“The Future of the National Park Service Begins here.”
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.
Fundamentals turned into a single two-week course at Albright Training Center.
Right before the pandemic, it was reduced to one five-day course.
At the end of FY25, the program will be canceled entirely.
Technical training, required safety training, supervisory, HR, IT, LE, search and rescue, historic preservation, natural and cultural resource stewardship trainings, leadership workshops, crucial conversations, meetings with the secretary of the interior and the director of the park service have all taken place within the walls of Albright Training Center. That will all cease once HOAL is handed over to Grand Canyon for park-specific purposes.
This reduction in the investment of training good employees across the agency begs the question for the cherished legacy of the National Park Service: Why aren’t we training park rangers anymore?
I am a training instructor at Albright Training Center. It has been the honor of my career to work here. I attended NPS Fundamentals while it was an 8 day course at HOAL, one of the last. I ended up coming back a few months later to help pilot the 5 day version. I knew that I wanted to work at Albright and be part of shaping the future of the park service. To help make sure that the continued reduction of training time did not reduce its quality.
When I was hired post-pandemic, I knew the reputation that the training center had - a place for incredible learning and experiences, yes; but it was also a place recovering from a series of lawsuits and litigations brought by past employees due to terrible management and treatment. Since the “restart” of NPS Fundamentals and HOAL in general, however, an entirely new culture has been created. Workshops, meetings, check-ins, group agreements, and accountability was prioritized and intentionally used to create a new culture. I believe that HOAL now represents the best of the National Park Service and the kind of culture we want to create. That future of the park service starts here.
That intentional care to creating an agency that we want to work for is what sets the current Fundamentals program apart from previous versions. Looking not just at our technical needs and roles, but our future. What we want to protect, and how we want to do it. That is the training we are trying to save.
On the last day of Fundamentals, all participants and staff gather in a “closing circle,” a time to reflect and share space with each other one last time.
Laughter, tears, emotions are all commonplace. Not because our workforce is too sensitive, but because it is passionate. Because employees of the National Park Service want nothing more than to be stewards of this country’s land and stories and to serve the public to the best of our ability. We believe in our mission and doing good. We want to always be better.
This is why we train. To make the National Park Service an agency to be proud of. To want to work for. To create a culture of - dare I say - Respect. Inclusiveness. Safety. Engagement.
Consider the last 62 years that Horace Albright Training Center has been open. Consider the tens of thousands of employees who have participated in thousands of learning courses within Albright’s walls. Consider the amount of knowledge that left the building to be spread across our hundreds of park units, programs, and offices to carry out our mission in an effective, efficient way. Consider: why aren’t we training park rangers anymore?
—K