Congrats @Yosemite Ranger Shelton Johnson! He received @Interior Award for Superior Service
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Congrats @Yosemite Ranger Shelton Johnson! He received @Interior Award for Superior Service http://parkb.it/1RTSVN2
4:01 AM - 17 Dec 2015
36 36 Retweets 71 71 likes
http://theobamadiary.com/2015/12/17/early-bird-chat-608/#comments
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December 16, 2015 - Yosemite National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson receives this award in recognition of his passion for connecting minorities to parks, his meticulous research that forms the basis of his innovative interpretive shelton johnson yosemite 05601 credit sierra sun timesprograms, and his superlative ability to articulate powerful messages for the National Park Service.
Park Ranger Shelton Johnson may be the National Park Service’s most recognizable employee. He is particularly known for bringing the Buffalo Soldiers to life, and for his appearance in the Ken Burns’ film The National Parks.
An employee of the National Park Service since 1987, Ranger Johnson has always been a worldly and articulate advocate for minorities and national parks. His multi-ethic background and love of national parks magnifies his effectiveness as a messenger. Shortly after he arrived at Yosemite, Ranger Johnson uncovered the history of the Buffalo Soldiers, an African-American regiment that protected Yosemite. His research is the foundation for his portrayal of Buffalo Soldier Elizy Bowman, and was instrumental in the creation of the Charles Young Buffalo Soldier National Monument. Ranger Johnson’s mastery as a storyteller is highlighted in The National Parks. Wearing his park ranger uniform, he described an encounter with bison while delivering the mail one cold winter day in Yellowstone, culminating in the explicit message that experiences in national parks can make “a single moment can last forever”, and the implicit message that these experience are available to people of all ethnicities.
Because of his role in the film, Ranger Johnson was invited to attend a screening with President Obama. Ranger Johnson is fearless, taking the initiative to contact Oprah Winfrey, one of the most influential African Americans in the world, and inviting her to camp in Yosemite Valley. Ms. Winfrey accepted, turning the adventure into two segments of her show. His goal was that if more people of color know about the National Parks they would be inspired to visit and thoroughly embrace these national treasures. His letter to Ms. Winfrey convinced her to make it her goal, too. For all of these reasons, Ranger Shelton Johnson is granted the Superior Service Award of the Department of the Interior.
http://goldrushcam.com/sierrasuntimes/index.php/component/banners/click/1
This is the first I've heard Ranger Shelton Johnson and what an awesome advocate he is for our National Parks for so many brilliant reasons.. not in the least for bringing minorities into the mix of our beautiful Parks!
Mini-bio..
Shelton Johnson, a Detroit native and University of Michigan graduate, has been a park ranger since 1987. Johnson has spent the last 20 years of his career as a National Park Ranger at Yosemite National Park. Johnson is best known for telling the story of the Buffalo Soldiers in the Sierra Nevada. Johnson was featured in Ken Burns’ Emmy-winning 2009 documentary, The National Parks, America’s Best Idea. Following his documentary appearance, Johnson was a guest The Oprah Winfrey Show. Johnson was invited for a special screening of the documentary at the White House and a meeting with US President Barack Obama.
http://ucanr.edu/sites/ucmg2014conference/Speakers_/Guest_Speakers_/Shelton_Johnson_/
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Have worked in Yosemite for 5 years and I am proud to rec this.
I shot moose with my camera!
Thank you!
to take care of my autistic son. But will remember the experience forever.
Best to you and your son.
No way in HELL this black woman is ever going camping but I think it's fabulous that he's trying to raise awareness of our national parks among minorities and raise awareness of the Buffalo Soldiers.
over the country.. took a 2 1/2 month camping trip through the Northwest in the 80s and that's when we visited Yosemite.. before Shelton Johnson got there, though.
Thank you, 23!
Such a amazing person!
to Ranger Shelton Johnson and his well deserved Interior Award for Superior Service!
And, the great outdoors..
This feels fantastic! Congratulations to a most awesome gentleman. I've never heard of Ranger Johnson and what he's done that I had to find out more about him. Found this and enjoying it right now. Husband will have no problem convincing me to go camping in the Sierras from now on! Thanks again 
vimeo.com/36258380
I teared up like that lady with the pink nails.. all the way through.. it was just so awesomely poignant!
Thank you so much for finding out more about him and sharing "The Way Home-Returning to the National Parks" with us.. it makes Ranger Johnson all the more brilliantly interesting!
Have fun on your future camping trips with your husband.. sounds like he likes to camp already?
All the Black Ladies were so fine.. great recruiters for the National Parks.. along with Ranger. Especially the lady at the end, eloquently relating her experience and planning to share her recent passion with National Parks with her family and friends.
Very interesting Buffalo Soldier segment.. he is so good! I bet the President enjoyed having him @ the White House screening of Ken Burn's "The National Parks, America’s Best Idea".
So glad to know he's in our world~
the waterworks until then and then the tears burst out burning hot! Hate when that happens Now I've got to find the PBS documentary.
Oh yeah, once a year he and his school buddies take their sons and meet somewhere in Michigan for 4-days of camping. On trips to Nevada, he loves pointing out areas his Boy Scouts troop hiked and camped so many years ago. I'm realizing more deeply now how once nature is experienced at this incredibly abundantly free level it's never going to be removed from one's soul.
Ranger Johnson has changed my evening and my outlook and I've got to watch the Burns documentary 
of the states I've lived in.
I was really excited back in New York when I got my life time free pass for getting into the National Parks! 
And, with all my camping.. Ranger Johnson has still brought a whole new perspective to my experiences and memories.. they're more vivid and alive.
What a serendipitous encounter seeing that on The Obama Diary.. and you brought even more so with your research and sharing the VID!
You know the Obamas love hiking~ Bonus~ The Obama family hikes on Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, Maine, in July 2010..
I was there in September 2005.. on a camping trip through the Northeast and the Maritime Islands in Canada!
Kind of Blue
Of course, I had to find the video of this intensely beautiful site 2 nites ago, until called away on an emergency! I couldn't find it but found one of the First Family in 2010 at Yellowstone.
Couldn't find the Burn's documentary online, have to order DVD but seems well worth it. Found a bunch of clips that I'm going to go back to and heard and saw some disturbing stuff about Yosemite, the Indians, and the government that are, of course, heartbreaking.
One thing that Ranger Shelton Johnson said in that one clip that really struck me hard is he said that people have a genuine lack of respect for history. To hear that from him and reading the distortions of history right here on a political board is depressing. And to know, as per Shelton, that the National Parks Service is directly tied into the Civil Rights Act is so illuminating, if I heard him right. And thank goodness for people like him reminding us that history is a felt presence. And all praise to Ken Burns, too!
When I told Mr. KoB of your post last night, Gawd!, it was followed a long history lecture from the Aztecs to Civil Rights and the only thing I remember is Marley's "Buffalo Soldier...
Lots of Park history clips here http://www.pbs.org/show/national-parks/previews/