Derek: It means they were actively engaged in sexual activity. So now here I am in my truck and I’m responding to this call and the individual who made the call, he came with me, and we pulled up on the other side and sure enough there’s this big Harley Davidson motorcycle parked off just behind some bushes right off the highway. A couple are very amorously engaged. So what do you do now? You can’t just ignore this, it’s a national park and there’s other people driving around. Cars can go by, family groups and otherwise. So as I began my approach they began to disengage and I got up towards them and started speaking with them very politely. I asked this fellow, “Were you aware that motorcycles are not permitted off highway?” I also asked him if he was involved in any motorcycle clubs of any sort and he just stood there with a stern look and he pointed towards the bushes. I walked over to the bushes and looked down and there’s his “colors” as they call them in the bike gang. It was his Hells Angels vest, he’s was a Hells Angels member. So, in the end he was not uncooperative or anything, but you don’t mess around with Hells Angels as a rule. I had been trained never to touch their vests or their motorcycles. Anyway, they packed up everything right away and got on the bike and started riding. I radioed to the RCMP right away to let them know as well, because they normally got involved in those kinds of things. They came out immediately and ran this guy and found out that he was coming out to Lethbridge to see about setting up a new Chapter there. He had a pretty bad rap sheet and they arrested him and all this kind of stuff. So the real long and short of the story is that it’s about the kinds of things that can happen to you, that you get involved in.
SH: When you were telling me that earlier story about going into that guy’s house at his Grey Cup party, I thought that could have gone south.
Derek: Ya, but it didn’t at all. You can take a good read on things. This person and the community where it happened, they are good people and all the people that were there, they were there for the Grey Cup party. We were careful but had no undue concerns. But yes, there is always an element of risk.
SH: Do you want to tell some other stories?
Derek: Well, I think that’s good for now. One quick funny little one where I kind of got embarrassed in Court one time. I received a call about a camper, a recreational vehicle in the Red Rock valley that had driven well off the highway. They’d set up their camp behind an aspen clone, a bunch of aspen trees. I went over there and went marching across the grasslands. They were several hundred meters away from the highway, and I walked all the way over and knocked on the door and a guy came out. I started talking to him, informing him about why he shouldn’t be camping here, and his off-highway vehicle and all this kind of stuff. He was very good, and he obliged, and they packed up all their equipment. I did charge him for an off-highway vehicle. I can’t remember if I charged him with camping without a permit as well. But anyway, this all goes to court, first appearance to plead guilty. So the judge says to him “Okay sir, would you please tell your story?” He starts telling the story about how they came into Waterton and came up the Red Rock road. They were very tired and didn’t know precisely where the campground was, “so my wife just drove off the road until they found a spot they could camp”. Oh oh…. The first thing the Judge says is “Hold it sir. Did I hear you just say that your wife was driving?” He said, “Yes your Honor, she was driving.” That was pretty much the end of the case, then and there. I’d made the mistake of assuming he was driving, when it was actually his wife that was driving and I had charged him. I really learned a lesson out of that one.
Another time in Crandell Campground, we had warned a fellow about his dog running around off leash. We’d had complaints from some campers so we went up and gave the fellow a proper written warning about his dog and the requirement to have his dog on a leash. We got called back out again, hours later. The campers were upset because this time the dog had a bear up in a tree. So we went driving up there, myself and another warden, John Taylor. It was the same fellow again so he was charged. He went to court and low and behold, he pleads not guilty. We were in Court for the trial. The Judge happened to be a dog lover. We got dressed down. The Judge said, “Sir, you have been charged by these two little men dressed in green with the heinous crime of having your dog off leash. How do you plead?” Can you imagine that? Even when the information was presented on how he’d been warned, and this was the second offence, and he was disturbing other campers and had a bear up a tree. In the end he was fined I think about $10.00. The judge himself was a dog lover and had his dog off the leash all the time. I don’t have any big issues with a dog off the leash per se, but when you are responding to a specific complaint you have to deal with it. We were quite dismayed with that Judge. (End Part 1 Tape 57:11).
Derek: There was another wildlife issue that cropped up towards the end of my career. We started noticing that bears were coming in to the townsite to hunt mule deer fawns. That never used to happen … probably for the greater part of my career that was never an issue, but all of a sudden we were finding that bears were coming in and hunting the fawns. They would take a fawn, kill it and eat it. It was just gone. You might find a little shred of hide or a little bone or something, but they would essentially eat the whole thing. This was happening on different occasions, so, my goodness, you don’t think we got concerned about that!? That’s a very good reason why it was important to try to keep the deer with their fawns out of the townsite because the bears were coming in along with all the people, including many young children. It was just an unacceptable situation. I think the folks in Waterton have made great strides in this regard over the last decade or so. They’ve been using trained dogs with handlers in spring and early summer to keep the deer out.
SH: How did the Warden Service change over the years? – centralization, affirmative action, focus on public safety, changes in 1990s & 2000’s?
Derek: I came into the Warden Service just after that ‘Centralization’ period occurred. Wardens used to be assigned for long periods into the backcountry and lived on backcountry stations. Then they started moving them in to front country areas and that was very controversial. I came in after that and I didn’t observe much of a dramatic change from that over most of my career. Towards the latter half of my career we did start specializing a bit more, not necessarily through direction from above, but it was starting to happen within the Warden Service itself. We began to gradually move away from the generalist role into a specialist role. I saw that happening at the end, but we were still technically considered generalists. Things really started to change, around 2007 or 2008 I think, especially when the ‘side arm’ question came up. We were not issued side arms as wardens in my time, only long rifles or shotguns. I think it was around 2009 or 10 that they started issuing side arms. I’m not sure of the precise dates but it was a very contentious issue. It made for some pretty interesting coffee breaks.
Now park wardens, as defined in the National Parks Act, only do law enforcement duties. Other people who are working in the resource management fields are now doing things that park wardens used to do. You have fire specialists, public safety specialists, environmental assessment specialists, human wildlife conflict people and then of course you have the whole science program as well. So there has been some really big changes that occurred immediately after I retired in 2008.
I try to be non-judgmental about the whole thing but I do believe in our day we were very well trained to complete all the roles that we participated in. We were audited also. In our public safety role, we were members of the International Commission of Alpine Rescue (ICAR) and we participated fully and were recognized by them. Our law enforcement program was audited by a team that came out from Ottawa and it was determined to be an excellent law enforcement program. We were carrying out the role in the proper fashion and when we did go to court we had a very high success rate. We were doing a very good job. In environmental assessment, we had a team come out from Ottawa and they audited many of the parks in Western Region. It was determined that Parks Canada was running one of the best environmental assessment programs of all the federal departments.
We were a small group and we were committed. We were doing a good job and it was efficient and effective. I hope it still is but I do know they have a lot more people doing the same work now. (Part 2 Tape 05:56). But after the arming decision, when park wardens were armed and doing only law enforcement, well, it was the end of an era or the end of the job as I knew it to be.
SH: What about the Warden Service was important to you? – Idea of protecting and preserving national parks, keeping people safe etc.
Derek: Something I’ve been saying for years around the group I worked with, and others say it too, we were people that chose to work in the national parks. We know these landscapes are extremely beautiful, and they’re unique and they present lots of challenges or risk. So, of course they draw lots of people. But that’s part of the mandate. What I always used to think was we really are trying to protect the park on a whole, the natural environment, for people to enjoy now and for prosperity. But we also have to protect the parks from the people. There’s just so many people coming to the parks and they will have an impact. There’s no question about it. We can’t always control those impacts, but that’s what parks management is about, trying to minimize the negative impacts. Then there’s this third category too, where we are trying to protect the people from the park. There’s deep cold water, there’s extreme weather conditions, there’s avalanches, there can be dangerous wildlife, forest fires … all kinds of risks that the park itself presents. I’ve always found it a challenge and a privilege to be able to participate in all three aspects of those roles. That’s been really important to me.
SH: That’s a good answer. Are there any legends or stories associated with the Warden Service that you can share? Is there anyone from the Service that stands out in your mind?
Derek: There were a lot of really good wardens who were doing great work in different programs and they made names for themselves. Probably too many to mention actually. There was some real talent in the Warden Service. But if I was to think back, the only two kind of legend names that pop into my mind would maybe be Peter Fuhrmann and Willi Pfisterer. I know they weren’t wardens per se, but they were the alpine specialists for the Warden Service. Those guys, they were just always out with large groups of wardens, many of whom were novices, and they were dragging us out into these extreme mountainous conditions for extended periods of time, in really dangerous terrain in winter or summer. They were training us to be safe when we were out in those kinds of environments and training us to be able to help those who needed help. They did this year after year and they were just so well respected within the Warden Service. Those are probably the only two names I would think to ascribe the word legend to. I have immense respect for both of them. (Part 2 Tape 10:13)
SH: Is there anything about the Warden Service, as you knew it, that you would want future generations to know?
Derek: That’s a tough one but one of the things I think was the fact that during the era that I was able to be a warden I was so happy to be able to carry out the broad range of responsibilities. I think on the whole, we as a Warden Service really did it well. I can’t speak for all wardens but I think we had a strong desire to be working for Parks Canada as wardens. Our managers, the government if you will, provided us with really good equipment so we were able to do the job. We saved the lives of many people and we saved the lives of many animals too. It was a very effective, efficient way of doing it because we had a minimal number of people very well trained and able to do the various aspects of the job.
A lot of wardens worked behind the scenes. Maybe this is where this bottom up thing I spoke about earlier comes in. We were out and about in the community and in the front country and backcountry areas of the park, so we saw what was going on. Very many of the wardens really pushed issues up to our managers from behind the scenes when possible, and really tried to prevent inappropriate activities or developments in the park or tried to change the way we worked. I think that was really important, but I know it wasn’t always well received from the higher levels of management.
One more thing, and I guess this is more specific to Waterton, that was a huge achievement. It had little to do with me because I was just on the fringes of this one, but some of the wardens here, working under the direction of the Chief Warden, Bill Dolan, worked closely with the Nature Conservancy of Canada and now virtually the whole eastern front of the park is Conservancy land. This serves as a great buffer zone for Waterton. That was largely driven by the Warden Service and it was a huge environmental achievement and it will help sustain I in the future.
SH: You’ve kind of answered this one but what made the Warden Service such a unique organization?
Derek: Did we not answer that one already? It’s the team approach to accomplishing everything that we did. We had a broad range of responsibilities and were all able to perform duties very effectively over that broad range of duties. I think that’s what made us quite unique.
SH: Great answer. Do you have any lasting memories as a Warden? Favorite park, cabin, horse, trail, humourous stories, etc.
Derek: I don’t necessarily. I had a lovely old horse named Kola that I rode for years and years. She was as dependable as could be and had a good disposition, but I also had another horse named Fudge who was just the opposite. That horse would deck anybody, including me, many times. I did not like that horse. People who were much better equestrians than me would get on that horse and he would deck them as well. You never knew for sure until you got to know the horse what you were dealing with. But generally we had a pretty good string of horses. My favourite trail …. I do like the Alderson Carthew trail in Waterton Park. That is one of my all time favourite trails. It’s a beauty. I don’t have any special or favourite cabin per se. They were all good if you don’t mind flies and mice.
One cute little story I might just mention here. I was with Max Winkler who was the Chief Warden here earlier on in my career, and we were riding up to Bertha Lake because we’d had a bear warning posted up there. There had been a grizzly bear frequenting the area. We were on our horses riding up, and we came around a corner and there was a little group of people, maybe four or five of them, with a dog that was off the leash in the backcountry, which you see all the time. Max was in the lead and he was a big, strong, bold in your face kind of guy, and he’s sitting up in this tall thoroughbred, a black horse named Cedrick, who I believe was a retired RCMP Musical Ride horse. I believe that was the case but I’m not certain. Anyway, Max stops the group and the dog and starts to inform them that their dog should be on leash because sometimes dogs running on the trail scare or frighten other trail users, and if they’re in campgrounds they can bark and disturb other users, and sometimes if they run into a bear, they may ward a bear off but other times they might come right back to the owner with the bear. So he’s just giving them tips about why their dog had to be on a leash aside from the fact it was the law. He’s giving this spiel to them and I’m watching all this and all of a sudden the little dog kind of steps under the back end of Cedrick, Max’s big horse, and Cedrick just lifts his back leg and just whacks the dog, who yelps and tumbles over the side of the trail. Max is looking down at everyone and says, “And that’s another reason you should have your dog on a leash.”
Another thing that was interesting, sort of a badge of honor within the Warden Service. There used to be a little wooden pack horse that would …. It was kind of just an honor that any particular park like Yoho, or Glacier or Banff, or Jasper, Kootenay, Waterton or whatever, that if your park was in possession of this little pack horse, then good, we got it, come and get it, kind of thing. It was just a small thing, maybe two or three feet high at the most, with legs and a little carved out head, and his back had little pack boxes on it with a pack mantle or a tarp, and you could use it to practice tying the diamond hitch. Anyhow for quite some time it hadn’t been seen and then it all of a sudden it kind of appeared in Waterton. I still don’t even quite know how it got into Waterton. We had it for quite a while and we were waiting for someone to try to steal it from us and take it back to their park. But the ritual seemed to kind of die out and not much going on. Then when Andy Anderson retired they had a big party for him at a big hotel in Banff and we brought that pack horse to the party thinking we’d revitalize the idea about getting it going around again. Just at the right moment at Andy’s party we snuck it out of our hotel room and held it up over our heads and marched through the party there. It created quite a stir, amongst all the wardens because we all knew what it was about … that you gotta try to get that horse. Then we took it back and we thought we hid it properly in our hotel room and we weren’t advertising our hotel room or anything. But later on in the evening we went back into our room and the horse was gone. Someone from the other parks either climbed into our room from the outside or they maybe knew somebody at the front desk, who shouldn’t have let them in, but somebody got the pack horse. We were fully expecting to hear about this and get the tradition going again, but we never did. We don’t know what ever happened to it or where it is.
SH: Yes, they’ve made calls recently looking for it. I don’t know what ever became of that.
Derek: Yes, somebody must have decided they really liked it. (Section 2: Tape 21:46)
(And this is a bit more of the story as recounted by Marie Nylund:
When Ranch Manager Slim Haugen retired from the Ya Ha Tinda in 1982 the Warden Service held a large get-together at the Holiday on Horseback barns owned by Ron Warner. It was a delightful send off for Slim. There was a little incident that happened at Slim’s farewell. The little packhorse, Woody,was last seen a few years prior to Slim’s retirement. However, as the 150 guests packed into the quonset barn to celebrate Slim’s retirment, lo and behold, up in the rafters Woody was hanging from a rope for all to see. It turned out the Lake Louise wardens were the last ones to be in possession of the packhorse and thought it would be fun to hang the packhorse from the rafters where no one could reach him and abscond with him. They were wrong! They forgot that their comrades were skilled mountain climbers like themselves; and trained in mountain rescue. At one point during the night, the lights went out in the barn. (John Nylund had something to do with that and he is not even an electrician). The only lighting was from a few small lights on the stage where a DJ was playing music. The place went dead quiet as from the rafters shadowy human figures could be seen slowly crawling across the rafters inch by inch towards Woody. The hushed silence of the crowd added to the suspense of what was about to happen.
A group of wardens and a few others gathered in a circle below the packhorse waiting for the inevitable. Finally, the rope was cut and down came Woody into the small circle of waiting hands. A tussle ensued with a few punches exchanged (in good humour of course – or not). Out the back door of the barn went the little packhorse. He was a bit broken in the fall and the tussle for possession that followed. The packhorse was tossed into the back of a waiting pickup truck. Woody was last seen lying on his side in the back of a green 1978 Chevrolet heading eastbound. A day or two later, Woody was returned to Andy Anderson who put Woody back together again.
A year or so later Andy brought Woody out to Earl Skjonsberg’s retirement party at the Legion in Banff. And yes, Woody was “horse-napped” once again and has not been seen since.)
Photo: Crag & Canyon, October, 1981. Note the predatory expression on the faces in the background. Source: Park Warden Service Alumni collection.
SH: Do you ever miss being a Warden?
Derek: Yes, always. That’s the short answer. I miss the people and all the events that were going on. I’d like to be able to participate still. I live right on the border of Waterton Park, so I’m aware of some things that are going on. I would like to be able to put my two bits in and I feel I could step right into the roles. I could participate in a mountain rescue today. Ha! Not! But the technological advances, the computer applications that would be a whole new learning curve. But yes, I miss it and I still have dreams of being a warden. My wife Bev keeps telling me I’ve got to get over it. I don’t think I could ever have had a more interesting, challenging and rewarding career.
Do you have any photos of yourself as a Warden that you would like to donate to the Project, or that we may copy? Do you have any artifacts/memorabilia that you would like to donate to the Project (Whyte Museum).
Derek: I will look through some of my pictures and see if I can find anything to send to Marie. I’ve got lots of photos of people and places but they are not well organized for easy retrieval. Probably not too many of just me.
SH: What year did you retire? What do you enjoy doing in retirement?
Derek: I retired in 2008. Our home is now a small acreage right on the boundary of Waterton Park. We see the whole Waterton valley out our front window. We spend about 6 months, spring, summer and fall, living in Waterton and then we split the remaining six between Arizona and Vancouver Island. The winter wind is wild in Waterton, never mind the deep snow, so we are able to stay active during the winter months when we’re away. Bev and I really enjoy the desert environment and the West Coast as well but Waterton is home.
I still enjoy hiking, biking, kayaking, ridge climbing and road trips and living on the acreage here. We have one little grandson ….Colin Derek. Our oldest son Travis is a Captain on Airdrie fire department and our youngest son Tyler is a park warden at Pacific Rim. We had a third son, Colin, but we lost him.
SH: Oh that’s too bad. Years ago?
Derek: Yes, in October 2000. He was a new commercial pilot, only 21 years old, and had just got married two weeks earlier. He and his wife, Mary, both died. He got a job with Summit Air up north and he wasn’t even flying the aircraft. It went down in bad weather with a pilot that had 27,000 hours of flying experience. We lost Colin and our daughter in law. Bar none, the worst thing that’s ever happened in our life. We’ll never really get over it.
SH: That’s tragic. I’m so sorry. It’s great you have a little grandson. You are obviously big on producing boys. Lots of boys in your family.
Derek: Much to the chagrin of Bev.
SH: Sounds like a perfect retirement. Is there anything I haven’t asked you that you think I should know about the Warden Service?
Derek: Well, when I got married l was only 20 years old. I met my wife Bev in high school, grade 11. It’s been fantastic living and being with Bev. She grew up in Calgary but shortly after we married we had to leave everything she knew and start our lives. In Jasper we couldn’t even live together at first. She was at Jasper Park Lodge and I worked for Parks and stayed the Fort Point Lodge. Then when we got posted from Jasper to Kootenay we had to stay in an old, beat up cabin and then had to move again to Kootenay Crossing, out in the middle of nowhere. It was tough on Bev but she never a complained and took care of any problem. She really made the best of it. Even when we came to Waterton, we had to live in a very small house, more like a cabin, which was about 10 kilometers out of town. I went away to Glacier National Park for a couple of months and was on many courses or assignments for a week or two at a time and she was always back with the kids, never complaining. It was great having that kind of support and I know it made me more comfortable in my career. Bev loved being with our children more than anything. When our kids got older she started working in the field of Early Childhood Education and she spent a lot of years doing that too. Those kids would have been very lucky to have her with them.
SH: Great interview Derek. Thank you.
End/sh
Susan Hairsine
Susan Hairsine worked for Resource Conservation and Operations in Mt. Revelstoke/Glacier, Jasper and Banff National Parks, as well as for Public Safety in Western and Northern Region for over 30 years. She obtained funding for an oral history of Parks Canada’s avalanche personnel and oversaw the successful completion of the project. Her experience working with several the interviewees during their careers has been an asset to the current project. She was also the Executive Assistant to the Chief Park Wardens of Jasper and Banff National Parks.
