Editorials / Opinion

ON the morning of the first day of this new year, park employees at Mount Rainier were doing what they do every day: gearing up to welcome visitors to the mountain.

After days of gray cold, the sun came out that Sunday, inviting friends and families to head to the park to play in the snow.

National Park Ranger Margaret Anderson was at Paradise, the park's most popular winter destination, doing what she did best: making sure that those who made the 12-mile drive from the Longmire entrance would have a safe visit.

At an elevation of 5,400 feet, Paradise is a magnet for sledders, cross-country skiers, snowshoers and families with small children. More than 100 people had already arrived. One of them, Jeremy Best, told the Tacoma News-Tribune that Ranger Anderson helped him and his friends from his Tacoma church find a place to park.

He remembered her smile, and that she was nice. And that she got a radio call about a motorist who had just blown through a mandatory chain-up checkpoint that sent her driving back down the mountain.

Ranger Anderson left Paradise to do what she did best. Keep visitors safe.

Just after 10 a.m. on that beautiful, crisp morning, the still of the mountain was broken by the sound of gunfire. Ranger Anderson was shot and killed by the man who had raced through the traffic checkpoint. For 90 minutes, he fired on rangers and other law-enforcement personnel who had rushed to the scene.

He escaped into the backcountry, and while he was tracked, park visitors, volunteers and employees were locked down to keep them safe. Twenty-four hours later, he was found dead, face down in an icy river.

The actions of Anderson and the other rangers who stopped the gunman were the result of deliberate, tactical decisions designed to protect the people at Paradise. Jeremy Best believes she saved his life — a feeling that is shared by many others who were at Paradise on New Year's Day.

Anderson is a hero, not because she died, but because of why she died. To keep visitors safe.

With the help of rangers from across the country, local partners and volunteers, we have reopened the park and given the mountain back to the people.

That's what Margaret would have wanted. That the place she loved was again welcoming visitors to their national park, and her colleagues were doing what they do best: keeping visitors safe.

Anderson was an exceptional national park ranger. She was also a friend, colleague, neighbor, and a mother, daughter and wife. Her loss reverberates across the lives of all of those she loved and millions of people across the country that have come to know her in these last few days.

Her career as a law-enforcement ranger began in 2002 at Bryce Canyon National Park, where she met her future husband, Eric. In 2004, Margaret moved to Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park in Maryland; Eric went to Antietam National Battlefield.

The following year they were married. They welcomed their first child, Annalise Rose, in February 2008 and that December found jobs in the same park, Mount Rainier, and moved to Washington state where their second daughter, Kathryn Paige, was born, just a year and a half ago.

I wish that it had not taken a tragedy for those she so gladly served — the American people — to learn about Margaret. Every day, the dedicated men and women of the National Park Service open up 397 national parks that serve 280 million visitors annually. We also help hundreds of communities every year create close-to-home recreational opportunities and preserve local history.

There are thousands of Margaret Andersons in our ranks, incredible professionals who are passionate about the work they do in service to our nation and its people. I hope you get to know them the next time you visit one of your national parks.

Jonathan B. Jarvis is director of the National Park Service.