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Show THE ZEPHYR/OCTOBER-NOVEMBER that it provided, was the greatest reward of all. We didn’t range for profit. We did it for our hearts and our souls. Not to mention our soles. My “rangering days” are still filled with fond memories of unforgettable beauty. The fee collecting was always the least pleasant of my duties and I did them reluctantly and with little enthusiasm. Its only advantage was the opportunity it provided to occasionally meet beautiful single women camping alone who were in desperate need of a bath and who found my invitation for a hot shower and a cold beer almost irresistible. I was no chick magnet but my running hot water was. But fast forward 20 years and employees of the various federal agencies collecting land use fees are showing a zealousness in their work that is almost incomprehensible. It’s not as if they're working on acommission. re In short I was scared to death. I took a step backward and placed my thumb on the keeper of my gun holster. The young man saw the move and stopped. Then he screamed at me, “You take that f—king gun out of that f—king holster and I'll take it and shove it up your {—king ass!” We stared at each other for five long seconds. And I reflected on his words. And I decided that, in fact, he was absolutely right. If 1 took my gun from the holster I knew I could never shoot the man dead for illegally camping in a national park. On the other hand, this young fellow, in his current frenzied state, might very well take the revolver from me and kill me. I could almost see the headlines in next week’s Moab Times-Independent. SEASONAL RANGER AT ARCHES SHOT UP THE ASS BY ILLEGAL CAMPER...SERVICES ON FRIDAY Yet, I continue to read stories of park and forest rangers and BLM staffers who spend most of their day looking for fee violators...even to the point of searching once empty dirt roads, watching for visitors without the necessary proof of payment taped to their windshields or stapled to their foreheads. “OK,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I’m going back to my patrol cruiser. I want both of you out of here in 30 minutes.” Retreat seemed like a viable option. I backed off slowly, turned and walked back to the road. Had they been running up behind me I would never have heard them—the sound of my heart pounding in my ears was deafening. Isat in my patrol car for 20 long minutes, still shaken but happy to have my ass intact. Finally, incredibly, here they came, packed up and in their car. One of them had calmed appreciably and I handed him the citation. He actually thanked me. His friend, however, was still out of control and kept slamming his fists into the headliner of his friend’s roof. I imagine damage to the vehicle surpassed the $50 fine. I drove back to the Devils Garden, to my residence, slept poorly and wondered if I’d done the right thing. Had I been a coward or a wise The almost fanatical quest for fees turned to tragedy in New Mexico a few weeks ago at Elephant Butte State Park when a state park ranger shot a tourist to death during a dispute over a camping fee. man? I decided that for once, I’d been the latter. IN THIS ISSUE OF THE ZEPHYR VOLUME 17 NUMBER4 5...POINTBLANK: "I've looked at Life from both sides now." By Ron Weales 7...THE ZEPHYR NUTSHELL! Another "Dog of the Month" Snuffy the Cat & a story of survival...Reader Rick Cline mingles with the twinkin’ stars. Audrey Galbraith's 30,000 mile journey 8...LOSING SOLITUDE ...By Martin Murie "Thoreau Revisited".. : BS I never again came ~ even close to a confrontation like that. Life, whether theirs or mine, was not worth the risk over an illegal camping infraction. I don’t know all the facts in the New Mexico shooting but I would guess that fear and adrenalin and the rapid way uncontrolled events can unfold had more to do with the shooting than the character of the man who pulled the trigger or the man who allegedly provoked him. But a tragedy resulted that didn’t need to happen. There’s more to Life than collecting fees or paying them...I suggest we all range a bit more and fret a lot less. The almost fanatical quest for fees turned to tragedy in New Mexico a few weeks ago at Elephant Butte State Park when a state park ranger shot a tourist to death during a dispute over a camping fee. According to astory in the Las Cruces Sun-News, the victim, apparently a tourist in his 50s from Montana, became belligerent with Ranger Clyde Woods, a three-year veteran of the parks department when he refused to pay a $14 camping fee. Woods attempted to arrest the camper for trespassing and the man put his hands in his pockets and refused to remove them. According to a spokeswoman for the parks division, Erica AsmusOtero, the man “acted in a manner that our officer is trained to respond to,” and said he was “aggressive and verbally abusive.” So Ranger Woods shot him dead. The dead man was NOT carrying a firearm or ~ THE NEW ORLEANS TRAGEDY, RFK & THE GNP While all of us watched the unfolding destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina last month and the subsequent human suffering brought on, not just by the storm but from human neglect as well, a statement by the U.S. Secretary of Labor caught Ned Mudd’s eye and he passed it along to me. According to the news report: a knife of any kind. measure the wealth of our nation. Kennedy said: "Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community After the shooting, Parks Director Dave Simon said, “Deadly force is always a last resort” and added that the “vast majority of park users comply willingly with park fees.” : I have my own deadly force story. While I always preferred to range than collect, sometimes the noncompliant camper can get under a ranger’s skin. One evening when the Arches campground was full, a couple of young men, perhaps in their late teens arrived after dark and tried to camp illegally in the picnic area. My first encounter with them was civil enough and I told them " they needed to leave the park. Twenty minutes later, I caught them again, when paid campers complained that they’d moved into their site. Sept 6: The flooded city of New Orleans will see an unparalleled building boom, US Labor Secretary Elaine Chao confidently predicted after ordering the creation of 25,000 temporary jobs for evacuees. It reminded me of a speech Robert Kennedy gave almost 30 years ago about the meaning 1 d of America’s Gross National Product, ity values in the mere lati the way we 18...ESCAPING THE ENCLOSURE OF ENVIRONMENTALISM Observations on "The Greening of Wilderne$$" By Lance Christie £ material counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for y thi S. in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans." manner that | wondered if | was about to lose control of a situation that was barely 3O seconds old. 17...DEPUY! and the last installment of Abbey's "Debris." police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. our country; it imaginable and in such a hysterical 15..."THE ROAD GOES ON FOREVER" some reflections from another old EFler By Mike Roselle things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It "Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to Both leaped from their bags, screaming. They called me every unkind word 12...NATURE'S CRISIS: 2005 By Dave Foreman Where's Bobby when we really need him? uh -f fy x7 3 .. THE DIMFORMATION AGE reporting from the crawl space of history/ notes from the desk of: ...Ned Mudd Ned's own views on ‘re-wilding...’ This time I was firmer and their attitude was icier. They left, muttering as they went, and I knew we'd meet again. A few minutes later I could see their headlights creeping down the Salt Valley Road in search of an illegal campsite. My self-righteous indignation has always been a quality I needed to work on, and on this evening it was in full bloom---after all, how dare these jerks defy the order of a ranger!---and I went after them. I found their vehicle tracks in Salt Valley Wash. They'd driven off-road and were somewhere ahead of me. 26...13 YEARS AGO IN THE ZEPHYR It was 11 PM, I was out of radio contact, The Election of 1992... when Moab had a PULSE but determined to confront and cite these violators. At the time, rangers had not yet become full-time cops but even then we were required to carry our sidearms during night: patrols. So I 1 walked oe eb j 1 ae a g A si 1. pp fA firmly in its holster to confront and punish these noncompliant campers. I found them a hundred yards down the dry wash, already wrapped in their sleeping bags and drifting toward sleep. My arrival was totally unexpected and when | brutally advised them that they not only would be required to | i liately but that I was also issuing them a federal citation for driving through a natural area, the two oung men came unglued. Both leaped from their bags, screaming. They called me every unkind word imaginable and in such a hysterical manner that I wondered if I was about to lose control of a situation that was barely 30 seconds old. One of them was particularly rabid and finally, as the encounter intensified, he moved toward me in a way that definitely felt threatening. 3 : 29,..FEEDBACK: STEPHANIE KORDAS 1967-2005 ... Then Leaf goes down to leaf, So Eden sank to grief. So Dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. 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