Famed Ranger Told to Not Discuss Park

A Yellowstone National Park back country ranger who brought national attention to unscrupulous hunting practices was issued a gag order by park officials and told to leave his seasonal post a month before the hunting season ends.

Park veteran Bob “Action” Jackson, who became a hero to conservationists for his vigilance in protecting park wildlife, was ordered not to “express opinions” about the park or his work there, even on his days off.

For many years, Jackson, 54, has been known as one of the park’s most vigorous pursuers of hunters who sneaked inside the park to shoot protected wildlife.

He became known outside the park in 1999 after speaking out against illegal salt licks, which he said commercial hunting outfitters were establishing to lure elk and improve their clients’ chances of shooting them. Jackson referred to the salt licks as “killing zones” strategically placed just outside Yellowstone’s boundaries.

Elk hunting is forbidden within the park. It is permitted in adjacent wilderness areas. However, the use of salt to bait game animals is illegal in federal wilderness.

Jackson blamed the growing rate of grizzly bear deaths around Yellowstone, in part, on encounters with hunters at or near salt licks. Grizzly bears are protected by the Endangered Species Act, but they can be killed by hunters in self-defense. Jackson says the bears are drawn to the salt licks by elk carcasses left behind by hunters interested only in harvesting antlers.

Now, for the first time in 23 years, Jackson is not at his post in Yellowstone’s most remote corner, near the confluence of the Yellowstone River and Thorofare Creek.

He says his supervisor told him to leave his job Sept. 22, even though elk hunting season in the neighboring Teton Wilderness, where many of the salt licks are situated, continues until Oct. 21. Today, he is back on his Iowa farm, unsure if he will have a job next year at Yellowstone. He has worked there since 1969.

In previous years, his supervisors always asked him to stay at his post until the end of hunting season, Jackson said. Moreover, at the end of last season, he received a satisfactory evaluation, according to a U.S. Department of the Interior “Employee Performance Plan and Results Report” released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a group that defends government employees.

This year ended differently, with a report containing criticisms of Jackson regarding matters such as written documents, cooperation and timeliness. The records released by the public employee group include an Aug. 28 order, on plain stationery, signed by Jackson and his supervisor.

“Bob Jackson is not authorized to speak to the media while on government time . . . “ the order states. “On his days off and outside the park, he can talk to 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,” it states.

The order violates a section of federal law intended to protect whiste-blowers, said Dan Meyer, general counsel at the public employee group who is representing Jackson.

The park’s public information officer said she was not authorized to discuss Jackson’s status, calling it a personnel matter. But others claim the National Park Service is caving in to political pressure from hunting outfitters who argue that Jackson is making baseless claims and trying to harm their business. Several outfitters with whom Jackson has tangled operate large hunting camps in the Teton Wilderness near Jackson’s patrol cabin.

“The bottom line is that Bob has walked between the outfitters and their loaf of bread, and they’re going to punish him through their connections with the Park Service,” said Meyer.

Jackson’s determined pursuit of poachers and other illegal hunting made him numerous enemies. He says his horses were poisoned twice. His willingness to speak out, whether to boast of his own exploits or criticize other officials for not acting aggressively, also contributed to his controversial reputation.

“When I went in there, you couldn’t go more than a quarter-mile without getting poacher tracks,” he said in a telephone interview Sunday. “They’d be real hard-pressed to find anyone who’s found as many poachers in the history of Yellowstone.”

At Yellowstone, spokeswoman Marsha Karle said the park had received a number of requests from journalists to interview Jackson. The park has denied some of them “because our rangers have jobs to do, and they have duties, and sometimes they don’t have time to escort media into the back country,” Karle said.

“The [U.S.] Forest Service knows where the salt is too,” Karle said. “Why aren’t people talking to them?”

Over the last two years, Jackson has taken journalists and members of environmental groups to the salt licks and, like Karle, encouraged them to ask Forest Service officials what they are doing about the licks on their land.

Efforts to interview officials at Bridger-Teton National Forest were unsuccessful Wednesday, with a spokesman explaining that the officials were in a meeting.