TRNP – Dustin Monke

Wendy Ross has officially been named the superintendent of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. (Submitted Photo)

The National Park Service’s choice for the next superintendent of Theodore Roosevelt National Park was already in the position.

The NPS on Wednesday officially announced Wendy Ross the new head of the park.

She had assumed the role of acting superintendent on Nov. 1 following former Superintendent Valerie Naylor’s Oct. 31 retirement. Her full-time assignment is scheduled to begin July 12, according a news release.

Ross, a 21-year veteran of the NPS, had served as the superintendent of Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site in Stanton since April 2011.

Continue reading “Wendy Ross named superintendent of TNRP”

TRNP North — A lone buffalo bull grazes in a clearing next to a butte in Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s North Unit south of Watford City on June 6.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT NATIONAL PARK NORTH UNIT — Ron Sams remembers a time when very little of note happened here.

The U.S. law enforcement park ranger worked in the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park from 1999 to 2001 before being transferred through the Department of the Interior.

He returned to the North Unit in 2008, just as the Bakken oil boom and all that came with it was beginning to dig into the northwest part of North Dakota.

“When I left here, I remember how quiet it was. When I came back, that was not the case any longer,” Sams said. “I’m not saying we’re as busy as Yosemite or some of the other parks I’ve worked in, but I’m seeing some of the same crimes here that I saw in other places. I should have expected it, because that’s what we’re supposed to do. But sleepy little Watford City, I think it surprised all of us.”

Continue reading “Serenity in the Bakken: TRNP North Unit balancing beauty against oil boom’s impact”