Just north of a popular dude ranch in Grand Teton National Park owned by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Director John Turner and his family, rangers last year found waste buried in violation of state and federal laws, according to federal reports.
Reports obtained by the Billings (Mont.) Gazette through the Freedom of Information Act showed rangers unearthed decades worth of possibly hazardous waste - including wheel hubs, refrigerators, bedsprings and lead acid batteries - reportedly buried by the owners of the Triangle X ranch.A federal report also said nearby oil spilled from drums "degraded" park land, according to a story in the Billings Gazette.
Operations at the Turner ranch have come under sharp attack from retiring park Superintendent Jack Stark. In a recently published memo, he said operations at the dude ranch partly owned by the country's top wildlife official are "seriously inconsistent" with National Park Service policies.
In a memo to National Park Service Director James Ridenour, Stark said the Park Service should negotiate a new contract with the Turners because of problems at the dude ranch.
Stark said livestock on the ranch - and unnatural hay meadows used to feed them - are degrading areas important to native wildlife. He encouraged Ridenour to force the Triangle X to move its herd of 265 horses and mules, which he said are trampling a sensitive wetlands area, away from the scenic Snake River.
Stark, who retired as park superintendent after 38 years, said the Park Service has been reluctant to enforce environmental standards on the ranch because of the Turners' prominence in Wyoming.
Turner could not be reached for comment. But his brother, Harold Turner, a managing partner of the ranch, disputed Stark's comments. He said he and his brothers take good care of park resources to provide a popular service to visitors.
"The good we do far outweighs some of the things we don't do so good," he told the Gazette earlier this year.
Most problems have been due to "misunderstandings" of national park regulations, he said.
Ridenour said he will appoint an independent negotiator to help resolve the dispute over operations at the dude ranch, which the Turners have run since 1926. When the family's contract to operate the ranch expires next year, it will be put out to bid.
Although Turner heads the Fish and Wildlife Service, Ridenour said his high government post has never been an issue in the Park Service's efforts to resolve conflicts with the ranch.
While serving as Fish and Wildlife Service chief, Turner has pledged not to participate in any decisions involving government oversight at the Triangle X . However, he still maintains his financial stake in the ranch, which reportedly earns close to $1 million a year.
Park reports obtained through the federal Freedom of Information Act said problems reported at the ranch include illegally bulldozing gravel from park lands, causing park officials to reduce the ranch's annual rating to "marginal."
Other problems, according to reports, include:
- Feeding of ranch horses has lured moose across the busy park highway, where close to a dozen have been killed during winter months.
- Triangle X raft trips Turner operated on the Snake River before he went to Washington repeatedly violated rules, including using unapproved rafts and not providing life vests to passengers.
- Triangle X buildings used to house guests and employees contained open wiring and lacked smoke detectors and fire alarms.
- Summer workers were forced to live in "inexcusable," "substandard" conditions.
- Ranch workers have often left garbage, open food and smoldering fires at a riverside campsite used by rafters and have not installed bear-proof trash cans to prevent conflicts with grizzly bears.
- Dude ranch managers illegally cut down trees within Grand Teton Park to use as barriers in their parking lot.
Most of the concern, however, has focused on grazing of the ranch's horses and mules on park lands, which officials say has denuded wildlife habitat. Although Park Service rules allow grazing only by animals used in national parks, park officials said the Turners also graze animals used for pack trips into the adjacent Bridger-Teton National Forest.
Harold Turner has said it is important to the Triangle X's business to maintain a "working" ranch atmosphere.
But Stark said that is "nothing more than an attempt to justify excessive use of park resources and contributes nothing `extra' to the visitor experience."
Although most outfitters are limited to 25 horses or mules per camp, the Turners have received waivers, and in the fall of 1989 used an average of 75 animals for four-person hunting parties.
Turner, a powerful former Wyoming state legislator generally respected in environmental circles, owns the ranch in partnership with his brothers Donald and Harold and his mother, Louise Bertschy.
They are governed by a contract approved in 1978 and pay one of the lowest operating fees to the government of any concession firm in any national park in the country, according to park reports. The fee was recently raised from 0.75 percent of the ranch's operating receipts to 1.25 percent.
And the Turners pay $1,060 for the annual use of 18 government-owned buildings.
By comparison, Yellowstone National Park concessionaire TW Recreational Services Inc. must pay a 22-percent royalty, which is used to upgrade park facilities.