The careful assistant......a made-up story.....or is it?

Imagine a park, with a forest of trees and a river running through it. The forest is open to the public but doesn't get much traffic.

Imagine a park ranger, and her careful assistant (CA) working together for years....managing the park, keeping the trash picked up, monitoring for fires, and generally enjoying life.

The park becomes more popular and special new rules allow float trips on the river. CA is assigned the job. The park buys rafts, life vests, paddles, coolers and all the gear they need to start managing float trips. The park hires expert guides to ride in the rafts with the customers. CA learns how to give safety instructions, assign gear, load the boats with customers, and then starts organizing the float trips at the launch site near the forest. She gets everyone settled and sends them down the river with their expert guides before turning her attention to the next group waiting in line.

It's late summer and the forest is dry.

Several campers are in the forest and they are being closely watched by the park ranger.

One day, the ranger notices fire - and sends CA into the forest to investigate. "You make sure that the fires are small and pose no problem" the park ranger tells her.

So off into the forest goes CA, and when she gets there, the campers start shouting at her to leave them alone. So she backs away. But she is nervous.....she smells smoke. Yes, the fires she can see are small and pose no threat, but she is reluctant to leave.....what if a bigger fire is just down the path? But.....the park ranger said to check, and that's what she did, and since there seemed to be no immediate danger.......CA goes back to the river.

Customers are still lining up ready to go on their float trip and that keeps the CA busy for awhile.

The next day, the park ranger comes over and tells CA that there was some trash blowing out of the forest this morning, and to get over there and make sure the trash is picked up.

So off into the forest goes CA, and when she gets there, she sees that the campers have youngsters. Now the youngsters have been told to keep the trash picked up and to watch the fires, but they are inexperienced. When CA explains that blowing trash gets into the river, and small fires can become big ones, the camper parents get mad and chase her out of the forest -calling her names. They scream that they are responsible, and it's under control.....so just leave them alone.

I wonder what CA can do about the campers and still keep the float trips running smoothly?

Is the park ranger willing to step in?