By Martha Craig
Dan van der Elst is a man who likes to be outdoors, get his hands dirty, and make a lasting difference to the environment he loves. Throughout his career, he has done all three. In his current role as a Wilderness District Ranger in Mount Rainier National Park, Dan leads wilderness district operations, which include administering the backcountry camping permit system, wilderness planning and management, and ensuring the safety of campers and hikers in Mount Rainier National Park.
A Washington native, Dan earned a B.S. in applied ecology from the University of California at Irvine. He and his wife, Kelsey, have been married for nine years and have a five-year-old son, Elliott, and a three-year-old daughter, Lizzy.
During his college summers, Dan worked on native plant restoration and exotic species management at Crystal Cove State Park in California State Parks’ Orange Coast District. The work was rewarding but it lacked excitement.
In 2004, Dan took a summer volunteer wilderness ranger position at Lake Eleanor in Yosemite, his first real exposure to working for the National Park Service. It was there that he found his calling: he wanted to manage a wilderness area in a National Park. As the next step on that path, Dan entered The Ranger Academy Skills Certificate Program at Santa Rosa Junior College to obtain a seasonal law enforcement ranger commission from the U.S. Department of the Interior/National Park Service. Our more than 2,000 commissioned law enforcement rangers have primary legal jurisdiction in most of our national parks, and are the Parks’ police force, entrusted with protecting park visitors and resources.
After receiving his commission, Dan returned to Yosemite for the summer as a paid seasonal law enforcement ranger, then moved to Mount Rainier, working seasonally for two years there. In 2010, he became a full-time law enforcement ranger, stationed at Carbon River, where he served for five years. He moved into the Wilderness District in 2015 and assumed his current position when his supervisor retired.
Dan has operational duties for three permit stations, 22 paid staff and a dozen or so interns and volunteers. As the park’s wilderness coordinator, he’s tasked with ensuring that the park’s management activities are consistent with the Wilderness Act, policy and legal requirements. For the last few years, Dan and his team have also been updating the Park’s wilderness management plan, a massive and complex undertaking. The current version of the plan, with detailed plans for visitor-use management and restoration efforts, was published in 1992. “I’d love to devote around three years just to reviewing our extensive history of management efforts,” Dan says. “We have plans dating back to the 1970s in our file cabinets.” He often consults with his former boss and with other wilderness management professionals across the National Parks’ system. In 2019, he became a member of the National Wilderness Leadership Council, with whom he meets annually to review wilderness issues, offer and seek guidance, and share best practices.
At Mount Rainier, increased visitation is a challenge. The impacts from overnight use, campsite expansion and user-created trails are evident, and it’s increasingly difficult to have personal space when destinations are crowded. While staying mindful of visitor-use limits, it’s also important to make sure everyone has a chance to visit the Parks.
“The National Parks Service’s continued relevancy is also a serious challenge,” says Dan. “The Parks need continued support from the public to stay relevant. To do that, they need to find ways to build a deep and abiding connection between people and the land. The Wilderness Act was established by an act of Congress in 1964 and it could be undone the same way.”
When asked if he has any special memories of Mount Rainier National Park, Dan replies, “On Thanksgiving night this year, a hiker fell and was injured above Mount Rainier’s Nisqually Glacier. Another ranger and I went out that night, but, although we could see the hiker’s headlamp, it was too dangerous to descend the steep, icy rock and snow with the equipment we had. Fortunately, another Tacoma Mountain Rescue unit was approaching from a different direction. I stayed where I was, signaling the other crew, until dawn.
“It was around 15 degrees and very windy. The hiker’s headlamp never moved, and in time it became dimmer and dimmer, before finally going out. I was not optimistic, assuming that the rescue had become a recovery. It’s hard not getting there in time. You have to create some emotional distance. The night sky was beautiful. I could see the Milky Way, shooting stars, the kind of majestic, natural beauty that makes you feel small. I was grateful to have that assignment—the opportunity to do something difficult and meaningful in such a place. But when the other team arrived near dawn, they discovered him alive and we rescued him the next day,” Dan recalls. “Being out there all night, getting a good outcome and working with people I like to spend time with—that camaraderie is one of the deepest satisfactions of working as a ranger.”
Not only does Dan appreciate the way WNPF donors support and care about Washington’s national parks, he volunteers at the Spring Dinner and Auction. With so much of the Parks’ federal funding going to operations and personnel costs, staffing ranger stations, ensuring bathrooms are clean, etc., there’s very little left over for the long list of improvements Dan would like to see. “Thanks to WNPF, my program was recently able to buy personal locator beacons for the staff. The beacons help us do more solo travel and get off the trail to explore with an extra margin of safety. They’re very accurate and reliable—and they even include a two-way communication device. “
Dan also values our donors’ love for the parks. “The most important thing a member can do is to invite a friend who never goes into the park to come share that experience,” says Dan. “Helping others to develop a bond to our wild spaces is the most important thing you can do to sustain the Parks.”