Entertainment, TV, Television - Army Times

Meet Ranger Johnson, Ken Burns’ new documentary star

PASADENA, Calif. — Ken Burns’ films often shine the light of fame on their participants — what Burns himself calls “The Shelby Foote Effect,” named for the beloved historian of the Civil War.

Odds are when Burns’ latest PBS film, the 12-hour “Ken Burns’ The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” premieres in September, the Foote Effect will transform Shelton Johnson, the Yosemite park ranger who is one of the show’s most appealing talking heads.

Johnson is ready. Maybe. Yes, he concedes, “there may be a passing phase of notoriety.” But when it passes, “I will go back to being a federal employee.” And why not? “I’m very privileged to work as a national park ranger and to live where I live, which I believe is the most beautiful place on the face of the Earth.”

His dedication to the parks seems sincere, but Johnson is more than an earnest advocate for his employer. He’s a humorous one. So when asked about problems caused by the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone, Johnson’s answer is a reminder that wolves “do not know they are in a national park.”

“When you hear the wolves are leaving Yellowstone and they are attacking someone’s cattle, it’s not like the wolves are getting together and saying, ‘Hey, what are you doing this Friday? I’m thinking about going out of the boundary and going after Joe’s sheep. Is that what you’re thinking?’”

Popularity has its downsides for the national parks, which can be overwhelmed by visitors. Still, Burns says, that’s a good problem to have. “That old ‘love to death,’ where there are traffic jams in Yellowstone and Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, are important problems for a democracy to have. The worst thing [would be] nobody coming, because when nobody comes, there are no constituents arguing when that next acquisitive or extractive or even rapacious person ... wants to come along and make that park a little bit smaller.”