Incoming superintendent of Morristown national park has wrestled tough problems…like gators

Jill Hawk, the incoming superintendent of the Morristown National Historical Park, sounds perfectly friendly over the phone.

Try telling that to an alligator that has been subdued by the Ohio native.

Jill’s 21-year career in the National Park Service has taken her from New York’s Fire Island and the Statue of Liberty to the Shenandoahs, the Blue Ridge mountains, Mount Rainier and … the Everglades. Where, on occasion, she had to jump on the backs of wayward gators and squeeze their jaws shut so they could be relocated.

It’s one skill she probably won’t use in Morristown when she arrives in January. But anyone contemplating mischief also should know that her resume includes 10 weeks of FBI training.

Jill prefers to talk about her role training prospective park service rangers in conjunction with Temple University in Philadelphia, her present home base. Thirteen students — including one from Morristown — just completed the summer program, which gives youths a taste of park service life.

“It’s a fantastic career,” alligators notwithstanding, said Jill, 45.

She wanted to be a park ranger at age 6, thanks to family vacations in the Smoky Mountains.

Asked why this career appealed to her, Jill recited from the 1916 federal legislation that created the National Park Service:

“… to promote and regulate the use of the … national parks … which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

In her own words:

“More than anything, it’s a job worth doing, with a mission much greater than myself,” Jill said.

In Morristown, she will oversee a 28-person staff with a $2.2 million budget and a whole lot of Revolutionary War history.

George Washington and his troops spent two tough winters in Morristown during the war for independence.

Established in 1933 as the country’s first national historical park, the Morristown National Historical Park now includes the Washington’s Headquarters Museum, the Ford Mansion where General Washington lived, the Jockey Hollow fields where troops suffered great hardships and a lookout post called Fort Nonsense. About 300,000 people visit these sites annually.

As a chief ranger overseeing wide-ranging duties at 76 sites in 13 states, Jill has earned a reputation as a “creative problem-solver,” Dennis R. Reidenbach, northeast regional director, said in a statement.

In Morristown, Jill will succeed Randy Turner, who is retiring after 35 years with the park service.

During five years in Morristown, Randy won friends in the historical community with programs including a “Revolutionary Times Weekend” that has become an annual event. He also oversaw more than $7 million in renovations at the museum and mansion.

Jill said she looks forward to continuing Randy’s community outreach programs.

“Each park has a phenomenal story. It’s the reason they’re called ‘national’ parks. It has to have a relationship to the country as a whole,” she said.  Jill plans to live at Jockey Hollow with her golden retrievers, Meeko and Kona. She’s also excited to be moving closer to family in Jefferson and Cedar Grove.

GATORS: ‘EVERYTHING HAS TO GO RIGHT’

As for moving gators, that required teamwork, with a capital T.

“It’s exhilarating. And quite frankly, it’s scary,” Jill said. “Everything has to go right. If someone gets scared at the last minute and pulls away, there could be a tragedy.”

Two burly people would tiptoe on both sides of the animal–gators have poor peripheral vision–and lasso its head with nooses attached to long plastic pipes.

Then Jill would jump on the reptile’s back and press its jaws together while another helper applied duct tape. Alligators can bite with incredible force, but their jaws open weakly.

A fifth person would secure the powerful tail–capable of breaking legs–with tape. Then everyone would hoist the beast into a truck for a 20-mile trip to a canal. The whole process might take a half hour. Exception: Momma gators.

“I would never, ever attempt to move a gator with eggs nearby,” she said.

Jill relocated three alligators, all in the eight- to nine-foot category, from the Tamiami Trail Reservation.

Gators were one thing. Snakes, now they were spooky.

When Jill served in the Everglades National Park in the early ’90s, she said, rangers encountered the occasional boa constrictor released by a pet owner. Now, pythons and anacondas are turning up, too.

“Maybe it’s a good thing I’m not down there now,” she said with a laugh.