What should National Park Service rangers do when they come across a visitor who has gone astray of park regulations? For instance, should they have cited those women in Glacier National Park who squeezed off a round from a .357 to scare a deer, or was the "education" enough?
And what about visitors in Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Yosemite, Great Smoky Mountains, or any other park with bears who leave their food available for bears? After all, as they say, a fed bear is a dead bear.
What do you think? How strict should rangers be? Do some rules infractions merit stronger action than others? Should the Yellowstone visitors who ignore the "do not swim" signs be cited as quickly as those found guilty of leaving a messy camp that helps bears associate humans with food?
Comments
I completely agree with those that say unless you hit the pocket book they aren't going to get it. As a Yellowstone CG worker, we educated folks with signs, bear talks, had them sign they understood about not leaving food out, and posted it on the picnic tables at the campsites, yet people still left food, coolers, dog food and all sorts of other things out. They would become quite indignant when their stuff was taken and they were fined but it would get their attention. Unfortunately, that has been too late for more than one bear, who then ends up a dead bear. On the picture above, I hope they had a huge fine and that they will then turn around and tell their friends who in turn will be more cautious when they are in bear country. I think hefty fines work, they get people talking and thinking more about what they are doing and in turn prevent unnecessary bear kills.
Law enforcement has become very sophisticated in the national parks in recent times. Law enforcement park rangers and the U.S. Park Police appreciate the value of education, but often know that a citation works best for clear violations. Consistency, fairness, and tactful delivery by these personnel have made courtesy tags and ignoring lawbreakers a thing of the past.
Ben Lord
We are a nation of laws. Let the Rangers enforce them with a citation and a fine !
Walk softly and carry a big stick!
Hitting peoples pocketbooks seems to be the only real way to get their attention. Talking to them, giving them literature to read. . .reminding several times, none of it seems to work.
Depends on the seriousness of the situation and how much of a problem there is with this infraction at a specific location.
For example, if there is not a bear problem at a specific campsite and a camper leaves out food, then there should be a warning, followed by a citation, followed by booting the offender out of the national park. However, if there is a bear problem, then the first of the three steps mentioned above should be skipped and the ranger should go straight to a citation, followed by booting the offending camper out of the park. Booting out of the park should include being prohibited from re-entering the park for 12 calendar months. In the early 1990's, my wife and I stayed at a Balsam Mountains Campground (Great Smoky Mountains NP) where evening bear visits were a nightly occurrence. A range told us that campers disregarded what rangers told them about storing food because these campers wanted to see bears. The offenders should have been cited the first time and booted out of the park, the next time, with 12-months visitation prohibition for that park.
Cite!!! Hefty fines may begin to make people think twice. So few people want to take responsibility for their actions. Perhaps if there were more citations given and more policing done, there would be less dead wildlife in our parks. Speeding kills bears just as lethally as feeding them--or making your food accessible to them.
Of course part of the difficulty is the differences in animal behaviors at different NPS units and what the regulations are that deal with them.
I'm most familiar with Yosemite NP rules - where every campsite has a bear box and it's been well established that there is a population of bears that have learned how to break into cars by peeling open door frames using their claws. I've been told directly by park rangers that it's OK to have cleaned dishes, utensils, cookware, water, etc. out. I've also been told that none of these items should be stored in a vehicle (except for hard-sided RVs with the exception of clear water) since Yosemite bears will go after scents in cars. Of course there probably isn't a single car in Yosemite without some sort of food smell, but I suppose it can be a matter of degree and the hope that even if bears break into cars, they don't get a reward that reinforces that there can be a payoff to breaking into cars.
In the Pacific NW, food storage doesn't seem to be as bear centered. I recall that Crater Lake's Mazama Campground recently got bear boxes, but at Olympic and Mt Rainier, the only bear boxes I saw were communal ones primarily for those arriving on public transportation, by foot, by bicycle, or by motorcycle. At the latter two, we were informed that bears weren't terribly active in campgrounds. At the coastal section of Olympic NP they were so close to areas where there was a legal bear hunt that bears pretty much avoided humans whenever possible. The basic rule seemed to be keep everything in the car (in plain sight OK) when not eating so that birds, rodents, and other small animals didn't get to the food. We might have had our stove out (I doubt we would have been cited for that even though signs said it wasn't OK) a few times, but other than that everything was in the car. One neighbor had the full set of gear out, and their picnic table became a magnet for ravens. They weren't able to get into anything, but I think the local NPS officials knew that it would be a bird/squirrel attractant.
What I remember about Yellowstone is that they reccommend storing food out of sight in vehicles.
From what I could gather, there were avenues for enforcement where park rangers could enforce the actual letter of the law or regulations. They weren't typically interested in meaningless enforcement like citing someone for storing bottled water in the trunk of a car or for keeping a stove outside that had no major food residue. They would have been concerned with coolers full of food or (in places like Yosemite) where anything looks like a food or food container is in plain sight. In Yosemite I did see a warning ticket that cleaning supplies (I kid you not) were visible in a car. I suppose odd smells can be a bear attractant, and the containers may look like food containers to a bear.
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By the way, anyone hear about the bear that was put down at Eldorado National Forest last weekend? It attacked a man who went out at 2 AM responding to a noise. The noise was a black bear that was going through a cooler placed on their picnic table (against posted regulations noting storage of food in vehicles). The bear cut his face. He then proceeded to discharge a firearm (in a crowded campground no less) at which point the bear took off.