As a backcountry ranger at a national park, Sam built a career doing work that many visitors never see: patrolling trails, checking campsites and educating hikers on how to keep themselves and the park safe. Sam had never been asked to collect entry fees — until this year.
Now, Sam works overtime each week at the park’s entrance station, miles away from the backcountry. Colleagues who would otherwise be busy doing ecological work in the parks now scramble just to keep up with cleaning bathrooms and picking up trash, Sam said.
More than a year after
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