What do you think?
Rate this book
Worth Fighting For: A Park Ranger's Unexpected Battle against Federal Bureaucrats and Washington Redskins Owner Dan Snyder
A Park Ranger Blows the Whistle on Bureaucrats and a Billionaire and Pays the Price. Worth Fighting For tells the tale of a dedicated ranger who lived up to his oath of office as a federal law enforcement officer and ultimately fell on his sword to protect park resources
- GenresNonfiction
258 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 26, 2019
This should be compulsory reading for NPS employees. The National Park Service reveals itself to be nothing short of a disgraceful agency in this book. Read it.
March 26, 2025
A dedicated ranger who lived up to his oath as a federal law enforcement officer! Ultimately he fell on his own sword to protect park resources.
June 3, 2012
I heard about this book from one of the blogs I frequently read, the adventure journal: http://www.adventure-journal.com/2012....
The book is authored by & tells the work history of a US National Parks Service Ranger throughout his various positions at many of America's great national parks. As someone who loves the outdoors, his descriptions of the parks & the jobs he performed in each were intriguing & gave me more respect for people in his position.
The author shows a clear passion for the outdoors/parks & the jobs he held relating to them as a ranger. He tells of many inspiring & motivated people he encountered through the years & of the great ideology the National Parks Service was founded on. I was jealous of his capability to live in such wonderful places & the capability to move in so many different ones.
Unfortunately, he eventually ends up in a park that isn't so great as the others. The park's itself isn't the issue, but the management above him is - at this park, his manager demonstrates incompetency & does some questionable things - the biggest of them being flat out illegally allowing the owner of the Washington Redskins to clear cut trees along the park edge to improve his view & then covering it up.
The author debates for a while, but the remainder of the book tells of his decision to turn his manager in, the retaliation he suffers for it & the ongoing legal battles that ensued.
After becoming a whistle blower, it's interesting to see how the NPS goes after him, even for things that just don't make any sense & eventually essentially get laughed out of one court. It's encouraging to see him fight the battle & some of the results, but discouraging that the NPS & government would put him through it in the first place, especially for someone who's passionate about their job & trying to "do the right thing". As the author tries to right the wrongs, it's interesting to see how all of the upper NPS has each other's backs, but refuses to acknowledge, much less even respond to a lot of his inquiries & how fair process is almost impossible to receive.
The author also makes a clear distinction between "management" & "leadership", something I'd never consciously thought about.
It's good to see someone stick up for what they believe in & what's right, especially to someone as big as the NPS. It made me remember how I used to find great pride in my job & reminded me that there's lots of different types of people in the world.
The book is authored by & tells the work history of a US National Parks Service Ranger throughout his various positions at many of America's great national parks. As someone who loves the outdoors, his descriptions of the parks & the jobs he performed in each were intriguing & gave me more respect for people in his position.
The author shows a clear passion for the outdoors/parks & the jobs he held relating to them as a ranger. He tells of many inspiring & motivated people he encountered through the years & of the great ideology the National Parks Service was founded on. I was jealous of his capability to live in such wonderful places & the capability to move in so many different ones.
Unfortunately, he eventually ends up in a park that isn't so great as the others. The park's itself isn't the issue, but the management above him is - at this park, his manager demonstrates incompetency & does some questionable things - the biggest of them being flat out illegally allowing the owner of the Washington Redskins to clear cut trees along the park edge to improve his view & then covering it up.
The author debates for a while, but the remainder of the book tells of his decision to turn his manager in, the retaliation he suffers for it & the ongoing legal battles that ensued.
After becoming a whistle blower, it's interesting to see how the NPS goes after him, even for things that just don't make any sense & eventually essentially get laughed out of one court. It's encouraging to see him fight the battle & some of the results, but discouraging that the NPS & government would put him through it in the first place, especially for someone who's passionate about their job & trying to "do the right thing". As the author tries to right the wrongs, it's interesting to see how all of the upper NPS has each other's backs, but refuses to acknowledge, much less even respond to a lot of his inquiries & how fair process is almost impossible to receive.
The author also makes a clear distinction between "management" & "leadership", something I'd never consciously thought about.
It's good to see someone stick up for what they believe in & what's right, especially to someone as big as the NPS. It made me remember how I used to find great pride in my job & reminded me that there's lots of different types of people in the world.
January 14, 2017
This is a mix of two books: one, the tale of life as a ranger in the park service of our imaginations: all heroic backcountry rescues, friendly potluck dinners with peers, and various versions of beautiful little secluded wilderness cabins as home. Two, a courtroom drama that explains (in somewhat cumbersome detail) what happened to NPS Ranger Robert Danno after he blew the whistle on grossly illegal tree clearing activity (approved, as it turns out, by the upper echelon of the NPS) by Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins who owns a house along C&O Canal National Park. It's not that the story doesn't ring true. It does, and your heart breaks for Danno. You know he's telling the complete truth, but also you get a sense that he's over-sharing somehow. Maybe that's because neither his heroic efforts, nor the viciousness with which his superiors pursue him and attempt to drag him through the mud, bring you any sense of resolution. With every complex detail of the case (and there are many) that he shares, you get a little lost in the muck. I do want to be clear that after reading the book along with many other independently reported articles about this case, it's clear to me that Robert Danno is an incredibly loyal, honest, and brave park ranger who upheld his vows and stood up for what was right. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that this honesty (and subsequent acquittal on unfounded criminal charges as retaliation) has rewarded Danno personally or professionally. In the end I felt sad. Sad that Danno had to deal with what he did, but also sad that none of this, despite tremendous efforts, was ever righted. Rob Danno was a brave man to write this book, and it was an engrossing read. For that I give him a ton of credit. The scene where you read about how a jury acquits him of all the trumped-up (and unfounded) criminal charges will bring even the most stoic reader to tears. I just wish this book had a happier ending. Alas, it's non-fiction, so I suppose that's hoping for too much. I feel lucky to have met Rob and glad I know about this story. I hope more people read it and that some retribution finally comes to the upper management of NPS that is responsible for so many wrongs accounted here.
April 20, 2012
THIS book I could not put down. It would be really neat to meet this author. AWESOME read
April 25, 2017
The first two-thirds of this book is so boastful that it runs the risk of being off-putting, but there’s a point to Robert Danno’s horn tooting: If the NPS could do this to him – one of the most highly skilled, dedicated, and loyal rangers in the service – then it could happen to anyone.
Danno has a lot to brag about, and you can’t fake the positions he held or the awards he won, but some will wonder if he’s not embellishing his accomplishments. For example, I had a hard time believing that the Chiricahua staff – who had never made a single arrest in the history of the park – all of a sudden made 100 arrests in Danno’s first year as chief ranger. Danno was so busy listing his accomplishments that he glazed right over the murder of Ranger Chris Eggle even though Danno was assigned to the incident. This was disappointing and a missed opportunity.
In the early chapters, Danno does a terrific job conveying the excitement and enthusiasm of a young ranger moving from one adventure to the next. Danno had what seemed to be a charmed life, right down to his lovely wife and well-raised children. Interestingly, he never included jealousy (along with ambition, politics, corruption, and vindictiveness) as a source of the nightmarish reprisals he suffered for his whistleblowing, but Danno is just the type of highly skilled and confident man upon whom others often wish a comeuppance.
Danno’s prose style is plain yet polished, easy to read, classy and relatable. In the end, the parks and the rangers transcend the agency, and inspiration prevails over sour grapes.
Danno has a lot to brag about, and you can’t fake the positions he held or the awards he won, but some will wonder if he’s not embellishing his accomplishments. For example, I had a hard time believing that the Chiricahua staff – who had never made a single arrest in the history of the park – all of a sudden made 100 arrests in Danno’s first year as chief ranger. Danno was so busy listing his accomplishments that he glazed right over the murder of Ranger Chris Eggle even though Danno was assigned to the incident. This was disappointing and a missed opportunity.
In the early chapters, Danno does a terrific job conveying the excitement and enthusiasm of a young ranger moving from one adventure to the next. Danno had what seemed to be a charmed life, right down to his lovely wife and well-raised children. Interestingly, he never included jealousy (along with ambition, politics, corruption, and vindictiveness) as a source of the nightmarish reprisals he suffered for his whistleblowing, but Danno is just the type of highly skilled and confident man upon whom others often wish a comeuppance.
Danno’s prose style is plain yet polished, easy to read, classy and relatable. In the end, the parks and the rangers transcend the agency, and inspiration prevails over sour grapes.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews