Senator Grassley is a strong supporter of whistleblowers.
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Senator: Park Service retaliating against outspoken ranger

Associated Press
Oct. 15, 2002 07:10 PM

HELENA, Mont. - A U.S. senator is demanding an explanation from the
National Park Service for why it cut short the season of a Yellowstone
National Park ranger who earlier was ordered to stop speaking out about
unscrupulous hunters.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said sending Bob Jackson home early
smacks
of further retaliation and violates the spirit of a settlement the
agency
reached with him late last year.

Jackson, a 30-year park veteran, patrols a remote area of Yellowstone
near
the park's southeast corner. His expertise is catching poachers and he
has
long criticized hunting guides he says illegally lure elk from
Yellowstone
by placing salt outside park boundaries on Forest Service land in
Wyoming.

In 2001, Jackson, who lives in Promise City Iowa, said park management
ordered him not to speak publicly about his concerns and sent him home
from
his job early, telling him he would not be hired back the next season.

Jackson filed a complaint and, under an agreement reached in December
2001,
was rehired for the 2002 season to patrol the same area of the park.

However, he said the agency asked him to leave Sept. 17, long before
hunting season outside the park heats up. That was extended a couple of
weeks, but only after the Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility
complained to the agency, he said.

Still, he is being asked to leave much earlier than normal, Jackson
contends.

"This is a thing that is bigger than me," he said. "It has do with a lot
of
the status quo with the National Park Service."

Rick Frost, a spokesman for the Park Service's regional office in
Denver,
said Grassley and Fran Mainella, the agency's director, had corresponded
about Jackson. But Frost said he did not know the extent of the
discussions
and could not immediately comment.

In a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who oversees the agency,
Grassley said it appears the Park Service is still trying to punish
Jackson
for speaking out.

"When someone like him speaks up about unethical practices and gets
sidelined and shut out, then there are a lot of questions for the
National
Park Service to answer," Grassley said in a statement. "I'm intent on
stopping this kind of intimidation so other government workers who are
willing to speak up about problems are not deterred."

Grassley accused the Park Service of lax enforcement to prevent poaching
and of retaliating against Jackson for his outspoken criticism.

"Getting rid of Mr. Jackson serves the interests of park supervisory
officials who wish to avoid high-profile conflicts with poachers and
negative attention," Grassley wrote to Norton. "Mr. Jackson has proved
himself to have unique skills and knowledge of the backcountry area
where
poaching is known to take place."

Jackson said the Park Service has purposely staffed the backcountry with
a
small number of rangers with little experience.

"The park needed more enforcement coverage, not less like they have
now,"
Jackson said. "There was no intention there to have fall hunting
control."

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