Breaking Trail: From the first BMWF Wilderness Ranger Intern

07/19/2017

By Danielle Sanderson

As one of the first Wilderness Ranger Interns hired for the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation, I have the honor to work closely with the Forest Service and have acted as a liaison in that way. I have had two training weeks with each group, have two bosses to report back to and check-in with, and two trail reports to fill out when I return from the wilderness. I feel very grateful to bring together the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service. The best part about it is that I get to help and benefit these two different yet very connected branches of conservation work at the same time.

Responsibilities of this Wilderness Ranger Internship include backpacking overnight for up to 8 days at a time, trail maintenance with primitive hand tools (crosscut saws, axes, Pulaskis, silky saws, etc.), campsite inventory, monitoring, and clean-up, tracking wildlife encounters, trail scouting for future trail maintenance, recording social encounters and type, hanging trail signs, public contacts, and performing wilderness stewardship and data collection in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Through this position I have also received a U.S. Government Motor Vehicle Driver/Operator license, the Federal Employees Ethics Training, B-level Crosscut Saw Certification, and the Bear Awareness Training, which I have used to adhere to food management safety.

Since I am stationed out of the Hungry Horse Glacier View Ranger District, my work exists in the Great Bear Wilderness, which is the northern section of the Complex adjacent to Glacier National Park. Most of the areas where I have “been on hitch” have deep historical roots: Bear Creek into Spruce Park, Granite Creek into Granite Cabin, Challenge Cabin, Devil Creek, Moose Lake, Bear Creek, Java Creek, and many more to come. I have been taught this significance throughout my reading of Wild River Pioneers by John Fraley. I get excited and reread sections of the book that mention areas where I’ve lived and worked, and through that have become very familiar with and connected to those places.

One example of this happened last week up at Java Creek. After a long, hard day of work navigating where the campsites were that had to be monitored and inventoried, and hanging trail signs at the right junctions, we made our way back to camp. Nestled in my tent at about 20:15 (we go to bed early out there), I was reading about the Great Northern Railway train robbery, shootout at Bear Creek, and shenanigans that followed in 1893. From the description the author gives, we were camped right where that early mischief had taken place.

My perspective was definitely broadened as I continued the rest of my travels in that area, wondering if a certain piece of rusted machinery was there when those folk were there, or how this place must have looked when they were here. I was fascinated that a 100+ year old, 100+ ft high Pratt deck truss bridge was still allowing high train traffic along its rusted tracks, including its creator, the Great Northern Railway, which helped pioneer the rest of the west. It was quite a fascinating correlation.

Each day spent out in the woods I appreciate the fact that I am aiding in the preservation of this wild earth and the history intertwined. Because of this work, hundreds of people can experience solitude, hiking along maintained trails and camping at preserved campsites. In turn, they can acknowledge just how special wilderness areas, especially the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, are in preserving the integrity of public health.

In the midst of overwhelming turmoil relating to climate change, social justice, environmental justice, and the exponential growth of the human population, I know that what I am doing, what I am most passionate about, is for the good of the whole. Maintenance, monitoring, and mitigation positively impact not only the user, but the ecosystems and wildlife that have existed in the wilderness long before humans. My efforts are put forth because I know it will help future generations of all beings flourish and nourish. That is what being a Wilderness Ranger Intern means to me.

BMWF