Outspoken Ranger Returns to Yellowstone

A park ranger known for his criticism of unscrupulous hunters is on the job again after reaching a settlement with the National Park Service over an attempt to remove him.

Bob “Action” Jackson began patrolling the park in northwestern Wyoming on Monday, according to the government watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER. Terms of the agreement were confidential, and the specific location of Jackson’s assignment was not disclosed. He was not available Monday for comment.

Jackson has spent most of his career assigned to the Thorofare area in the southeastern corner of the park. The most remote area of Yellowstone, the Thorofare historically has been a magnet for illegal hunting practices.

The announcement of his reassignment did not indicate whether he would be allowed to patrol the Thorofare during the fall hunting season, when hunting abuses are most common.

PEER this year filed a whistle-blower complaint on Jackson’s behalf, saying the longtime seasonal ranger wasn’t rehired because he had criticized the park’s enforcement of wilderness rules. This will be the 55-year-old Iowa resident’s last season as a ranger, said Jennifer Reed, a spokeswoman for PEER, which defends government employees who speak out on environmental issues.

“It was already going to be his final season because he reached the point of retirement,” Reed said.

Cheryl Matthews, a spokeswoman at Yellowstone, said she could not comment beyond a short statement that read, in part, that Jackson would return as a backcountry ranger for his final season with the park service.

In 2001, the park service ordered Jackson not to speak publicly about agency issues after his criticism of hunting guides who he said illegally lured elk from Yellowstone by placing salt licks just beyond the park’s borders. Elk hunting is illegal in the park but allowed in neighboring national forests. The use of salt baits for game is illegal in Wyoming and wilderness areas.

PEER filed a complaint after the gag order was imposed. The order was later rescinded by the agency, which then rehired Jackson for the 2002 season.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who has come to Jackson’s defense, said Monday that he was glad the park service “finally came to its senses to retain its longest-serving backcountry ranger.”

Jackson, he said, has “been through the wringer for no apparent reason other than speaking the truth about problems.”