NY to cut Assistant Ranger Program

More often than not during the summer time, when you run into a Forest Ranger in the backcountry, it's an AFR. This is a huge setback, especially in the High Peaks, where 5 AFRs were employed. Especially since the full time Forest Rangers took over patrol and law enforcement in the DEC campgrounds from the Environmental Conservation Police, the AFRs have been the primary force performing backcountry patrol on state land in the Adirondacks and the Catskills.

Other areas that employed AFRs (aside from the High Peaks) for backcountry patrol include but aren't limited to the Giant Mountain Wilderness, the Dix Mountain Wilderness, the Pharaoh Lakes Wilderness, Siamese Ponds Wilderness, the Saint Regis Canoe Area, Stillwater Reservoir, the Five Ponds Wilderness, the West Canada Lakes Wilderness, and the William C. Whitney Wilderness.

The job of an AFR is primarily education rather than enforcement. AFRs educate the public about state land use regulations and leave-no-trace principles to prevent violations and damage to resources before they occur. They also serve as the DEC's primary eyes and ears in the backcountry, checking on campsites, lean-tos, trails and reporting on what they see. Often, AFRs question users about their itineraries, so that in the case of a search, the DEC might have a better idea of who is where.

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brushhog said:

What can we expect? I'd be willing to bet that 99% of our legislators in Albany don't use the Adirondacks or the Catskills, so wouldn't know an AFR ,even if they got help from one. Just like when they closed Camp Gabriels, McGregor and tentatively Moriah Shock, they effectively destroyed NYS's ability to fight their own forest fires. Way to go

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DSettahr said:

The decision to cut the AFR program was not made by legislators, but by the DEC itself.

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Tom Rankin said:

I'm just speculating, but if you were an administrator in the DEC, and you had 2 choices, cut AFRs or long-time Rangers, who would you cut? I'm sure they had to make some tough choices.

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While the AFRs do participate in search and rescue operations, they generally weren't at the forefront, with the exception of maybe some incidents in the High Peaks. It is usually the full time rangers that deal with search and rescue. I'm sure the state wouldn't have cut the AFR program if they thought they'd not have enough rangers to respond to SAR incidents as a result.

The maximum level of training required to be an AFR in recent years was only Wilderness First Aid (a three day course). I suppose you could say that's another issue concerning state budgets- cutbacks on funding for training for state employees. Some of the AFRs did receive helicopter insertion and evacuation training in addition to their first aid training, but again, they generally didn't make up a main component of the the primary response in emergency situations. If an AFR was ever the first on scene for such a situation, it was usually because they were the closest uniformed member of the department, being that they were already in the backcountry on patrol to begin with.

Its worth noting I think that this decision, as far as we know, does not affect the interior outpost caretakers. The caretakers of the interior outposts at John's Brook, Lake Colden, Marcy Dam, and Raquette River Falls are employees of the Division of Operations, unlike the AFRs, which were employees of the Division of Forest Protection and Fire Management. The caretakers have basically the same responsibilities as the AFRs, except that they are based out of an interior outpost which they staff, whereas the AFRs would go out on roving patrol, spending each night in a different backcountry location. So, assuming that the state still intends to employ the caretakers this season, there will be a regular uniformed presence in the backcountry, at least in the High Peaks Wilderness Area.

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