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Right after college, Jon Jarvis was camping in Yellowstone when a man at a nearby campsite walked out of his Airstream wearing a smoking jacket and wielding a chain saw.

The man used the saw to cut down a tree, doused the wood in gas and set it on fire.

“There [were] no rangers around whatsoever,” the newly confirmed National Park Service director said in a phone interview last week. “Flames went up about 15 feet in the air, melted half of that gas can, and ... set about half of the campsite on fire.

“I scratched a little line around his fire and ... we waited until all the gasoline burned out,” Jarvis said. “He greatly appreciated my assistance in putting out the fire, and that’s when I said this ranger thing could be kind of cool.”

Not long after, Jarvis, a trained biologist, got his first seasonal job in a national park, beginning a career that eventually led him to serve as superintendent at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington, Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Most recently, Jarvis was regional director for the Pacific West Region.

Jarvis said his background in biology helped foster his reputation as a champion for natural resources.

“Clearly the protection and management and a deeper understanding of the resources has been a core value of mine,” he said. “Let’s bring in the best scientists we can find.”

In light of recent studies that show global climate change poses a threat to parks, Jarvis said helping manage migration corridors, winter range and other crucial habitat both inside and outside the parks is the key to protecting those resources.

“The key to climate change is to mange at the landscape or ecosystem scale,” he said. “Long-term sustainability is not going to be maintained through a bunch of islands. It has got to have connectivity.”

Extraordinary opportunities

As director, Jarvis said one of his top priorities will be to reach out to minorities and to young people who are more comfortable with video games than nature. He told a story about a woman who bought her daughter a compact disk of nature sounds.

“This kid listened to the sounds on her headset and her first question to her mother was ‘Are these sounds real? I want to go hear them myself,’ ” he said. “It’s that kind of opportunity that we need to capitalize on. There are real experiences. Seeing the Milky Way yourself is a lot better than seeing it on iPods.

“The need is real,” he said. “We’re not seeing in the demographics of our visitors a reflection of the demographics of this country. That is a concern. It’s just because of a lack of exposure.” 

Jarvis said he is “wide open” to the use of technology to help make parks relevant to more people. Also, he wants to put park rangers back into classrooms and wants to get students out into parks and historical sites.

“Getting those sites alive with kids, it’s been powerful,” he said. “[One teacher said] the park rangers are rock stars to the kids. Where we can [get rangers back into classrooms], we should do that.”

With a Ken Burns film highlighting parks on PBS, a sympathetic president and Congress, and increased park attendance despite the recession, Jarvis said the National Park Service has opportunities that need to be capitalized on before the agency’s centennial in 2016.

“The opportunities in front of us are extraordinarily positive,” he said. “[We need] to make sure that all Americans have a National Park Service experience. [We need] to use [national parks] as venues for raising cultural awareness.

“I’m very exited about the job,” Jarvis said. “I think this is a great moment in time for us.”

Yellowstone plans in works

Jarvis also said the parks provide an opportunity for educating the public about environmental issues such as climate change.

“You can actually see that things are affecting us right here, right now,” he said, with changes in the ice caves in Mount Rainier National Park or the glaciers in Glacier National Park. “Parks are perfect venues for that.”

Closer to Jackson, Jarvis said his immediate goal is to ensure interim access for snowmobiles in Yellowstone this winter. After that, he said the Park Service will make a new decision based on the best available science. 

He said regulations that require guides and the cleanest-running machines have reduced the impact on resources.

“We all need to recognize that conditions in Yellowstone have improved as a result of the current restrictions,” he said. “The trend is in the positive direction.”

Jarvis said Park Service officials are working on a brucellosis plan for Yellowstone’s bison and elk herds but that plan is not ready for release.

Jarvis didn’t comment specifically about a plan that would have closed Yellowstone’s East Entrance in the winter because of the costs and risks associated with avalanches on Sylvan Pass. The plan was abandoned after private meetings with Cody residents and state officials.

“I was once a certified avalanche blaster,” he said. “I understand the risks associated with avalanche control. There are environmental concerns, as well.”

“Always gateway communities are going to be concerned about closures and lack of access, and we need to be sensitive to that,” he said. 

When asked about Renny Jackson, a 56-year old Grand Teton National Park climbing ranger and Jenny Lake Sub-District ranger who will be forced to retire in March, Jarvis said people with law enforcement commissions must either retire or convert to a position not in law enforcement when they reach 57 years old.

“Exceptions to that are very rare,” he said.