Rangers: New medical training plan raises concerns

Rangers’ union questions state decision to transition away from Wilderness Medical Associates International

By Gwendolyn Craig

In 2018, the state Department of Environmental Conservation honored Forest Ranger Julie Harjung for obtaining medical training for the state’s ranger force. During an award ceremony, the department said it was her dedication to teaching more than 2,500 students and delivering 110 first aid courses over her 25 years of service that “translates to her having a helping hand in saving countless lives.”

Harjung fostered a partnership between the state and Wilderness Medical Associates International, an over 40-year-old curriculum providing training relevant to backcountry rescues and used by ranger forces across the country.

But starting with the 24th Basic Academy for Forest Rangers this year, that training will no longer be offered, to the concern of ranger union delegates. Instead, rangers will be trained as certified first responders under the state Department of Health. That training is geared for police and firefighters, Harjung said, who will be passing patients to an ambulance within 15 to 20 minutes.

“That’s not what we do,” Harjung said. “The longest rescue I was on was 30 hours.”

Though now retired from the ranger force, Harjung teaches both Department of Health and Wilderness Medical Associates classes and “those trainings are not the equivalent,” she said. Harjung and her former colleagues are concerned about the shift, and it’s unclear why the DEC is doing it. Harjung spoke to the Explorer about the proposed changes while on lunch break from providing the Wilderness Medical Associates training to the Adirondack Mountain Club.

DEC leadership decided rangers’ training “should align with DOH,” the department said. It did not respond to whether any lawsuits were lodged regarding rangers’ medical responses. The DEC said “cost is not a driving factor.”

The department plans to bolster DOH’s training with protocols specifically for forest rangers. For example, rangers will learn how to manage fractures, assess spinal injuries and clean wounds. The DEC said the “instruction plans are under review.”

Arthur Perryman, DEC forest ranger director for the Police Benevolent Association of New York State, said the state is “forging ahead” with a “half-baked” plan.

“The wisest thing would be to postpone rollout until we know 100% that these things are going to be in place so there’s no gap in coverage,” Perryman said.

Scott Sabo, a forest ranger in the Adirondacks and a Wilderness Medical Associates instructor, worried that the training change could lead to more complicated rescues. If the DEC’s supplemental training doesn’t address some of the protocols rangers currently learn under Wilderness Medical Associates, Sabo wondered if the only solution will be calling for more rangers to carry a person out of the backcountry.

“They are going to attempt to put us in the same parameters of an urban, streetside EMS or roadside police agency,” Sabo, a union delegate, said. “So who is going to come in and teach the rangers headlamp mountain medicine, 2 a.m., on the side of Algonquin where somebody’s got a broken femur?”

The DEC said rangers with current Wilderness Medical Associates first responder training may continue to provide those services until the training expires. Prior to its expiration, the department said it will train all rangers under the DOH protocols.

“DEC is committed to continue providing effective emergency response for the safety of the public,” the department said.

Top photo: DEC Forest Rangers moving an injured ice climber from the North Face of Pitchoff. Photo by Eric Teed