U.S. to Put Ranger Back in the Saddle

In an abrupt turnaround, federal officials will allow a Yellowstone National Park ranger to return to the remote back-country post where he gained national acclaim for opposing unscrupulous hunting practices.

The settlement strikes a new accord between the National Park Service and a ranger who was issued a gag order and was told last fall to leave his post.

Bob “Action” Jackson’s supporters say he was being punished for speaking out against the practice by hunting outfitters of placing salt licks just outside Yellowstone’s boundaries, luring elk out of the park and then shooting them. Elk hunting is forbidden within the park. At the time, park officials declined comment.

Now the National Park Service will allow Jackson to return to his post in the remote Thorofare region of the park, where he has worked for 23 years. The service also will republish its policy on park employees’ ability to speak out as private citizens on any topic, according to a draft settlement released Wednesday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the watchdog group that defended Jackson. A park service official confirmed the wording of the agreement.

“It’s a victory for speech rights for federal employees,” said Dan Meyer, the Washington-based group’s general counsel.

Jackson said the settlement will help protect “all the lower-level field rangers who see things and are afraid to report what they see because of pressures from above.”

A Park Service official confirmed he signed an agreement Friday.

“What we have done is promised Mr. Jackson a job at . . . the same grade as a protection ranger in Yellowstone National Park, and we have agreed he will have duties in the Thorofare” and the surrounding district, said Michael Snyder, deputy regional director.

The National Park Service will remove certain critical letters from Jackson’s personnel file, according to the descriptions of the agreement.

It also has agreed to include a letter from then-acting Yellowstone parks Supt. Franklin C. Walker commending Jackson.

“Mr. Jackson has made valuable contributions to the park, and especially to the issue of salting and the related impact on park wildlife,” Walker wrote in the Oct. 26 letter. “But because park management wished to have only one spokesperson on this important topic, Mr. Jackson was asked to leave comments on this matter to the Superintendent’s designee, and signed an agreement to that effect.”

That agreement, dated Aug. 28, stated that, even on his days off, Jackson “can speak to the media, but is not authorized to express opinions regarding Yellowstone National Park, the National Park Service or about anything he does in his official capacity with the National Park Service.”

At the park service, Snyder said that agreement could have been better written.

“We’ve recognized the original order we asked Mr. Jackson to sign was poorly written and did not reflect our intent and nor did it reflect Mr. Jackson’s rights, so we wanted to fix that,” Snyder said.

That clarification will be made a part of Yellowstone policies affecting all employees.

Walker’s letter also adds that managers in the Yellowstone area have agreed with Jackson “that the issue of salting to attract trophy wildlife for hunters is an illegal and unethical practice. . . . There are currently several projects underway to address the continuing use of salt licks near the park boundary and to clear up existing craters created by old salt licks.”

Jackson, 54, first spoke out in 1999 about the salting, blaming the increased death rate of Yellowstone area grizzly bears on encounters with hunters near the salt licks. Hunters are leaving behind elk carcasses, which attract grizzlies to the salting areas, he said. Although grizzlies are protected by the Endangered Species Act, hunters can kill them in self-defense.

Jackson said Wednesday that he credits former Yellowstone Supt. Michael Finley with supporting his criticisms of the salt licks. Finley left the park last spring to become head of the Turner Foundation. Jackson said he looks forward to working with the park’s new superintendent.