National Parks: Beacons of HOPE & our gifts to the future…

 

Hilton float - 1985 Rose Parade

I like to start each New Year with optimism and hope, be it 2017 CE or 4715: Year of the Rooster [dawn & awakening]. Maybe it is due to having been raised in SoCal, but I like to kick-off each year with a parade. Of course, not just any parade. But, like the bowl football game that follows it: “The Granddaddy of them all” – The Rose Parade & Bowl game.  Whether as a kid at the parade, or watching on TV, as I now do, it has been a symbol of new beginnings.  I mentally traveled back to New Year’s Eve 1984: this Park Ranger was privileged to spend the night providing security for the flame of the Statue of Liberty that was perched on the Hilton float, staged on the streets of Pasadena for the next morning’s parade. I got to see some old friends, and meet some new ones, as I augmented & relieved the Special Events Team that had been guarding it (they’d be marching 5.5 miles with it that New Year’s morning). Yep, lots of positive thoughts come with the new calendar, and why not? Days are getting longer (in the northern hemispheres where I spend the vast majority of my time), and most have put the hum-bugs to rest (or at least, here is hopin’).

Japanese troops in China

I know the past year was tumultuous & surprising to many of us. I’ve read time & again about it being doom-n-gloom, and even the “worst year ever!” Oh, really? As pointed out by many, humankind has had plenty of challenging years. Consider just in the past 100-years: 1917-18 (World War I still raging w/ flu pandemic following infecting one-third of the world), 1939-45 (World War II- U.S. entered in ’41 post-Pearl Harbor; China invaded in 1937), 1963 (President Kennedy assassinated), 1968 (assassinations, riots, etc. in U.S.), and of course 2001 comes to mind.

So, just maybe it is time for us to get up out of the dirt and just shake it off: as we’ve come “a long way baby!” It has been reported that in 1981 44% of the world lived in “extreme poverty.” That is now down to 10%. We still have some work to do.

World Ranger Congress 2016

Last year was the centennial celebration of the founding of the National Park Service (NPS). It certainly had some bittersweet moments: visitation was up, but so was resource damage (the age-old issue of increased usage vs. protecting for “future generations”); the World Ranger Congress coming to the U.S. for the first time (hosted by many selfless volunteers giving their time, talent & paying their own way) at Estes Park, CO; the NPS Director being the subject of an Inspector General (IG) investigation, and the Director issuing a letter of apology to NPS employees for his ethical lapses; sexual harassment issues at Grand Canyon and then Yosemite National Parks (that reached into the Pacific West Regional Office); the Northeast Regional Director being the subject to an IG investigation-admitting to wrong doing (travel fund fraud) and being reassigned to the Washington Office: I know employees that were prosecuted (some might say “persecuted”) for less.

BOTTOM LINE: Our national parks remain remarkable economic engines (especially locally & regionally) and safe havens for many things that are good and beautiful in this world; many good programs were initiated or continued with the NPS efforts in protecting our heritage & patrimony. The folks in-the-trenches did that, and 99.99% carried-the-torch with honor and pride. Regardless of what the mass or social media might proclaim, the year was not a “disaster” (a word used to describe Mariah Carey’s New Year’s Eve technical issues at Times Square). For what has been described globally as the “Thin Green Line,” it was challenging. Could we do better? Certainly, and we will (I still use the collective “we” as a NPS retiree, NPS dispatched wildland firefighter/Safety Officer, and as an active volunteer-in-parks program participant). NPS and protected areas will remain our gifts to the future. 

My Republican parents would have applauded our continued optimism & hope: they taught me conservation is a conservative value that should be furthered by all.

 

Friendship Hill NHS

No matter what our endeavors, 2017 is one of opportunity: see you there!

Cat Wild fire - Daniel Boone NF, KY
nearby a local VFD (volunteer firefighter)
was killed by a falling tree

Note: as a safety alert from this Safety Officer, remember trees are dangerous and will kill you, as park/forest visitors and firefighters were again reminded in 2016. 

LOOK UP – LOOK- DOWN – LOOK AROUND and make sure your planned actions are sound.