- As grateful as I am to know
that you're watching
this TV show,
I have to tell you,
in all honesty,
you'd probably be
better off outside
exploring one of
America's national parks.
I have been blessed and
really lucky over the years
to have seen my fair share:
Yosemite, Yellowstone,
Grand Canyon, Grand
Tetons, Bryce, Zion,
Joshua Tree, Smoky
Mountains, Acadia.
I've probably been to
two or three dozen,
but I know I'm just
scratching the surface
and I know I'm not alone.
This year,
like the year before and
the year before that,
Americans will spend over
1 billion combined hours
camping, hiking, exploring,
and just sightseeing through
our national park system.
If you're not among
them, you should be,
because no TV show
even one as
spectacular as this one
can hope to capture the
majesty or the grandeur
of our national parks.
All I can tell you is that
their existence is a big part
of what makes our country great.
And their accessibility,
the fact that you and
I are welcome there,
well, that's a critical
part of "How America Works".
(steady music)
Since the first of
them was founded
a century and a half ago,
that's Yellowstone, by the way,
America's national parks
have grown more critical
to modern society
than we ever imagined.
And I don't just mean for
outdoor enthusiasts, no.
Everyone, and I mean everyone,
whether they've stepped
foot into a park or not,
owes more to these places
than they might think.
And it's because their
benefits stretch far
beyond their boundaries
with such national perks
as economic growth,
fresh water, clean air.
They even keep our
weather in check.
All from some 400-plus
federally protected parks
that together make up an
area larger than Colorado.
But keeping all that
country safely intact
and open to the public
is no small endeavor.
It takes dedicated
workers toiling
in some of the
toughest environments
America has to offer,
and few come tougher than
Joshua Tree National Park.
(brisk music)
Here, in the summer months,
temperatures can easily exceed
triple digits on a cool day,
which might also explain
why park attendance takes a
bit of a dip right about now.
But for the park's
140 employees,
it's about the only time
they have to prepare
for the busy season ahead.
Even in the midst of a
crippling staff shortage
infrastructures need man hours,
wildlife needs management
and as always,
so do the park patrons
bold enough to be here.
So for the latter of those jobs,
Joshua Tree counts on
a mere four rangers
to patrol the grounds
on a regular basis,
rangers like Frank Klein.
- This job is
particularly interesting
because it's a very
multifaceted job.
I am the search and
rescue coordinator
and the emergency medical
services coordinator.
I also do normal law
enforcement patrol as well.
So I guess that's
a lot of stuff.
(Frank laughs)
- [Narrator] Indeed it is.
But all those
skills are essential
for not only making do
with the staff they've got,
but also responding to
on average about 20
emergencies every week
wherever and however
they might occur.
- You can find yourself in
trouble with heat illness
way faster than
most people expect.
There's also all kinds
of other environmental
hazards in the park,
things like rattlesnakes,
you can get lost.
So honestly,
when we have
unprepared visitors,
it's kind of hard to know
what kind trouble they're
going to get into.
- [Narrator] And
speak of the devil.
- Go ahead.
- [Narrator] Sounds like
Frank might just have
his first wayward
patron of the day.
- I'll be en route.
(tense music)
We got a stranded climber.
A lot of times when we
get a report like this
we don't get a lot of details.
We generally want to talk
to the reporting party
face to face,
so we can figure out
everything we need to know
as quick as we can.
- [Narrator] And on
arriving at the scene,
it appears the reporting
party is already waiting
to shed some light
on the situation.
- As I understand it,
it sounds like
you've got a friend
who's stuck on a ledge.
- You can see him;
he's way up there.
We were scrambling
like under there,
and he just kept going up,
but he can't get down from
where he is right now.
(unsettling music)
- We're going to go get
your friend down, alright?
- Okay, thank you.
- [Narrator] For Frank, that
means he'll have to go up
and gather the climber himself,
but not before a quick
pre-rescue consultation.
- I'm going to come
down to you with a rope.
We're going to get you
down to the ground.
I need you to just sit,
put your back up against
the steep part of the wall,
and then just sit
there, alright.
He's listening to
commands which is great,
but we still want to get him
down as quick as possible.
It's a hot day.
He's in a precarious spot.
So I want to get up
there pretty quick.
(unsettling music continues)
- [Narrator] Keeping patrons
safe is a top priority
for any park.
I mean, not to
sound too macabre,
but aside from the
obvious reasons,
it's also their money that
makes all this possible
from the 11 campgrounds
that dot the desert
to the 100-plus miles of road
that connect every
corner of the park.
And keeping the latter
of those in top form
can be an uphill battle.
And judging by the
state of this road,
there's still some
work to be done.
But that's precisely why
Joshua Tree has people
like road supervisor Alex Snay,
whose first job today
will be adding some
much needed shoulder
to this two-mile
stretch of pavement.
- Visitors, when they
come through the park,
they might not be
paying attention.
We don't want them
to drive off the road
into an unsafe condition.
We want to have an area
where they can park safely
without having to
drive off the edge
with a 6"-plus lateral drop-off.
- [Narrator] To
remove that drop-off,
all Alex will need
is one dump truck,
a 20-ton grader,
a smaller rig
known as a sweeper,
and three colleagues to keep
all that equipment moving.
- We have Brandon on the grader,
Max on the sweeper,
and then Zach on the dump.
I'm going to do
far-side flagging,
do the side flagging,
since you'll be on the
side with a sweeper.
Let's get on the road
and start dumping.
(urgent music)
- [Narrator] And with
all parties in position
including Alex on
traffic control,
it's time to lay
down some shoulder.
(truck rumbling)
- Now that the dump
is out of the way,
what the grader's going to do
it's going to move all that
material the dump just dropped
off the side of the
road into the shoulder.
He's going to form the shoulder,
and then he's going to
continually move forward.
- [Narrator] But moving all
that material puts a lot
of wear and tear on
the grader's blade.
And as Alex is
about to find out
- [Colleague] Alex, copy.
- [Narrator] The one they
brought on this outing
must not have had too
many miles left to go.
- Hey, this blade's
getting pretty bad.
We're going to
need to change it.
- Alright, go back up
to the pave pullout.
We'll do them up there.
If we don't change them,
we can't operate anymore.
So it's something that puts
a halt to all operations
until they get swapped out.
(mechanism humming)
- [Narrator] But with
27 years of practice,
Alex and his team should be
able to swap out this blade
in just a few short minutes.
- You got that one?
- Yeah.
(tool whirring)
- [Narrator] Then again,
that doesn't account
for little hiccups
like when a nut lodges itself
into your one and only socket.
- Max, give me one
of them pry bars.
(tool clicking)
That thing is wedged in there.
(tool clanking)
- [Narrator] Roadways
like these are critical
to running any national park,
but they're not what
brings in the business.
No, that would be the
majestic landscapes
and the flora and fauna
that come with them,
like this Joshua tree,
a species only found
here in the southwest,
or the long-tailed weasel,
a rare sighting in
any environment.
But maintaining an ecosystem
as intricate and delicate
as this one is no easy task.
It takes near
constant supervision
and when needed, intervention.
And that is the job
of wildlife ecologist
Michael Vamstad.
- A big part of my job is to
really balance or help balance
that wildlife and visitor
use kind of dynamics.
- [Narrator] This
morning Michael
and his new understudy, Katie,
have come here to the aptly
named Rattlesnake Canyon
not in search of snakes so much
but to investigate
an eagle's nest
that may warrant
their attention.
- Is it near that
spire up there?
- Yeah, you just
follow that spire down.
- [Michael] Oh yeah.
- [Katie] You can see that
really tall nest.
- My God, it's huge.
So today what we're
going to do is go in,
take a look at the nest,
see the activity if it's there.
And if it is there,
we're going to close
down the climbing
around that nest to protect it.
- [Narrator] Apex predators
like eagles are critical
to Joshua Tree's ecosystem,
so they tend to be
a high priority.
But before Michael
can make a ruling
on whether this nest
is indeed active,
he and Katie will need
to take a closer look.
Unfortunately for them,
that means a two-mile trek
through some of the
park's toughest country,
apparently Katie's first.
- She just joined us
like six months ago.
She's still learning
the ropes of the desert.
It's a very extreme
environment, so we take it slow.
We do these projects together,
so we make sure that we
do it as safe as we can.
(dissonant music)
(music intensity increases)
And we have a rattlesnake.
(snake rattling)
- [Narrator] If you're one
of the mere 15% of Americans
who have never been to one,
you might be tempted to think
that national parks
aren't all that essential
to these United States.
Well, you'd be wrong,
because aside from
keeping your air, water,
and weather in better shape
than it would otherwise be,
national parks also pour
an annual $28 billion
into our country's economy.
So yeah, they have their place
even if that place
is as unforgiving as
the Mojave Desert,
where the men and women
of Joshua Tree National
Park are working overtime,
understaffed, and in brutal heat
to prepare their little
slice of the wild
for the busy season.
But while looking
for an eagle's nest
that may need their protection,
wildlife ecologist
Michael Vamstad
and his new partner, Katie,
have stumbled upon
something else altogether.
- And we have a rattlesnake.
(unsettling music)
- [Katie] Oh, yeah.
(snake rattling)
- These rattlesnakes
are responsible for
bites every year.
For us working at the park,
like Katie and I,
we're pretty well
versed on what to do
if we get bit by a rattlesnake.
- [Narrator] And since
that list of protocols
starts with don't get bit,
Michael and Katie will give
this rattler a wide berth.
- Rattlesnake bites are serious
and we know that
they're serious.
And hikers in the
park need to watch
where they put their feet,
where you stick your hands when
you're climbing these rocks,
because these rattlesnakes
can be in there.
- [Narrator] Thankfully though,
it seems the final stretch
of this hike is a snake-free one
leaving Michael and
Katie to finally check up
on that eagle's nest
and find out once and for
all if anybody's home.
(steady music)
- I see the nest up there.
Now let's just
watch it for a while
and see what we see,
because I'm not seeing
anything great at the moment.
- [Narrator] No birds anyway,
but through the binos
Michael does spot
some sign of them.
- I do see some new,
it looks like new sticks
were put on the nest.
Yeah, it looks like
something's working on it.
So you can kind of
see it a little bit
where the sticks look fresh.
- Ooh, there's something
coming in to the right.
You want to take a look?
- Yeah, yeah.
Hold on.
Wow, it's big.
Yeah, yeah, golden eagle.
- [Narrator] With only 20
of them throughout the park,
golden eagles like this
one are a serious rarity
and since they also happen
to be a protected species,
Michael and Katie will
take some measures
to keep it that way.
- We're going to go ahead and
close this area for climbing
for the season.
We're able to
determine that, yes,
this bird is nesting in the area
and that that's
worth protecting.
(perky music)
- [Narrator] Fortunately,
they've come prepared
for just such a scenario.
(tool clunking)
- So what Katie's going to
do here is she's just going
to pound this thing in
so it doesn't float away,
blow away in the
wind kind of thing.
And a job well done.
This is now officially closed.
People aren't supposed
to climb on those areas.
(urgent music)
- [Narrator] Five miles away,
park ranger Frank
Klein is dealing
with climber issues of his own,
specifically one
that's worked his way
into a bit of a pickle
and is now awaiting rescue.
Good thing for him,
Frank knows his way around
these cliffs better than most.
- I'm going up to
the top of the rock,
and I'm going to
rappel down to him
and we're going to do
what's called a pick-off
just to make sure that he
gets down to the ground safe.
(brisk music)
- [Narrator] For that,
Frank will hoof his way
up 150 feet of incline.
Then, once at the top,
ready himself for
the rescue descent.
- It looks like we got
a nice little tunnel
that I can thread my
anchor line through.
Plenty strong.
Connect this end in.
Rope!
(daring music)
I like to do one last check
coming to the edge.
(daring music continues)
Down we go.
- [Narrator] In all it's
about a 100-foot drop
to reach the stranded climber,
from there another 50 feet.
But first, Frank will need
to rig him up for the rappel.
- We're going to get
a harness on you here.
How're you doing?
Are you alright?
- Yeah.
- You're not hurt?
- Just a little nervous.
I kind of underestimated
how hard it would
be to climb down.
(both chuckling)
- That's alright.
- [Narrator] Over the
course of his career,
Frank has performed more than
a hundred climbing rescues
like this one,
more than enough to know
that a calm demeanor
can go a long way.
So with the climber now
secured to his rope,
he starts their
descent nice and easy.
- Alright, there we go.
Just keep your weight on there.
Perfect.
We're going to go over
this weird edge together.
- Alright.
- This is a little awkward,
so here you go.
(uneasy music)
Boom, and down.
There you go.
Keep coming, keep coming.
And we're down.
Alright!
All in all, I think the
operation went textbook,
but it's not the end of the day,
not the end of my shift.
There's still plenty
of people in the park.
We'll see what
else happens today.
- [Narrator] As
Frank heads back up
to collect his climbing gear,
10 miles away
and while attempting to swap
out a grader blade needed
to fix this stretch of highway,
road supervisor Alex Snay
has hit a bit of a snag,
specifically a 7 millimeter nut
that is firmly stuck
in his only socket.
- These bolts on the blade,
rocks and things hit them.
And what happened is
is this one's a little,
the edges are not
nice and straight
so it's jammed itself in.
We're going to
have to get it out,
so we get the rest
of those bolts off.
(steady music)
- [Narrator] Alex may
not have an extra socket,
but he does have a
punch and hammer handy
which should be more than
enough to salvage the situation.
- [Alex] Back in business.
- [Narrator] And with that-
- Ready?
- [Narrator] Alex and the g*ng
can finally affix this grader
with some brand-new steel.
- Now that we got
the new blade on,
we can go and continue
what we were doing
and finish off our
shouldering for the day.
Alright, Brandon, Zach,
you are ready to dump.
And Max, go ahead and
start blocking traffic.
(steady music continues)
- [Narrator] Working in tandem,
Alex's team should be able
to knock out this final
stretch of shoulder
in next to no time
and to do it,
they'll employ what's known
as the three-pass method.
- [Alex] The first pass,
the grader will come
and pull the material up
onto the roadway.
The second pass,
the grader will come through
and sweep that material back
off the side of the road.
And then the third pass
is the final shaping pass
of the shoulder.
- [Narrator] And with the last
of those passes now complete,
all that's left is
a little sweeping
before Alex can conduct
his final inspection.
- So this is what the
shoulders look like
when we're complete,
nice and refreshed.
And you can see
that the material is
up to the edge of the asphalt
without any ledge or drop off.
We are complete.
- [Narrator] It takes
a lot of personnel
to keep our national
parks protected.
In all, some 300,000
men and women scattered
across 28 states
and more than
130,000 square miles.
These are the people charged
with keeping our canyons grand,
our basins great, and
are glades everlasting.
But it doesn't come easy.
Just ask the employees of
Joshua Tree National Park, who,
in the throes of a
staffing shortage,
are braving sweltering heat
and tough terrain in an effort
to prep their park
for the busy season.
In the case of wildlife
ecologist Michael Vamstad,
that means checking
in on another
of Joshua Tree's
rare inhabitants,
bighorn sheep,
just to ensure they're
surviving the summer heat.
But doing that
means more hiking,
this time for
another three miles.
- After being really
busy this morning
at Rattlesnake Canyon there,
yeah, this makes for a big day.
But it's got to get
done and we just have
to watch ourselves
and do it safely.
- [Narrator] But how does
one find a herd of sheep
in an 800,000 acre park?
Well, Michael's something
of an expert at that too,
and he always starts with
their local watering hole.
- So that's a 49 palms
oasis down there.
That's where all these
drainages come together
is where this oasis is.
So all the water that's
coming subterranean
through an aquifer
hits that area,
pushes to the surface
and we get surface water.
- [Narrator] From this far back,
it's tough to tell
if there's still surface
water down there or not.
But if there is,
that should be evidenced
by sheep activity.
All Michael has to
do now is find it.
- I'm going to grab my
binos to take a look
and see if I can see
any sheep from here.
(soft music)
You can hang out
and watch the sheep
and count them and do
everything like that.
But I am just not seeing
any sheep right now.
- [Narrator] While Michael keeps
searching for a sheep sign,
eight miles away another
of Joshua Tree's
employees has embarked
on a mission of
a different kind.
Because with some 3 million
visitors passing through
every year,
it should come as no surprise
that the park's 11
campgrounds see a good bit
of wear, tear, clutter and crud.
So to keep a lid
on all that chaos,
there are maintenance
workers like Susan Daniels.
- We do painting, we do fixing.
We just do everything
that needs to be done
to get it prepared
for the busy season.
(steady music)
- [Narrator] Today that
means tidying up one
of the park's
largest campgrounds,
a 32-acre area by the
name of Jumbo Rocks.
It's the kind of job that
generally takes two
people a couple of hours.
But what with the
staffing shortage,
Susan will be handling
everything all by her lonesome.
- It's a big chore,
because there's a lot.
Sometimes the dumpsters
are overflowing,
the bathrooms are just thrashed.
And again, I'm the only one
out here cleaning this today.
- [Narrator] To start,
Susan will be tackling one
of the more daunting parts
of the job, the bathrooms.
But upon arriving at
the first of them,
it appears to be
somewhat occupied.
(bees buzzing)
- Oh, it looks
like we have bees.
Some people these
bees wouldn't bother,
but we do have people
that are allergic to bees
so we have to be aware
of what they need too.
- [Narrator] Fortunately
for park patrons,
this is not Susan's
first bee rodeo,
and her secret
to wrangling them is
surprisingly straightforward.
- I fill a bucket of water,
put some sticks in it,
and put it behind the bathroom.
And then all these bees
will go to the bucket,
because all they want is water.
- [Narrator] And with that,
all Susan has to do now
is give this swarm a
little time to buzz off.
- Hopefully, by the
time I come back,
most of the bees have
located to the water.
As soon as they smell it,
they start coming around.
- [Narrator] Clean
campgrounds are no doubt
an important part of keeping
the park up and running,
but to get through
the busy season ahead
Joshua Tree needs
more than that.
They need manpower.
And with the housing market
being what it is these days,
it's harder than ever
to find prospective employees
an affordable place to live.
So to get ahead of that issue
they're prepping some
accommodations for staff
right here in the park,
but to make one of
those buildings livable
it'll need a new roof.
And the man in charge
of making that happen
will be buildings and utilities
supervisor Brooks Stiltz.
- So our plan for
the day is to get
as much of this
roof on as possible.
So we'd like to get
our material run
all the way down to the far
end and working on that garage.
Just trying to get as
much done as we can.
- [Narrator] For
Brooks and his team,
today promises to be a
bit of an uphill battle,
not only because the
afternoon forecast is calling
for a high of 105 degrees
and possible storms,
or because they,
like everyone else,
are a bit shorthanded lately.
But there's also
the fact that none
of them have done
the roofing thing
in quite some time.
- We are not
professional roofers
around here is the funny part.
Being the maintenance
crew of the park,
we are jacks of all trades
and do a lot of things.
So a lot of this has
been problem solving,
trying to figure out
how to do things.
- [Narrator] And
while working on one
of the trickier
sections of the roof,
it isn't long
before Brooks hits his first
head scratcher of the day.
- Hey, Bob and Jesse,
you guys come over here
and take a look at this.
I got a little issue to run
past you on this valley.
So I'm trying to continue
the next course from here
up to here,
causing this shingle
to kind of buckle
in the middle right here.
I don't like that.
- Can we splice a piece like?
I guess you don't want to cut
it shorter than the valley.
- No, you don't want anything
in the valley.
- You need it to go
all the way over.
- I don't know that it has
to go all the way over,
because this is going to
get overlapped so many times
from this side.
(steady music)
But maybe that is the way to go.
What if this one just had
a triangle cut out of it
right there like that?
- And the ridge cap, it goes-
- That actually might
be the way to go.
- [Narrator] It's
certainly worth a shot.
(active music)
And after a little
trimming and nailing,
it seems that Brooks
and his team may have
been on to something.
- So with that little
notch I cut out
at the top of this thing,
no longer is the
shingle buckling.
I kind of alleviated
the pressure that
it was building up.
- [Narrator] But as Brooks
is about to find out,
this fussy shingle may be the
least of his worries today,
because off in the
distance the familiar signs
of an afternoon storm
are coming into view.
(thunder rumbling)
Which when working on a roof
can only mean one thing.
- We do have the possibility
of some lightning activity today
and the darkness is
not looking good.
We better just bag this
project and get off the roof.
(thunder rumbling)
- [Narrator] There's
no denying it,
our national parks
do a world of good
for our environment,
our economy, even our health.
But consider for
a moment the fact
that they also help
put food on our tables.
I'm not just talking about
for hunters and anglers,
though that can be arranged.
Now, if you're a fan of beef,
a good deal of those cattle,
they graze on park permits.
Then you have marine parks
which keep our seafood
industry afloat
by giving fish a place
to recoup their numbers.
And if you've ever had a
bison steak or a burger,
you can thank our national parks
for pretty much saving
that species entirely.
Heck, if we had figured out
this whole conservation thing
about a hundred years earlier,
you might even be dining
on dodo bird tonight.
Anyway, all that's
to say the benefits
of our national parks extend
far beyond the obvious stuff,
which is why the men and
women responsible for them
take their jobs very seriously.
Take the ones at Joshua Tree,
for example, who
despite stifling heat
and staff shortages
will stop at nothing
to prepare their park
for the busy season ahead.
And for buildings and utilities
supervisor Brooks Stiltz
and his team,
that means putting a roof
on this home for new hires
just as soon as nature's latest
curve ball blows through.
- We had some lightning
and thunder going on,
started raining on us.
It already kind of feels
like it's passing by,
like it was a quick one,
like a normal monsoon.
Hopefully the weather holds
and we can get the last
of this roof finished.
- [Narrator] But on
returning to work,
one of Brooks's team picks up
on a bit of an oversight.
- Brooks, we had one miscut.
- Okay.
- We just had one
piece that was miscut.
We laid this next piece
and we realized that
there wasn't that
six inches of overlap
on the piece underneath it.
- [Narrator] Fortunately
for the team,
it's a pretty common problem
with a pretty simple solution.
- So we're simply
just pulling it up,
pull the nails,
fill the nail holes with
caulking just to be thorough,
and then just lay
down the new shingle.
(tool humming)
(gentle music)
(hammer thumping)
(tool humming)
- [Narrator] With
that out of the way,
Brooks and the boys can
finally lay down the
last of the shingles.
- [Brooks] Finishing touches.
- [Narrator] And declare
this particular employee
housing unit move-in friendly.
- Good job today.
Against all odds we were
able to wrap this thing up
and really happy to have this
one completed and behind us.
- [Narrator] Meanwhile,
20 miles away
and while attempting
to clean one
of the park's largest campsites,
maintenance worker Susan
Daniels has found a swarm
of bees blocking the bathroom.
But having performed
the old bucket
of water bait and switch,
they should now be gathered
at a safer distance.
- Okay, you can already see
that the bees are coming in here
and getting in the water,
and they won't be
bothering anybody.
So I think we did
a pretty good job.
- [Narrator] Which means
Susan can finally get down
to her first chore of the day,
giving this bathroom
a thorough cleaning.
(resolute music)
- This is the spray rig.
We use it to squirt down
all the floor, all inside,
the toilet seats, everything.
And it's water and bleach
to k*ll any kind of
germs or anything,
but not strong enough to hurt
any of the plants or animals.
Okay, it looks like
we did a good job,
and we're done here.
- [Narrator] Well, not quite.
Because to deem this
campground fit for use,
Susan will also need to do
a little trash collecting.
- Not everybody picks
up after themselves,
nevertheless you
don't want to have
to pick up after somebody else.
So we come in,
we clean up, straighten up.
So you can come in,
set up your tent,
and have a good time.
- [Narrator] In a typical visit,
Susan will gather up
to 50 pounds of garbage
from a single campsite,
from wrappers to beer cans
right down to her least
favorite form of litter.
- One of my main pet peeves
as a maintenance worker in
Joshua Tree is a cigarette butt.
It takes seven years for that
cigarette butt to decompose.
We could probably fill a
trash bag like this a week
just with cigarette butts.
(upbeat music)
Okay, it looks like
we did a good job,
and we're done here.
- [Narrator] While Susan
heads off for the next site,
10 miles away
wildlife ecologist
Michael Vamstad
still has some unfinished
business to attend to,
because somewhere in this oasis
there should be a
herd of bighorn sheep,
sheep that Michael is
responsible for monitoring.
But after two hours of glassing,
he's yet to spot a single one.
- Tracking the bighorn sheep
in this area is really important
so we have an idea of
how many sheep there are,
especially during
these drought periods,
because during these
drought periods
our numbers are going
to be at the lowest.
- [Narrator] And with those
numbers holding steady at zero,
one can't help but wonder if
this watering hole is dried up,
causing the sheep to move
on or worse yet, die out.
But before jumping
to any conclusions,
Michael will head in for
a closer look at the oasis
where at first glance
things may not be so bad.
- So I got pools up here,
I got pools down there.
It has some water in it.
And this is a very
rare habitat type
for Joshua Tree National Park
is super important for
things like bighorn sheep
and foxes and coyotes.
(uneasy music)
- [Narrator] The
only question now is,
are the sheep still getting
the water they need?
So in an effort to find out,
Michael will do a little
up-close reconnaissance.
- I'm going to check to see
if the bighorn are going
into one certain
place or another,
and I should be able to see
that by tracks, by scrapes,
maybe even some fecal pellets.
But yeah, this is a
tough part of my job.
You need some savviness
and you need to investigate
the best you can.
(gentle music)
- [Narrator] And on
checking the final pool,
Michael finally spots
what he's looking for.
(upbeat music)
- So right here we have
a bighorn sheep track
right in the hiking trail.
So this is really encouraging.
It really shows that
they're using the area.
Mission accomplished,
and we need to get out of here.
It's getting hot.
I've had one heck of a long day,
and it's time.
It's time to get out.
(vigorous music)
- [Narrator] We've
already established
how many employees it takes
to keep our national
parks afloat.
That was around 300,000
in case you missed it.
But since they're no less
critical to the cause,
how about park visitors?
Well, in a typical year,
America will see nearly
300 million of those.
That's a bigger crowd than
you'll find in Indonesia,
the world's fourth
most populous nation.
That's the kind of
patronage we need
to preserve our last
truly wild places.
Take Joshua Tree, for example,
where it falls to a
mere 140 employees
to accommodate nearly 3
million visitors every year.
To that end,
they're working tirelessly
to prepare the park
for their busiest season of all.
But since that also happens
to be monsoon season,
road supervisor Alex Snay
and his team have a little
more prep work to do
just to ensure that
nobody washes away.
(active music)
So this afternoon they'll be
cleaning out a culvert system
that's designed to pipe
water under pavement,
that is when it's not gummed up
with about 14 tons of sediment.
- [Alex] Every time it rains,
we have material that
comes from the high side
down through this culvert.
It just keeps building
up and building up.
And basically what's going to
happen is is the road's going
to float away and
basically get destroyed.
- [Narrator] And
if that happens,
it can have serious consequences
for the park's bottom line.
(suspenseful music)
Remember Yellowstone's not
so little flood in 2022?
Yeah, that shut down the
whole park for 10 days
costing millions
in lost business
and many millions
more in damages.
That's the kind of catastrophe
Alex and his men
are trying to avoid.
- As you can see, we
dug as close as we can
with the machine to the culvert.
We have to do this all by hand,
so we don't actually
damage the culvert tube.
It's going to take a while.
We're all going to be
working on the shovel today.
- [Narrator] Once they've done
all they can with shovels,
Alex and company will
then flush the culvert
with fresh water using
a device tailor-made
for just such a job.
(active music)
- We call this tool
the water rake.
It's basically a
homemade tool that we use
to spray the water.
It's a little wider than just
spraying it through one tube.
The thing works
pretty good, huh?
- [Narrator] But what with
all the rinsing and raking
with his head in a pipe,
Alex has failed to notice a
bit of a problem further back.
- [Colleague] Alex.
- [Narrator] One that
his colleague, Zach,
is quick to point out.
- [Colleague] We got a puncture.
- How much of a puncture?
(water fizzing)
Oh man.
(perky music)
- [Narrator] Meanwhile,
10 miles away,
ranger Frank Klein's shift
is still far from over.
Because with some 4,000 visitors
still in the park today,
somebody has to
ensure their safety
and judging by his latest call,
one of them may be in
need of Frank's help,
this time on one of the park's
more challenging trails.
- The only info we got got is
that it's a 30-year-old female
who can't continue
on down the trail.
We got triple-digit
temperatures,
so I'm going to bank on the fact
that she's probably having a
problem with some kind of heat.
We do see hikers who go
out on hot days like that,
and they don't carry basics
like sun protection
or water with them.
It makes it pretty dangerous
unless you got a good plan.
(uneasy music)
- [Narrator] He's not
kidding, you know.
In a typical summer,
Joshua Tree will deal
with some 80 emergencies
caused by heat alone.
When those happen,
it's on Frank to get
victims out of harm's way
before it's too late.
- This trail's roughly 2.5
to 3 miles a round trip.
But the distance alone
doesn't really account
for things like the temperature,
how exposed it is to the sun,
to the wind,
the fact that we're going
about a thousand feet up
to the top of the trail.
It's a really easy
thing to underestimate.
- [Narrator] And
about a mile in,
Frank spots a certain someone
who may have done just.
- That looks like it could
be a 30-year-old female.
She doesn't look too happy.
(urgent music)
(uneasy music)
- [Narrator] It's 4:00 p.m. at
Joshua Tree, the hottest time
of the day
in one of the hottest
climates in the country.
But that's not stopping
the 140 park employees here
from doing whatever it takes
to prep for the
busy season ahead
whether it's building roads,
cleaning campsites,
or in the case of
ranger Frank Klein,
ensuring this
heat-exhausted hiker lives
to see another trail.
- Did someone call
for help for you?
Do you know?
- Do you know what your name is?
- Okay.
Do you know where you're at?
- Okay.
Why don't you hold that?
When they can't answer
those basic questions,
that suggests that their
brain isn't working right.
And when their body
gets hot enough
their brain doesn't
function right,
and that is a
life-threatening emergency.
- [Narrator] This
hiker, however,
seems lucid enough to work with.
So after starting her off with
some much needed rehydration,
Frank checks her vitals
just to be sure she's
fit to walk out.
- You got a good blood pressure.
I'm going to take
this off of you.
What I want to do is
I want you to relax.
I want you to get
more comfortable.
I want you to cool
down a little bit.
And then I think
we're going to be able
to walk out of this trail.
So we can just hang
out here for a second
until you feel like
you're ready to walk.
So these kinds of calls
are really common.
Generally, they go
kind of like this
where the person just needs
some cold water, some ice,
and they start feeling better.
That allows me to take a breath
and slow down a little bit
and work out getting
them to go down.
- [Narrator] And after a little
time spent cooling her off,
Frank can finally escort
this hiker down the mountain.
- You think you're
alright to drive?
- Alright.
- [Narrator] While
Frank wraps up
his latest rescue mission,
back down on the road system
supervisor Alex Snay is dealing
with dehydration of
a different kind,
specifically a hose
that should be flushing
this clogged culvert
with 600 gallons a minute,
but is instead spewing precious
water onto the desert floor.
- One of the things
about the desert is
everything has thorns on it,
and we just ran into
some thorns here.
It got hung up on
this tree right here,
and it punctured
our discharge hose.
- [Narrator] But with a
spare hose standing by-
- Thank you, Max.
- [Narrator] Alex and
his team should be
back up and running in no time.
- We'll put the water back in
and continue spraying it out.
We should be able to finish this
with the amount of
water we have on hand.
- [Narrator] In an effort
to conserve that water,
Alex will also scrape away
as much sediment as he can
with a contraption ingeniously
labeled a culvert tool.
- This culvert tool has
basically just a flap
with a pipe fitting on it,
basically slides over the
material as you push it in,
and it's kind of
like a grappling hook
as you pull it back out.
I could feel the pipe going
across the corrugations
of the metal.
So I think we're
down to the bottom
and most of the
sand is pushed out.
- [Narrator] And as the
last of that sand trickles
out of the pipes,
Alex and his team can finally
start wrapping up this job.
- Let's start packing it up.
- [Colleague] Alright.
- We had some hiccups,
but you know what?
That happens and
it's been a good day.
- And just like that,
the workers at Joshua
Tree can finally punch out
for the evening
knowing that, come
the busy season,
the ecosystem and
infrastructure needed
for this park's very survival
will be firmly intact.
And though it's doubtful
that the 3 million tourists
who pass through will have
any idea of their efforts,
the fact remains
without people like these
the national parks we're known
for simply couldn't exist,
nor could the clean
water they supply,
the air they purify,
or the many millions they
inject into our economy.
So if there isn't a national
hug-a-ranger day yet,
well, maybe there should be,
because they are among the
most essential gatekeepers
to "How America Works".
(gentle music)
Our national parks
aren't cheap to maintain.
And if you're wondering
whether your tax dollars
are being well spent,
I don't blame you.
I wonder about all
my tax dollars.
But consider this:
for every dollar spent on
places like Joshua Tree,
$10 comes back.
Over a 12-month period,
$28 billion flows from the
parks straight into our economy.
That incredible return on
investment is made possible
in part by the
300,000 men and women
who work in our park system.
If you'd like to see what
those opportunities look like,
you can check them out
at MikeRoweWorks.org/HAW.
Then step away from the screen.
Get out there and visit one.
If you come back,
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03x07 - National Parks
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Showcasing the many individuals who work around the clock to keep America's infrastructure in working order.
Showcasing the many individuals who work around the clock to keep America's infrastructure in working order.