To protect and to serve
On the range with Yellowstone rangers
By JODI HAUSEN Chronicle Staff Writer
The truck came within six inches of the wrangler’s horse, he reported to Daigle-Berg. The driver revved his engine and “called me a couple of choice words,” he said. “Probably nothing you haven’t heard before,” Daigle-Berg replied through the concession company’s radio, smiling broadly. Daigle-Berg has worked in Yellowstone since 1974, and for the National Park Service since 1979. When she’s on duty, she lives in a cabin adjacent to the small Tower Fall ranger station in the northeast section of the 2 million acre-plus national park. On her days off, she goes home to her husband and two dogs in Gardiner. Her sparkling blue eyes and seemingly endless stamina belie her 53 years, and she rues the day, in four years, when she will be required to retire from her job as a commissioned law enforcement ranger. PROTECTION VS. ENFORCEMENT Daigle-Berg prefers to call herself a protection ranger. She said her job is to protect the park’s resources and protect the people — law enforcement is the tool to do both. Rangers walk a fine tightrope, balancing customer service with safety and protection. Over her decades as a ranger, Daigle-Berg has learned when to make the distinction. “You get a lot more cooperation with a smile” and a gesture, she said after an hour and a half of directing traffic and tourists away from a bear and her cub grazing along the road near Lower Antler Creek — a bear jam, as they are known. Bear jams happen when people driving the narrow, two-lane roads spot wildlife. If a pull-off is not immediately available, motorists slow down or simply stop in the middle of the road, which sets off a domino effect of stopped vehicles and crowds of wildlife viewers. If the jams are not dealt with hastily, they escalate into hours of staff time directing traffic and camera-toting tourists away from potentially dangerous interactions with wildlife. Rangers spent 24 staff hours controlling a recent bear jam, Daigle-Berg said. At Antler Creek on Wednesday afternoon, Daigle-Berg donned a bright orange reflective vest over her tan uniform and directed motorists to move along and kept those out of their vehicles a safe distance from the bear. She managed solo until two other rangers arrived to assist. It’s not always easy — tourists, intent on getting a glimpse, photo or bit of video of wildlife aren’t always as cooperative as rangers would like. “They get on vacation and they think they’re in a sheltered environment and they are to a certain extent,” Daigle-Berg said, back in her truck as she left the area to the other rangers. “For many this is the first bear they’ve ever seen. We want to provide that opportunity for them but we need to keep them safe.” Meanwhile, in the Lamar Valley, visitors watched from the road as a grizzly bear and a pack of wolves fed on a carcass about a half mile off the road. It’s a different situation in the valley, where trees are less plentiful and there is better visibility. “People were staying on the road and using spotting scopes to watch,” said Brian Chan, a Lamar River district ranger. “People come from all over the world,” said Chan, who has been a ranger for more than 20 years. “They want to see the animals and sometimes get too excited. It’s human nature, but if we allow people to stay too long (and block the road), you jeopardize someone else’s opportunity to see the wildlife. “People think that they’re safe if they’re next to the road or in a developed area,” Chan said. “It’s a challenge to balance that opportunity for them to see the animals while maintaining safety for wildlife and people. (Visitors) play a key role to help us manage the park.” Thinking about where one parks and how it affects wildlife and other visitors is helpful. Park regulations require that people stay at least 100 yards from bears and wolves and a minimum of 25 yards from other animals. But mostly, people need to be aware when they are disturbing wildlife. “If wildlife is reacting, if an animal is changing its behavior or changes its course,” visitors need to back off, Chan said. “That’s a good general guideline. The reality in Yellowstone National Park is that there are a lot of visitors (more than 3 million annually) and the animals learn to adapt.” Yet bear jams are a fact of life in the Park. And they’re so prevalent in Daigle-Berg’s district — there have been more than 550 near Tower Fall this season alone — that one intern dubbed the area the Bearmuda Triangle, she said.
“It sucks all our resources,” Daigle-Berg said. BACK AT THE RANCH Back in the truck only minutes after dealing with the bear jam, Daigle-Berg hears of the wrangler incident and responds to the corral. Leaving another ranger to find the truck driver and issue a citation, Daigle-Berg immediately learns of an overheated hiker on the nearby stagecoach trail. After speaking on the radio with the interpretive ranger hiking with the group of teachers there for a workshop, it is determined that, though the hiker is not in any immediate danger, it would probably be best to give her a ride. “I won’t turn down an offer for a ride,” said an appreciative Bert Tracy from Rawlins, Wyo., as she climbed into Daigle-Berg’s truck. As should a ranger al , - you ways struggle with walking the fine line between customer service and law enforcement, Daigle-Berg said. It’s not all happy visitors and put-upon wildlife. Sometimes a simple traffic stop requires a ranger to switch from an easy-going demeanor to reaching for their handcuffs. One such incident turned Aug. 3 into a particularly long day for Daigle-Berg, when one of her newest rangers stopped a motorist for running a stop sign. After running the man’s license, it was discovered that the U.S. Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had a warrant out for his arrest and that he was considered armed and dangerous. “It went from a simple rollthrough-a-stop-sign deal to a high-risk car stop,” Daigle-Berg said. “We have bad people come to the park and law enforcement is serious business,” she said. But by keeping a mostly positive outlook, rangers learn to be “surreptitiously suspicious,” she said. BUSY LIFE Rangers are not only wildlife biologists and police, Chan said, they also fight fires, conduct search and rescue operations, and provide emergency medical services. All rangers are, at a minimum, first responders, but both Daigle-Berg and Chan are licensed emergency medical technicians. Daigle-Berg also has a trained search and rescue dog and, as supervisors, both have to balance field response with administrative paperwork. “We still have to get people paid,” Chan said. All of that protection requires a lot of training and preparation. Even seasonal rangers who work for only three months must go through about two months of training, Chan said. “Being a ranger is like being a Girl Scout,” Daigle-Berg said. “You have to be prepared and your stuff needs to be prepared.” Rangers spend about 70 percent of their time training and preparing, and about 30 percent of their time acting, she said. “Rangers don’t eat, at least not when they want to,” she said. So one of her many maxims: “Eat, drink, sleep and pee whenever you can because you never know when you’ll get another chance. “Sometimes I wish I could clone myself,” she said. “At least one of me would get more sleep.” Jodi Hausen can be reached at jhausen@dailychronicle.com or 582-2630.
ALTON STRUPP/CHR ONICLE Above: Yellowstone National Park Forest Ranger Colette Daigle-Berg slows a motorcyclist passing through a bear jam as she attempts to k eep park visitor s at a safe distance from a black bear sow and a cub.
Left: Daigle-Berg juggles betw een using two radios while tracking down information on a reported wreckless driver on Thursday afternoon.
