Retired National Park Ranger Russell Cahill will speak about his book 'Tales from the Parks: My Adventures as a Park Ranger' from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Vernetta Smith Chehalis Timberland Library.
Retired National Park Ranger Russell Cahill did a lot of things most people couldn’t dream of during his decades of working in the woods.
Cahill rescued a hiker from a cliff in Yosemite National Park. He helped broker agreements between Washington state agencies and Native American tribes, and one time he had to chase a full-grown bear out of an upscale hotel in the middle of the night.
All of those experiences and more will be covered by Cahill from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Vernetta Smith Chehalis Timberland Library when he gives a free presentation on his book titled Tales from the Parks: My Adventures as a Park Ranger.
“Often I wind up spending more time with people asking me questions about Alaska and bears and whatever else comes to their minds,” Cahill said. “It becomes much more of a discussion than a lecture.”
Cahill lives near Olympia after spending years of his professional life in Alaska, Hawaii, Washington D.C. and California. He published his book, which is equal parts a memoir and a historical timeline of the National Parks, in June 2016.
Saturday’s presentation is the only one he’s scheduled to give at a Lewis County library this year.
“We are fortunate to have (Cahill) living just north of Olympia and available to share his adventures as a park ranger in Person,” said Michelle Larson, Public Relations Specialist for Timberland Regional Library. “Author Talks at the library provide a connection between local storytellers and community members, creating opportunities to discover shared passions and, hopefully, their next great read.”
Cahill plans to begin his talk with a broad look at how the U.S. National Parks Service came into being. His research led him to believe the felling of a giant sequoia tree in California more than 150 years ago played a large role in forming public perception around environmental initiative.
About 100 feet of bark from the tree was exhibited as far away as New York and London, drawing scores of onlookers but also some consternation.
“People marveled at it, but they also looked at its age and thought that maybe we shouldn’t be cutting things down that are that old,” Cahill said. “People started writing letters and during the middle of the Civil War, Lincoln set aside a grove of those trees in what is now Yosemite in part because of those letters.”
Cahill tries to talk to as many audience members as he can before beginning his talks. Their interests will inform his decisions on what excerpts to share from his book.
His says his goal is not to tease the book as much as it is to start a discussion amongst audience members. People are often most curious about what his daily life as a ranger was like and how it changed from his start in the 1960s to present day.
The former ranger has also seen the popularity of National Parks and outdoor recreation in general grow exponentially. There are downsides to that growth, he said, and there’s one area in particular he’d like to see addressed.
“I think you could avoid having to limit the people if you could get them to come in without their big RVs and without the cars,” Cahill said. “Cars create air pollution issues and you have to manage for huge traffic jams rather than getting people out to see the parks. Parking cars outside the park and riding in on mass transit would be a step in the right direction.”
