RANGERS BEAR BRUNT OF CRIME AT NATIONAL PARKS

WASHINGTON - National Park Service rangers still guide nature walks and
offer information and advice to millions of visitors each year. These days,
they also frequently are called upon to put their lives on the line to stop
drug smugglers and apprehend violent criminals.

A series of attacks on rangers, including the fatal shooting in August of
ranger Kris Eggle at Arizona's Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and a
scathing report on problems in the Interior Department's law enforcement
structure have officials looking at changes aimed at protecting rangers and
park visitors.

Today's rangers are armed, in some cases with M-16s. They remain spread
thin, however, with fewer than 1,400 rangers patrolling 84 million acres in
387 parks, monuments and historic sites that attract more than 400 million
visitors annually. And while the park service has had an increased budget in
recent years, it's the bureaucracy that has increased, not the number of
rangers in the field.

National Park Service Director Fran Mainella issued a set of directives this
month to streamline the chain of command and patch holes in the rangers'
ranks that she said were becoming critical.

Problems with crime arise when staffing shortages force rangers to patrol
wide expanses alone, with backup many miles away, said park service Deputy
Director Donald Murphy. Drug traffickers, smugglers of illegal immigrants
and potential terrorists that rangers are expected to arrest, particularly
in parks along the borders and coasts, are more prone to violence than ever,
said Larry Parkinson, a former FBI assistant director.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton hired Parkinson in July as a deputy assistant
secretary to shape the department's law enforcement.

In the last month alone, park rangers helped chase down and arrest an armed
felon at Arches National Park in Utah, helped arrest a suspected
methamphetamine maker at Pea Ridge National Military Park in Arkansas and
made several drug arrests along the Mexican border.

"There's no doubt about it that criminals are getting meaner," said Randall
Kendrick, executive director of the U.S. Park Ranger Lodge, a branch of the
Fraternal Order of Police that represents park rangers. "But other agencies
seem to have adapted or adjusted. The park service does not seem to be able
to do this."