that Fundamentals is a training all new Park Service staff immediately receive. Would that it was – but with staffing and funding constraints, session backlogs, and then a pandemic, many rangers didn’t get the opportunity to attend a session at the Horace M. Albright Training Center until later in their career. That’s how I found myself finally stepping off a bus into the Arizona evening heat after nearly a decade with the National Park Service.

was such an important aspect of becoming a perm. We had a huge variety of fields and disciplines represented and somehow, everything worked. I got to look at Orion's belt through a telescope while a Dark Sky Ranger explained what I was looking at, had the chance to nerd out with the other history people, and helped someone hike for their first ever time as we went down to Dripping Springs. That steak tasted so good, but not as good as the prickly pear drink :) Almost 15 years later and 3 years out of the service, I still talk with people from my Fun2 and Fun5 classes every month.

at Albright for 5 weeks. Frank Hayes (RIP) coordinator. Best class ever included policy, emerging tech and methods, resource mgmt history good bad, field trips with challenging problems (DEVA, MOJA). Lifelong friends and colleagues most went on to senior leadership. Didn’t last long but was career and life changing while it lasted. Cultural and natural and wilderness resources.

—Dusty Road

of struggle and disappointment along the path to gain permanent status, joining fundamentals was a woosh breath of fresh air and infusion of passion. I learned I wasn’t alone - in the roller coaster to permanency, nor alone in my dedication to service and the Service. Hearing from different positions, divisions, parks, and regions than my own helped me see how my role fit in the larger Service, but also ways we could work together better - leverage the greatest asset of the Service - our staff - to achieve our mission.

before I went to NPS Fundamentals. I certainly had learned about the NPS Organic Act of 1916 and the Park Service’s mission. I think parks, though, get bogged down in their own parochial concerns and that they often don’t frame why they’re doing anything in terms of the mission. During our NPS Fundamentals course at HOAL we had a session led by Frank Buono, a former park superintendent. He walked us through the national parks’ grounding in Federal laws, and subsequent court cases that clarified those laws and their constitutionality. Back then it was common for us to hear of the Park Service’s “dual mission,” from the Organic Act, of preservation and public enjoyment, which were forever held in tension.

I'm not even joking. From "Baby GOAL" to Fundamentals, and then on to regional IT meetings (where I got to meet employees both smarter than me and well-educated in the realities of NPS professional networking) the facility and the AWESOME staff that make run smoothly built the foundation that took me from a park, to a region, and then on to national roles in WASO. 

I am a lifelong NPS employee. I am living proof of the organizational value of the training center to provide NPS-Specific education, delivered by experienced NPS professionals, in a place that connects the student with the National Parks like no other. 

I can’t tell you how many rangers walked through the doors of Albright Training Center burnt out and overwhelmed by the burden of caring for our nation’s most precious places and then walked out feeling connected, re-energized, and hopeful.

For some of them, NPS Fundamentals was the first experience where they felt like this bureau was investing in them. Cared about them. 

It will always be one of the greatest privileges of my career to have been a part of creating those experiences for our staff who deserved every moment of connection and appreciation that they felt in this place. 

I have friends and neighbors critical to our community who are part of the HOAL staff. They instill the values of excellence, care and learning into an otherwise rural government town. In the recent Dragon Bravo fire crisis they have supported our most vulnerable, the evacuees. Their dedication, kindness and generosity in a time where they're validity, their jobs, and their homes are very much at risk of being taken away, they gave.

working for the National Park Service to attend Fundamentals at Albright Training Center. I couldn’t wait to go for all those years as I heard about this famous ranger training we could go to after getting our first permanent position. When the time came, I felt a huge sense of pride and dedication to the NPS. Hearing the career stories of every single instructor was a highlight of the training. I knew they had given years of dedication to the mission and it was more than a job for them.

The staff put on the most incredible HOAL-o-ween, Lord of the Rings themed skit. There were costumes, wigs, soundtracks and movie clips. Their passion and love for training shall never be forgotten.

—Anonymous

I remember waiting at the rim, doing mad libs with my parents to pass the time as the colors started to streak across the sky. I loved my time there, but I hadn’t yet thought about being a ranger.

I next watched a sunset at the Grand Canyon as a part of a class when I was in college. I had just accepted my first NPS seasonal job, at another park. Watching that sunset, I felt like I might just be becoming a part of something bigger than me.

There is a sign outside of Albright Training Center that reads: “The Future of the National Park Service Begins here.” 

When Albright Training Center opened in 1963, it housed the Introduction to Park Operations course, lasting up to three months and included training for the families of rangers. By the 80’s the training transitioned into Ranger Skills, a six to eight week program. Orientation to the NPS and Compass I & II followed, each improving - but shortening - the “basic training” of National Park Service employees. NPS Fundamentals came along in the early 2000’s as a five-part course, two parts being residential experiences totaling three weeks. Those five parts slowly fell away as cuts continued to erode the NPS Learning and Development budget. 

was some of the finest training I have EVER experienced. Anyone who has been knows an insane amount of talent and thought goes into every detail of their work, and has seen what a strong and brilliant team they make.

Cutting off Albright, and especially the Fundamentals program, feels like an intentional strike against the service.