The people in Interp are a joke too. They actually make stuff up to tell the public.
The vast majority of the general public are city types, that never really get out into nature. They look forward to a park visit just to get away and see what nature is all about.
These people are prime useful idiots to be brainwashed.
Being a woodsman/hillbilly living in nature and in the woods all the time it was easy to catch the NPS Interp’s at their lies, when confronted they’d just laugh and tell me to mind my own business.
Oh noooooo!!!! Well, many years ago now, the year I was hired in seasonal Interp, the chief purged all the liars. The small group I worked with was very good — however — the years after our group, I would say it went back to the “tall tales,” unfortunately. I never said anything without having evidence to back it up — others, eh, not so much.
It was my experience that most of the NPSers hardly set foot off the pavement themselves. After I had gone into the back offices (working in dispatch and personnel), I was constantly called up to the front to explain some of the mountain biking or hiking opportunities. I loved going up front to talk to people — however, sad that more of the rangers never did stuff...
(The reason I chose my screen name was because I did so many borax programs — and in one of my slide shows, I showed a photo of Pres Reagan holding a box of borax. He was president at the time. The crowd of 300-500 always loved that slide!)