Recently while co-leading a greater Yellowstone Ecosystem tour, I encountered something extraordinary. It was not a wildlife encounter (although we had plenty of those and they were amazing); it was a park ranger performing his job in an unusually graceful and positive manner.
While I was attempting to make a difficult re-entry into traffic from a deep gravel siding with our Ford 15-passenger van, I saw this ranger making his way along a line of vehicles that had pulled over to see a bear. I braced for the usual threats and lectures – even though I was in compliance, with all four wheels of my vehicle completely off the road and all the appropriate permits in place.
But this ranger was different. He was a mature guy in the 70-plus range. He had a sunny, jovial demeanor. As he approached our van, he was in the midst of a mock rant saying that he’s “really grumpy today; that he did not get a good night’s sleep; that he had an argument with his wife,” etc., etc. – all to persuade us in a humorous way, to keep our vehicles parked completely off the road. We chuckled at his amusing banter while checking to see if our vehicles were in compliance.
Then he helped us get back into the stream of traffic by temporarily stopping the traffic and waving us on with a smile. What just happened? Who was this guy?
All too often in National Parks, including Yellowstone, you expect to encounter parks staff angrily blaring at you over a megaphone, treating you like a criminal or intruder, instead of a valued customer or taxpayer. The kind of treatment we were given by this ranger was not only refreshing, it was revolutionary. He added value to our park experience, just as he did to the experience of other park visitors.
As luck would have it, the very next day we found our ranger again, back in action in Lamar Valley. This is where many search for wolves and other large mammals.
Our favorite ranger was there with a group of bikers discussing wolf biology, summarizing different perspectives on wolf management, and respectfully answering their questions with humor added. It was brilliant.
This time I saw his badge with the help of my ten-power binoculars: John Kerr. Once back at home in the land of internet connections, I performed a Google search on him. Several articles popped up, including one from The Huffington Post. It turns out that John Kerr is a former PBS TV executive from the Boston area. Being a ranger is his semi-retirement dream job.
Here is how he views this job, according to the 2013 Huffington Post interview: 
“(I get to) …help people rediscover wildlife in the wild, keep them safe, practice stewardship in a very direct way, and try to elevate the experience of visitors in America’s National Parks.” This last sentence could be a mission statement for park employees.
The importance of good customer service in National Parks cannot be overemphasized. Park visitors are constituents, and Yellowstone has more than three million annually.
We have politicians who want to get rid of National Parks and turn them into pin cushions for oil and gas development. Others want the feds out of the Parks business (Utah) altogether, and would prefer that they be managed by state parks — even though states are often cash starved and opt to close parks or to significantly reduce their care and maintenance.
Rangers like John Kerr set a tone that resonates with the public. It reminds them that they belong in National Parks and should enjoy partaking in their majesty. It also reminds them that National Parks, as Ken Burns said, are “America’s Best Idea.”
