Welcome to the Park Leader Show, where we are changing the landscape of leadership in parks and conservation. I'm your host, Jody Mayberry, and I am happy to introduce to you a long time friend now, Jeff Olffs, the retired chief ranger of Joshua Tree National Park. Now Jeff's position was chief ranger Joshua Tree when I met him. He has since retired and has not done very well at retirement. Have you, Jeff? Yeah. It's not catching on.
Well, it's here's the thing. Jeff just keeps giving back to the community, keeps giving back to parks, and we will get to some of that. But, Jeff, let's start out with your history with the outdoors and how you became a park ranger. Well, I don't wanna say it's kinda one of those cliches. I wanted to be a ranger since I was 5 years old. But, yeah, it it actually was my kindergarten teacher, Granny Mac. I was the wife of the chief naturalist
at Yosemite. And while my most of my grandparents had passed away by age 5, she kinda became my, you know, pseudo grandma, so called Granny Mac. And she I grew up on the stories of the National Park Service of her, her husband living in all the parks, working with Mather and Albright and things like that. So both of my folks were also outdoors related. Dad grew up in a logging camp. Mom was a grew up on a ranch. The Boy Scouts, it just kinda naturally fell
into being a ranger. So that's what I progressed towards. I only knew you during your time at Joshua Tree, but tell us about some of the stops along your way along the way during your career with the National Park Service. Well, I'll start out by saying I started out as a park ranger explorer in a San Jose, California City Parks Department Explorer post. That was my first adventure. Then, you know, volunteered for the County of Santa Clara, California State Parks, US Forest Service,
National Park Service. My first paid federal seasonal job was with the Army Corps of Engineers in California as a park aid. Then the next summer I switched while I was going to college, next summer I switched over to the Bureau of Reclamation as a park technician for them at Ne Moloney's Lake for 2 seasons. And then it was the National Park Service. It's starting seasonal with, gosh, what was it? I think Crater Lake, Redwood,
Whiskey Town. No, actually, those came later, but Crater Lake for sure. While I was there, I took the Clerk Type Test like most of the people did back in days and actually was offered a GS. My first current position was a GS3 Clerk typist for the Office of Inspector General of the United States Department of Agriculture in San Francisco as a Clerk
typist typing up those investigations. Having had, you know, been a seasonal law enforcement ranger, the background was intriguing to them, but that didn't quite suit me, on that obviously. So, Whiskey Town took me back as
a seasonal. I never lost had a break in service from my permanent status because once you're permanent, even going back to seasonal, you maintain your, you know, as long as there's no break in service, you maintain your your theoretically permanent status in the sense of benefits and things like that. So whiskeytown, the Redwoods, and then, got my first permanent position at the C and O Canal, Great Falls District Lower 32 Miles of the Potomac River. And, yeah, that I bounced
across the country back home to California. Back home. I didn't know that, and I was wondering as you were telling your career whether it was going to be entirely in the state of California, but you escaped that. I thought that was gonna be the story. But it brought you back to California, and not only did you finish your career there, you just keep giving back to the state of California and back to park rangers. And I don't wanna glance off such a wonderful career you
had. There are other things, though, that I want I want to get to, the International Ranger Federation, the work you've done there. Before we do, let's look at your the end of your career, though, with such a great position in a great park. Why did you finally decide it was time to retire? How does a park ranger know? Okay. It's finally time to hang it up? It was just time. I won't go into details on that, but it was just time. It was just time. Well, that's as good of answer as any. It was when
it's time, it's time. Okay. I mentioned the International Ranger Federation, and Jeff has been involved in ranger associations here in the United States helping just helping them do well, thrive. I've been with Jeff at I think I've been to 2 California Parks Training Conferences now. We've we were together at those. We were together at the 2 or 3 Ranger Rendezvous. We've been together at the World Ranger Congress. So we've got to see each other quite a bit over
the years. And I noticed every time you are I don't know if you think of this as yourself, but this is what I notice. Like, people come to you. You're like this authority for people, like a friendly, trusted voice when it comes to Ranger associations, when it comes to issues involved in ranger associations. So you were always the one I thought of when I thought of ranger associations and being involved in the International Ranger Federation. So it's really neat to
see you continue to be involved with them. And you were recently recognized at the last World Ranger Congress, which I was too bad I missed that one. I really wanted to attend that one in France, but just for other reasons, I just couldn't couldn't attend, but hope to be see you at the next one. So tell us about what is it that drew you and pushed you to work so hard for Ranger Associations? Well, it's been my career. I mean, it's been my life. I don't want to
say I live, sleep and breathe it. I love visiting parks. I love everything about being a park ranger, all the duties, all the assignments. You know, I'm still theoretically doing it. Once I retired Governor Brown, then Governor Brown appointed me to as a director to the Mount San Jacinto Winter Park Authority. So it's a state entity that is a park authority, not the state parks. It's its own separate entity. And I'm actually chairperson this year. So I'm
on a board of 7 and the governor's appointee to that. So we help with Mount San Jacinto State Park and the management of that. Most people know it as the Palm Springs Tran, and most people don't realize Palm Springs Tran is a park authority. And so that just keeps me in that, and I'll just I'll give one final thing on that is, yeah, as soon as I retired, FEMA asked me to come play with them. So as a retired annuitant, I'm a division
supervisor, the response to disaster. But as an annuitant tech, I only work 30 days a year because of federal regulations, but I'm there to help FEMA respond to disasters. And of course, with the search and rescue background of being a national park ranger and all my ICS with that, it fell in. And so technically, I'm still a government employee. As I said, Jeff does retirement very poorly. So the one other thing I wanna talk about again before we get to the international ranger stuff is the
Association of National Park Rangers. Jeff is very involved in that. I've been a member for many years. And, Jeff, I know one of one of the challenges with ANPR is attracting younger park rangers and getting them involved and at Ranger Rendezvous. And so what is the benefit if I'm new in my parks career? What's the benefit in being involved with the Ranger Association? Well, I'm going to parallel that besides ANPR, as you mentioned with, as you know, PRAC, Park
Rangers Association of California. It's the California version of ANPR, except it's any ranger at any agency level of government in the state. Very similar. They both started roughly about the same time. So the thing with both of them, and I've been a member of both of those since probably 'seventy 9 or 'eighty or so, is the networking, the training, the people that have become not just friends, but close friends. I'll say first in networking.
Now, never really worked for anybody that I met through ANPR directly as a supervisor, but a lot of people there shared their thoughts, their insights with me along years, guided me, gave me guidance, I could ask for help. And that was, you know, that's hugely important for anybody. And I think I'm not sure that and this goes probably for any organizations having a hard time, you know, getting members is that I wanna say nobody wants to belong, but I don't think they don't realize the
extent of having that network. You know, learning from these, you know, they always said, well, you know, this is the way we've always done it, and you come in with a new idea. I mean, that's always been one of those challenges of working. And but, you know,
learning from the people who have gone before me. And then, like I said, just the social aspect of meeting these people, becoming friends, seeing most of them, gosh, every year, watching their kids grow up, staying at their house, they come visit when they come through, things like that. It's just it's a good friendship. It's a good community. It's the Ranger it's the Ranger family. So and that
applies for both ANPR and PRAC. And I think, you know, both organizations are having those same issues, and I just don't I can't you know, one time was highly into training. I got a lot of good training education from both of those organizations, and they're still kinda coming back from that, slacked off a bit. But, you know, just the networking and training, you know, education, you know,
these are things that can help you in your career down the line. I wish the younger generation, hate to say it that way, I'm not I don't think myself that old, you know, can understand that and, you know, start appreciating that and understanding the value there. I mean, even as a retiree, I go back every year to both organizations' annual conference just because, a, I wanna see what's going on. I wanna keep abreast of things, and I wanna make new friends.
Well, that is one thing that I noticed about the ANPR meetings in particular because it is a it covers the whole country. I mean, it's rangers from all over the country. And if you are a younger ranger and go, now you're in the same room having conversations with park superintendents, chief rangers, chief interpreters that you may never get the chance to meet otherwise. And now they know your name. And when someone knows your name, it's a lot easier to reach out and ask a question because they
remember your face. They remember what you talked about at the conference. And then the one in in California, same thing. It is a big state and it covers all the agencies. It's not just California state parks. It from national parks, state, city, county, water districts. And you all have
we all have the same problems. It's just we wear a different uniform and being able to get to know because if you are a California State Park Ranger, you may end up working alongside some of these other rangers from other agencies. And now you've already met them at the California Parks Training Conference because you're both in the same association. So Jeff is right on about the networking, and now you've got the ability to reach out and
ask questions. Now that is one thing I noticed at the World Ranger Congress. If I remember right, the one I went to, there were rangers from 62 countries there. I could be off by 1 or 2 countries in either direction. And one of them would talk about a problem in Australia. But then a gentleman from France might say, woah. We had that problem, and I had not thought of that solution. And that was so neat to see. Here's another Jeff, you can
confirm this since you were just at another World Ranger Congress. The one I was at, I did notice any time there was a ruckus, a loud noise, a commotion, it was usually the Australians that were involved. And South Africans.
Yes. Just having a good time. But that's well, what an honor it was for me to get the chance to speak at the the World Ranger Congress in 2016, and that is unlike anything that I've been been to, to have rangers from all over the world mingling together, talking together, just hanging out and enjoying time together. But as park people do, the conversations always turn to parks and how can we get better and what
have you done about this and do you have any ideas for this? So it goes back to what Jeff was saying about being involved in a ranger association. It's just the networking with people and other and the conversations, the other ideas. I think that's the real value in it. And then the opportunity to be there for each other. If anyone in the association needs help, there's a network that will step up and help. So true. Alright.
So Jeff was acknowledged and recognized at the most recent World Ranger Congress for the work that he's done with what is called the Honor Roll. And so I will take you to 2,016. I'm at my very first World Ranger Congress. I met some people early on and talked with them, but then the real festivities begin. The actual congress begins and they call us out to the flagpole and everyone
that from all over the world gathers at the flagpole. They raise the flags and then read off the name of every park ranger who has passed since the last World Ranger Congress. Is that right or is it within the last year, Jeff? I think it was within the last year. That was actually the only World Ranger Congress where they actually read them off. So I think
it was the previous role of honor from that July 31st. Okay. And that that just really that to me, that's one of the more memorable things from that World Ranger Congress because I hadn't it just had never dawned on me. Sometimes you'll see in the paper or online an article
about a park ranger that passed away. But when you see the honor roll and read every name, read the country they're from and read how they passed away, it just really gives you a sense of, okay, our days are full of squirrels and trees and sunshine. But worldwide, this is still a dangerous profession. And we lose a lot of brothers and sisters in uniform every year, and it just didn't dawn on me until that
World Ranger Congress. So, Jeff, give us the background behind the honor roll, your involvement, because you've been am I right? It's, like, 17 years you've been involved with this? Well, actually, it goes back longer than that. Does it really? Okay. When I was at Hot Springs, about 1988, I'd learned that a park ranger was killed there in 1927. He was murdered. And I'd not heard of it. It was a totally, you know, like, what? Because everybody talked about Ken Patrick who passed
away at McRae murdered in the seventies. And it's like, wait a minute. This is 1927. So I spent a great deal of time researching that, publishing the history of that whole story. And that kinda got me started on what my wife says I see dead people. So at that point, I started gathering information specific with the National Park Service on fatalities in our agency, and not
just necessarily law enforcement. But as, you know, with the IRF role of honor, you know, it's anybody who works in a protected area. So it could be anything from, you know, heart attacks at death, trail, maintenance, electrocution, drowning by boats, motor vehicle accidents, anything that's on duty or in the line of duty. So then the National Park Service right now, there's probably, at least to my best knowledge, about 282 NPS employees that have died within those parameters. And we created
a website for their memorial. So npshistory.com/employee/memorial. Most people might be aware of the NPS history website filled with a wealth of information on parks and protected areas, but you can go on there and you'll see all the what we have listed on that. So that was my big challenge and was my primary project. Then along the way, of course, I started hearing and reading about, you know, the rangers around the world that were, you know, losing their lives also. And so I started
compiling. It was more of a side thing. You know, just if I ran across something, I I kept a note and made a note of it. And so then the IRF was formed, the International Ranger Federation. I was on the ANPR's committee for international. And ANPR, of course, is one of the founding 3 founding members of the International Ranger Federation. Now there's over a 100 associations. Then along came something that we started called World Ranger
Day. And I suggested that in 2005, promoted it with the board for the IRF. In 2006, we had the 1st World Ranger Day. So, I like to think that, my course of expanding as father of World Ranger Day, one of the things that we do during World Ranger Day, of course, is honor this role of honor in all these names. And so we produce it, and I'll get to that here in a second, every year for that specifically for that day. So that World Ranger Day is twofold. We honor our profession,
the fact that what we do, and we're proud of what we do. And then we remember those that we lost the previous year, basically. So with World Ranger Day going on since 2006, I'll just throw a note. We have a really big one every year here in California. So some place in the state, and I help coordinate that sponsored by a particular agency. But we started acquiring we've had our 1st IRF World Ranger Congress in Zacapani. And then the second one, that's that was 95. 2nd one was Costa Rica
97. So this started coming up also with these line of duty deaths. And so I I'd started this, and I worked with an Uruguayan ranger named Juan Carlos Gombarada, who was also on the IRF board, and we started compiling, putting together this listing. And Juan published a paper about ranger fatalities, and I'm trying to think of who I think there was somebody else that kinda came in after Juan. And then about, oh, 2009, we actually started
producing the role of honor. And at that time, Roger Cole came in, and Roger got the same award I did along with the Lifetime Achievement Award at this last World Ranger Congress. I've been working with Roger specifically since roughly about 2009 when we actually physically started producing it as a document, as something to be used at World Ranger Day. So and we've been going on since then. Roger has I've kind of been in the background over the years, starting the whole idea of of documenting
and compiling the listing. Right now, I think we have almost well, we have over 36 100 names going back to about 1801. It's not just that we of course, the role of honor is for the previous year with some exceptions that we may have missed the year before. But we also try to I mean, as I go through and I'm an avid reader of ranger stories and ranger tales and ranger history books and things like that, and I find, oh, wait a minute. Somebody passed away
back in 1940, whatever. We will add those names also to the overall listing. And so we actually published a paper a couple years ago with the IUCN and World Commission of Protected Areas on a basically, an overview of ranger fatalities about I think it was 2009 to 2021, and don't quote me on those years, but it was it was a good, you know, span
period there. And we had the statistics on what we had already determined and, you know, breaking it down between all the different categories from animal to motor vehicle to natural deaths to, you know, things related firefighting, airplane crashes. Yeah, I mean, rangers work in some of the remote areas of the world. And there are rangers as it was pointed out, and we
were reminded, rangers on every continent. At least 3 countries sends their national park rangers to Antarctica to staff their research stations, particularly Argentina, Chile, and Australia. And a couple of the Argentine Rangers have been signed to Antarctica with the last World Ranger Congress. So, you know, we can say that there are rangers on every continent. So with that, we've been doing this now recording these names, and it's it is, you know, no one
person. I mean, it's a team effort, and it has to be a huge team because we're talking about the world here. Not a lot of agencies want this to be known. There's not a lot of information. We glean it from hearing it from either Rangers in that country directly, newspaper articles, the Internet, of course, now is just you can put in Google searches and anything where something comes back, and you can see
what's going on anywhere in the world. So Roger and I were the 2 primary keeping that the master database as we call it. Roger has now passed the baton. And so we still have help also from the Thin Green Line Foundation, which is a nonprofit that supports the widows and children and training of widows and children, so those that have passed away, but also training of rangers around
the world and equipment, things like that. They, along with the Ranger Foundation in California, give out grants to fallen families to fallen rangers. You can imagine that and and you take any, I'll just call it, 3rd world country, and, of course, rangers don't make as much. And these grants help them. I know the Ranger Foundation because I'm the vice president of that.
Once the money used towards either a scholarship fund for one of the children to help the spouse establish a new business because they just lost their primary breadwinner, So, you know, those two organizations support the fallen rangers across the world. But through all this and through how we learn in the reporting of them, the request for grants, I mean, it's there's a lot of people involved. Roger and I just basically
kept the database and and kept our eyes and ears. And Roger was really good into the social media, so, you know, we compile it. We are firm believers in making sure that it's accurate to the best of our knowledge. Sometimes we miss people because we just don't know about them. Other times we, you know, we may not put somebody on there because there's just not enough good information or there's a question as to was it really connected with the job. So that's
the rule of honor and how it's been produced every year. And, again, we put it out just before World Ranger Day in conjunction with World Ranger Day. So, yeah, I've been at the very beginning of of that based on my work, which I started in Hot Springs, to honor our fallen comrades. In this time that you've been tracking and honoring fallen park rangers, have you
seen trends happen? Like, are there times for example, the shocking thing to me when you read it is the amount of and maybe it's isolated to Africa or not isolated, but it happens there more than other places. But the amount of park rangers killed by poachers, that was a big shock to me because here in the United States, we don't have that concern. Sure. It could happen, but it's not an active concern that I thought about when I was out in the
field. But have you seen trends like that? Like, sometimes park rangers killed by poachers is is higher than other years or or other things that have led to park ranger deaths? You know, that's I hate to say it as really a hard thing. There's no specific trend just because we're dealing with the world. There may be countries, you know, where it is a trend. I mean, you know, you think about the Democratic Republic of Congo. Oh my god. Yes. I mean, you know, that's all. A lot of it's either
done by rebel groups or poachers. So it is, I wanna say, more country specific when it comes to that than it is just an overall trend in the world. And I don't think there's any one, you know, place or one way that's you know, leans towards. You know, it's a hazardous job from the standpoint of, the type of work that we do and the environment that we're in. So, yeah,
it'd be hard to say whether it's I think we break it down. So our the role of honor besides the listing of names is done by regions, countries, and it's done by types of, you know and it's used, like I said, natural, animals, motor vehicle, accents, or or kind of the 3 big 3 big categories. Yes. I remember read if I'm right, I think this past year, there were no deaths in the United States involved in the line of duty. Is that right? I believe that is correct. And, of course,
that changed very quickly. Yeah. I was surprised to see it. That's a good year, though, if we can make it 1 year with none in the country. And, yeah, there was it did change very quickly. And that's the nature of the job is it is just so dangerous. It's more shocking to see there were 0 in a 12 month span. And it. Yeah, it did. It's it's this is always, a fascinating thing to talk about, the work that you do, the dedication you put in to making sure all the park rangers get honored.
But it's also a conversation that can be tough to have because you don't want to take it lightly. And here I'm celebrating. We have a 12 month span with nothing, but also recently there was a park ranger death. So it's hard to talk about 1 and not acknowledge the other just because we do lose a lot of park rangers every year worldwide. But it was noticeable that we had a a good span in our country where we didn't lose any. How many in a typical given year, how many park rangers do you
think we lose every year? We're averaging between a 100 to a 150. You know, we always wish that, you know, we have no work cut out for us, but, unfortunately, it's inevitable. I actually just, found the art was in Parks Magazine, May of 20 22, volume 28.1. And that was an article that you people can refer to. It was a 16 year period. We did 2006 to 2021, had a total of 2,351
ranger related, duty deaths. And it says that, you know, felonious deaths, which is homicide accounted for 42% of the loss of rangers. Accidents, illness, wildlife attacks, and work related casualties were the other amounts. So from that particular study that we did, obviously, murder was the, was the big one. And, of course, we've now lost this year. We've now lost 2 here in the United States in the
last few months. So we just had a firefighter state park aide from New York who was fighting the New York fire who was killed by a tree falling on him. So not a good year. Every year is not a good year in our profession when we lose anybody. Yeah. That number of murder is considerably higher than I expected. And w here in Washington state where I live, we had 2 well, maybe just in our state, it was high
profile, but it felt pretty high profile. We had 2 park ranger murders a number of years back that were pretty shocking. 1 at Mount Rainier and then 1 in the Olympic National Forest. And there it just gets your attention because even as a law enforcement officer, I went to work every day thinking, sure, something might happen, but I rarely went to work today thinking somebody might murder me. And maybe maybe that's a that
you have to have the mindset that it could happen any day. But it's easy to get comfortable as a park ranger that everybody loves park rangers because for the most part, they do. Yeah. And, again, it's not necessarily that, you know, somebody's gonna go out and they're looking, but wrong place, wrong time. You know? That's what a lot of them may end up being. But in Africa, it's a lot of them are well, you know, in India too. Africa and India are the two largest numbers that we
get. And I know India is not a continent, but, it's big enough to be in a sense. So, you know, they've got a lot of militias, you know, rebel groups, and and things like that. They got people who wanna and, you know, same thing in the Philippines. So they, there was a few murders there because they were trying to stop timber theft or mining. It's not just wildlife either. It's the plants. It's the earth. It's you know? So don't necessarily think that they're all poachers, but
that'll be a big chunk. Rebels, militia groups, that's a big chunk. And then you have people who do not want the Rangers to have them stop what they feel is their livelihood. Well, Jeff, this has been a great conversation. I'm glad we could talk about the work that you do and the honor roll. It is it's just such a wonderful thing, and you've put so many years of work into it with
without recognition, even though you did just get recognized. I know you've done a lot of this behind the scenes without people knowing, without recognition, and you still showed up and did it every year. So thank you so much for doing that. It's a great service to park rangers. I also though we spent so much time talking about park rangers dying. I wanna end on a couple different notes that are a little more feel good.
If you could see Jeff's office, you would be impressed with his library, an entire wall, floor to ceiling of books, many of them park related. So, Jeff, off the top of your head, and I know you didn't know this was coming, what are a few of the best park ranger or park related books? Gosh. I don't know if I can single anything out. I I know I enjoy you know, if you want a good read, there's Butch Farabee's book on the the history of the National Park Ranger. That's a good read for background on
what the National Parks are specifically. You know, there's a lot of a lot more in the last few years of retired rangers doing, you know, publishing their memoirs, so to speak. And I kid you not, there's a lot. So, whether it's Glacier, Great Smokies, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mount Rainier, you can, you know, find the stories. And and while I just like to chuckle when I read them because it's, oh, yeah. I remember we had to do something like that, you know, kind of a thing. And,
yeah, and they're done that. So it's great for me, you know, in a retired position to sit there and and, remember and and smile with one of these quick side story. We had World Ranger Day this last, summer up at East Bay Regional Park District because they lost 2 of their officers 50 years ago, and they wanted to hold it in California. And I just gotten done reading a book that a ranger who retired from Golden Gate had written. And I can't think of the name off the top of
my head, but and I read about, oh, wait a minute. He's the mayor of the town next door. So it was about 10 o'clock at night. I sent an email off to his mayorship's email account, and, he got back to me and was able to show up the next day at the, at the memorial with his son. And so that was just from reading a book that I I literally had just finished that night. So, and now I have a new friend too. What a
great story. Well, with the wonderful career you had with the National Park Service and all your dedication to parks, what advice do you have for an up and coming park leader who wants to have an impact? Knowledge is good. Education. Learn as much about everything that you can. I mean, you know, they call us a jack of all trades, masters of none for a particular reason, for everything that we have our fingers involved in. I mean, I I was, you know, tort claims officer. I was, you
know, wilderness manager. I mean, you know, firefighter, EMT, searcher. I mean, all these things that we do and reading about them, learning. And that's not just going to a training class, and training classes are great. But, you know, read the books. Read the, you know, what might be considered textbooks. Remeath the stories of your fellow rangers. Get that knowledge and education about, you know, managing parks out there. And the other thing is I can't speak highly enough about networking.
And whether it's I mean, you're joining agencies or within your agency, you know, these people, you know, you can call back upon years years. I mean, with the National Park Service, of course, we're federal law enforcement officers, so I maintain it. I think I had a contact on just about every federal law enforcement, including some you probably have never even heard of in my years because you never can tell when, hey, I may need some help with something.
And I remember I used to meet this guy. And so, so and I still maintain some of those contacts over the years. So networking, training, education, and I'll give you another funny you know, World Ranger Day a couple years ago was in San Diego, and, we had, 2 city rangers from 2 adjoining cities who met there. Again, adjoining cities that never knew that either city had a park ranger program, and they just met. And, you know, I'm sure they're going on and doing bigger
and better things. But, you know, networking. Networking, education, knowledge. Read, learn, train, get your fingers into get as much information as you can. Alright. That is great information. And, Jeff, I'm so pleased to finally have you on the show after all these years of knowing each other. Thank you so much for sitting with us today. My pleasure, Jody. Enjoy your podcast. And thank you for listening to the Park Leader Show.