Special People... Special Places...

Review by Rick Smith:

Worth Fighting For: A Park Ranger's Unexpected Battle against Federal Bureaucrats & Washington Redskins Owner Dan Snyder. Robert M. Danno. Honor Code Publishing, LLC. 2012. ISBN 13: 978-0-9852807-0-3

     “An observer not intimately familiar with the details of this story might ask: why is one of the most talented and honored rangers in the NPS, chief ranger in three different parks, Chiricahua, Bryce Canyon, and C&O Canal, now assigned as the staff park ranger for the National Capital Region, duty stationed at Antietam with no discernable duties, while still being paid as a ranger with law enforcement duties? If that makes Ranger readers curious, they only have to get this book to find out why. I highly recommend they do.
     Several issues of Ranger ago, I reviewed the book that dealt with the investigation regarding Billy Malone, the Indian trader at Hubbell Trading Post. I said that was a hard book for me to review because of the initial botched investigation of Malone and because the author's portrait of National Park culture did not ring true with my own. This is also difficult for me to review, but for different reasons. Danno's portrait of his career in the NPS is like a travelogue of wonderful places and experiences. He worked as a seasonal in Whiskeytown, Sequoia/Kings Canyon and Grand Canyon.
    

In addition to the parks above, he was a permanent in the Virgin Islands, Channel Islands, Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone. During his time as a ranger, he married his wife, Mary, they had three children, and lived a life that he describes as inspirational and exciting. He did the requisite number of rescues, dealt with medical emergencies, arrested bad guys, and assisted uncountable numbers of visitors. He became a ‘ranger's ranger’, was nominated twice for the Harry Yount award (http://www.nps.gov/aboutus/harry-yount-award.htm ), received the Department of the Interior Valor award, and the Meritorious Service award. He speaks in awe of his assignment at Madison Junction in Yellowstone and of his pride of being a ranger in the "mother park". This is all the stuff of a very successful career and it makes great reading.

     What was difficult for me is to read what happened next, beginning in March of 2005, when Danno was notified that his work conduct at the C&O Canal was being investigated two weeks after he reported to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) that the park superintendent was acting improperly with a boundary issue. He was stripped of his law enforcement commission, assigned to another park, all the items were removed from his office and transported to his home by park employees, including his awards, tool kits and other items that a ranger keeps in his or her office. Sometime after that, his home was raided and items were removed by the NPS (while he was out-of town). He was subsequently arrested, ordered face-down on a marina dock, and carted off in handcuffs. All this for a two-time nominee of the Harry Yount award?

     While Danno had disagreements with the acting superintendent at C&O Canal over issues related to incident command and felt that the acting superintendent's damage assessments following Hurricane Isabel were dishonest in order to get more money for the park, the real problem was Washington Redskins billionaire owner Dan Snyder clear cutting trees on his estate to improve his view of the river. This was a major sensation in the Washington, D.C. newspapers. According to Danno, he had consistently warned the acting superintendent that this was a violation of law and policy, and should not be allowed - which the acting superintendent was advocating. Danno now believed, that Snyder did not act on his own and that the acting
superintendent gave him permission to do the cutting. Danno filed a whistle blower complaint with the DOI OIG and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.
     A year later, the OIG investigative report came out. Incredibly, it concluded that the decision to allow the tree cutting had come from the NPS Director Fran Mainellla's office and that the special assistant to the director, Dan Smith and the now-superintendent of the C&O Canal, Kevin
Brandt, had not been truthful with the investigators. It did not, however, recommend any discipline against these employees and referred the case back to the NPS for appropriate action. Yes, that's right; they recommended that the NPS director's office discipline itself. It is not surprising to learn that the NPS did not take any further action. 

     Nine months after he was arrested, Danno was indicted on one charge of theft of government property. His trial began in January, 2009. I found the sections of the book dealing with the author's preparations for the trial and the trial itself to be fascinating. It is particularly interesting to read the account of his attorney punching holes in the testimony of the chief ranger of NCR, the person who had taken the items from Danno's office and transported them to Danno's house, among the very items that he was now accused of stealing. It's an incredible story! The jury found Danno not guilty in minutes. Some of the jurors waited until he left the courtroom to
congratulate him.
     It's a happy ending, right? Wrong. Three and a half years after the not guilty verdict, the NPS still has not taken any disciplinary action against those involved in the Snyder tree-cutting incident, nor has it restored Danno to any position of authority worthy of his experience and abilities - they just put him in a closet and let him sit. 

     I have known Rob Danno for 20-25 years. I have the highest regard for his honesty and integrity and the greatest respect for the variety of field ranger skills he possesses. If all he says is true, which a OIG investigative report confirms, this is another stain on the leadership of the National Park Service. I wonder how many more of these kinds of incidents have to occur before the NPS realizes that the low marks it receives in OPM 's "best places to work" surveys, specially in leadership, are fully justified?

This is a cautionary tale for those NPS employees who believe that whistle blowers will be protected from reprisal by their agency; they won't be. It is also a look at agency behavior that is hard to imagine. While the book is well written and engrossing, at the end I was disheartened. Like Danno, I loved my career with the NPS. It is hard to believe that it has become just another government bureau. I think Horace Albright warned us about that.”

Sugarloof during Horseshoe II

             I too know, and have worked with Rob Danno. We worked putting together the Intermountain Regional Chief Rangers Conference in Tucson, AZ (’98); one that is still talked about as a model of excellence. When I wrote a piece about my memories of being a visitor at Yosemite during the 4^th of July riots (’70) he responded with many positive memories of his own. Last year when I was “fighting fire” on the Horseshoe II incident and assigned to the Chiricahua National Monument area, I found myself again thinking of Rob, and so many that have willingly given so much (including their live- at least one right there at Chiricahua) to protect our special places. I, for one, want to say: THANK YOU Rob!