resources for financial gain will most likely increase.

Kenya Hiring Park Rangers

More Information From Investigation Into Shooting of Unarmed US Park Ranger

New information may indicate that US Army Corps of Engineers Park Ranger D.P. Wright may have been shot by accident when a woman took her own life.

For more details go to;

Local Police Look Into Possibility That Shooting Of Park Ranger Was Accidental

Friday, June 28, 2013

Unarmed US Army Corps of Engineers Park Ranger Shot

On Thursday June 27 an unarmed US Army Corps of Engineers Park Ranger was shot while conducting his normal daily duties of closing and area for the night.  From the article you can visit below it sounds like he merely walked up to a vehicle to inform the occupant that they needed to leave for the evening so he could close a gate.  The person he walked up to shot him in the abdomen.

How many times a day do park rangers and other land managers conduct "sweeps" of areas so that they can close gates at dusk.  I know during my career I did this hundreds if not thousands of times.

The lesson, if there is one here, that we can all draw from this incident is that there is no such thing as routine whether you are an armed law enforcement trained park ranger, a fee collector, interpreter, biologist, or maintenance worker.  If you are working with the most unpredictable creature on earth, the human, you can never know what to expect.  Adding the wearing of any type of official looking uniform or vehicle and you can easily become someone's target.

Just last week I wrote about a study indicating a sharp increase in assaults and threats made against park rangers.  You can read about that in the post dated June 16.

Never be complacent, in to much of a hurry, or let your guard down.  Always remain alert and listen to your instincts when dealing with the public.  Do not harbor the expectations that everyone out there is going to react to your presence or contact the way you would.

I doubt this Park Ranger did anything wrong.  He just walked into a no win situation which looks to me to have involved a person ready to take their own life and not adverse to taking others with them.  I of course do not have all the facts and am making several suppositions based on very little factual information, but can see this scenario quite clearly being possible.

To all my land management agency brothers and sisters, be careful out there and let us remember this injured fellow ranger in our thoughts and prayers.  We all hope for him to have a speedy and successful recovery.

US Army Corps of Engineers Park Ranger Shot

Monday, June 17, 2013

Violence Against Park Rangers and Fellow Land Management Agency Employees Increases

Updated Reports reveal that assaults and threats against Park Rangers and workers in sister land management agencies increased in 2012 by 38% over 2011.

The US Park Police saw an increase of 43% against their officers.

Check out this article by the AP to learn more;

http://news.yahoo.com/report-assaults-increase-rangers-park-police-160622791.html