Report: NPS river trips hostile to women in Grand Canyon

Associated Press

FLAGSTAFF, ARIZ.

Deep inside the Grand Canyon, on river trips that stretch for weeks, National Park Service workers have preyed on their female colleagues, demanding sex and retaliating against women who refused, a federal investigation found.

The Department of the Interior’s Inspector General’s report Tuesday was prompted by a complaint in 2014 accusing the Grand Canyon National Park’s chain of command of mishandling complaints that trip leaders pressured female co-workers for sex, touched them inappropriately, made lewd comments and retaliated when rejected.

Thirteen current and former Grand Canyon employees filed the 2014 complaint alleging a pattern of abuse that continued for 15 years. The Inspector General’s Office interviewed 80 people, 19 of whom said they experienced similar bad behavior; a park service human resources official described a “laissez faire” culture of “what happens on the river stays on the river” that continued even after the women formally complained.

Eight women said the men reacted in a hostile manner during the trips when rejected. Several accused a boatman of arbitrarily taking them to the wrong sites so that they couldn’t do their assigned work. One accused the supervisor of leaving cans of human waste outside her tent. Another said noncompliant female colleagues were denied food.

The report charts a dozen instances in which park employees have been disciplined for sexual misconduct since 2003, ranging from a written reprimand to suspension and termination, but it concludes that responses to harassment complaints and any resulting discipline have been so inconsistent that many women decided against reporting them at all.

Until recently, National Park Service managers allowed river rafters to bring alcohol on the Grand Canyon trips – a policy that changed last year, as the report was being prepared.

A spokesman outlined a series of reforms under consideration, saying the agency has zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

The report does not name any of the people involved, and The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual harassment without their consent. It focuses solely on National Park Service trips; Commercial and private, or self-guided, river trips are conducted through different systems.