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What do Wilderness Rangers Do?

Some Things Change

by John Neary, Wilderness Field Manager

On a recent trip to Tracy Arm with Tim Lydon, I paused to reflect on the changing landscape around us, and of the changing roles of the wilderness rangers who paddle these frigid waters. It was a cold morning on Sawyer Island as we set off in our kayaks; our teasing glimpses of sun offered no more warmth than the icebergs floating by. A cruise ship inched by toward the thicker ice pack near South Sawyer Glacier where the harbor seals were hauled out to molt their fur. I back-paddled against the outflow of fresh water gushing from the receding glaciers as Tim settled into his kayak, securing the spray skirt, positioning the radio.

I’ve paddled canoes and kayaks for a long time on the Tongass, starting on the canoe route of Admiralty Island in 1983. We called ourselves wilderness rangers then, but few of our peers knew what the title meant. Our duties included all the classic ranger elements; visiting with the people who used the forest, inventorying the conditions of campsites, trails and cabins, and presenting programs and information about protecting the wilderness. Back then, we had no specific objectives to fulfill except perhaps the campsite inventory forms we produced by the armful to keep us busy.

Ranger Duties

Contemporary wilderness rangers have a wider palette of duties. As Tim and I launched our kayaks from Sawyer Island, I heard Jon Horn, a ranger in his fourth summer on our crew, announce on the marine band radio to the pilot of the cruise ship that he and his partner Kristin Stelck were about to commence a reading of the visual emissions from their exhaust stack. Through an agreement with the State of Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the rangers are certified to read the visible emissions of cruise ship stacks for compliance with state and federal standards. It’s one of several unusual roles we fulfill.

We also partner with the State Department of Fish and Game and the University of Alaska Southeast to watch harbor seals closely for signs of disturbance by vessels and to count their numbers at the peak of the molting and pupping seasons.

We measure the recession of the glacier from fixed photo points, and we board smaller cruise vessels to deliver interpretive talks.

We survey for invasive weeds and collect unusual samples of marine life that wash ashore.

All this is in addition to the campsite inventories and shore-based visitor contacts that have always been the ranger way.

Wilderness managers are getting more specific about our objectives and our leaders are beginning to understand our purpose, thanks to the Forest Service Chief’s Ten Year Wilderness Stewardship Challenge.

In 2004 the Chief challenged our agency to successfully manage all 407 national forest wilderness areas for air quality, invasive species, fire, opportunities for solitude, recreation site monitoring, education and other criteria.

As a result, wilderness rangers are becoming stewards of a broader landscape of ideas and information. We help manage a whole place instead of separate resources.

Don MacDougall, for example, not only greets visitors and watches bears all summer at the Pack Creek Bear Viewing area in the Kootznoowoo Wilderness, but he also helps collect bear hair from barbed wire traps in nearby bays and helps track the movements of bears across the drainages. This will help the Alaska Department of Fish and Game better understand how a recent bear hunting proposal will affect Pack Creek bears. Don does this work because he loves the place, the bears, and the wildness of an island he has paddled and walked for the last four summers.

Paddling the length of Tracy Arm allowed me to reflect on changes. The South Sawyer glacier has receded more than a mile since I saw it a year ago. The rapid retreat has prompted many worries about what will happen when the icebergs no longer make it to saltwater. Where will the seals have their pups?

Change also seems to be coming to the Kootznoowoo Wilderness. Summers are arriving earlier and the growth season of plants has advanced two or three weeks, causing the early tidal sedges to sprout in May instead of June. As a result, the bears are down earlier from dens and they depart the beaches earlier to the slopes behind, following the emergence of young plants up the mountains. It’s harder to see them in June. What does all this change mean?

Thanks to the changing role of our field wilderness stewards, we’re better prepared to advocate for these special places. We can’t affect global warming enough to stop melting glaciers or advancing springs, but we can educate those who visit about their personal responsibility to preserve our wildest places. These days, we do so with greater credibility.

Upon return to my office a week after the visit to Tracy, I received a call from the parent company of the cruise ship we saw in Tracy Arm. They let us know that in response to Jon Horn’s radio call, the ship captain shut down one of his three engines, and switched to cleaner burning diesel fuel while operating in the fjord.

Our world is complex and changing. Wilderness is supposed to provide us with examples of natural change, free from the meddling of mankind. That may be wishful thinking, yet I feel better knowing we do our best to manage these special places, and we do it in ways I never dreamed possible decades ago.

USDA Forest Service - Tongass National Forest
Last Modified: January 12, 2007