6 MONTH UPDATE: Decemeber 15th, 2025

They found our dear friend Brendan Jackson dead June 25th, 2025, 8 days after he clocked out from his shift as Assistant Forest Ranger (details below).

The NY DEC indicated that an investigation would be conducted and that policy changes would be implemented to address the circumstances surrounding this incident. To date, however, we have not received any specific update regarding the findings of the investigation, the conclusions reached, or the specific policy or procedural changes that have resulted.

Please help us continue to spread this petition and write the DEC demanding the answers and actions they promised us. 

Follow Jackson's memorial page on Facebook to stay up to date: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578211496966

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Assistant Forest Ranger Brendan Jackson was in the Adirondack backcountry when he died in the middle of his work week as an employee of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Forest Ranger Division. On June 7th 2025, AFR Jackson called DEC Dispatch to notify them he was out of service interior at Duck Hole at 7:22 pm. He was supposed to call in the next morning, but didn’t. Over the next week he was radio silent and a dozen routine call-ins to dispatch were missed and went unnoticed.  No member of the DEC raised concern or noticed his absence until his friends tried to locate him the evening of June 14th. AFR Jackson’s body was found on Father’s Day, June 15th 2025, over seven days after his body expired. By the time he was found, his body was in such a state of decomposition that his cause of death remains unknown, and the Rangers who recovered him faced unnecessary trauma. 

DEC Dispatch used to have employee tracking software but abandoned it several years ago. AFR Jackson was often referenced in dispatch emails related to the need for adopting new tracking software for the past several years, but this software was not implemented.  The unnoticed death of AFR Jackson illustrates the need to increase resources and proper protocols to keep our Rangers safe.

This tragedy was preventable.

Our NYSDEC Forest Rangers risk their lives to keep the public visiting the backcountry safe. They deserve the tools and support to keep themselves safe too.

We call on NYS officials and DEC to:

Treat Dispatch as an emergency response system and provide resources for them to be effective. 

• Adopt and utilize effective staff tracking software that will track the call log of rangers that cannot be manipulated, and will flag call out interiors for follow up regardless of shift changes, multiple searches etc. 
• Adopt and utilize a call-in check-in protocol with a mandatory call in/out time to include flagging active duty outside those hours and status checks for missed calls.

Develop a seasonal Assistant Forest Ranger program that limits AFR use primarily for public education and rescue prevention. 

• New seasonal DEC Assistant Forest Rangers complete one week of training by Rangers before traveling to their assigned area. Rangers are assigned AFR supervision in addition to their normal duties that include multiple hours of overtime (think 30 hour long rescues) that are mentally, physically and emotionally taxing.
• Create a seasonal AFR Coordinator position that is responsible for communicating with the Rangers, assigning AFR’s to specific areas of need and supervising AFRs throughout the season to lift the burden off the Rangers.

Provide Ranger Infrastructure and Rescue Resources. 

• Often, as in the case with AFR Jackson’s body, Rangers deal with bodily fluids like blood or decaying body matter when they are involved in a rescue. Body fluids often permeate their clothing and gear, and Rangers often have to wash their clothes at home. They report having to use personal gear to keep them safe on rescues.
• Create a Rescue Resource Center equipped with standard issue gear, clothes, washing machines for clothes and gear repair and washing station so Rangers can debrief and transition to off duty status properly.
• Adopt a yearly gear budget for each ranger to replace safety gear.

These changes are essential to save lives and protect the forest rangers who protect us all.

✍️ Please sign to demand action from NYS now – no ranger should ever be left behind.

**If you feel compelled to make a donation in Brendan's memory, please visit the Adirondack Mountain Club website and make a donation to the Summit Stewardship Program. Donations when you sign, do not go towards this cause. Thank you.