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So, You want to be a Park Ranger?

Becoming a Park Ranger for the National Park Service can be quite a chore. There are times when you just want to give up and throw in the towel. The eternal quest to become "permanent" becomes an obsession. What you must know that this is an honorable profession, something you can believe in, and the wait is rewarding.

APPLY ONLINE FOR SEASONAL JOBS Here is a link to the NPS website with information on seasonal employment.

The place to look for National Park Service jobs is The Office of Personnel Management USA Jobs Listing. You can search for jobs for all types of Federal agencies. If you do not have your government status, then there are only certain jobs that you may apply for. Any jobs that are open to "all sources" or "all qualified applicants" then you may apply. If you have your status already, then the number of jobs you may apply for is much greater.

GENERAL INFORMATION:

What is a Park Ranger and what do they do? A Park Ranger can be an employee of many different agencies, local, county, state or federal. I work as a Park Ranger for the National Park Service, a federal agency part of the Department of the Interior. Park Rangers perform many different jobs. In the past, Rangers were more generalized, they did a variety of things because staffing was low. A Ranger back then might bust a poacher, go hiking on a park trail, help a stranded motorist and give a nature walk all in one day.

Today, Rangers have become more specialized. There are still places where rangers do a wide variety of jobs. There are rangers that provide interpretaion to park visitors. They give nature walks, work with educational groups, staff park visitor centers, and give walking tours of the park.

Rangers also provide protection for the resources of the park, and to the people who visit the parks. These rangers perform law enforcement, search and rescue, firefighting duties, and emergency medical services.

There are Rangers that work in the park campgrounds, collect fees at park entrance stations, perform research in the park, and so many other jobs. An employee might not have the title "Park Ranger;" but wear the uniform of one. The government has split various jobs into various "series." Biologists, historians, and archaeologists might be others who wear the same uniform.

There are no education requirements for becoming a ranger, except having a high school diploma. Many Rangers have college degrees in a variety of fields. I suggest going to college and getting a degree. If you want to work in natural resources, geology, biology, ecology, wildlife management majors may be useful. For law enforcement, a criminal justice degree might help. My major was in Park Administration, which is a broad degree on park's management. Rangers have communications, law, history, business, and types of other degrees. If you have your heart set on becoming a Ranger, then major in something related to the field.

There are a few categories as a Park Ranger in regards to length of employment and benefits.

Seasonal - Working usually during the busy summer months for 4-6 months. Working during the winter as a seasonal is possible too, although not as in demand.
Temporary - Temporary rangers may work from over 6 months a year to four years; but health or retirement benefits are not included.
Permanent - Getting established in the NPS! Full time employment and benefits through the government. For many seasonals, the goal is to become permanent so they can start their career. Once permanent, you can apply for a greater amount of jobs. You also get your "status," which means you are a full time government employee.

Now, how do you get started? That can take a variety of forms. I suggest volunteering as a Volunteer In Parks (VIP) as a starting point. Any National Park Unit will have a VIP coordinator, and they can set you up. Being a volunteer shows you the details of working for the National Park Service. It's easy to get into and you'll be able to decide if this is the career you want to pursue further. I got my start as a Volunteer, and was satisfied enough to go on to the next step....actually becoming a Ranger.

For summer jobs, the number of parks you can apply to is two. This is done so people don't apply over and over to different parks. This year you may put in for summer jobs starting in September 15, 1999 through January 15, 2000. Winter seasonal work is harder to come by because there are lots of parks that don't hire winter seasonals. The southern parks generally have their busy seasons in the winter, so winter seasonals are needed. The open season for the winter jobs for 1999 are June 1, 1999 through July 15.

There are two forms that are generally used for government applications. These are the SF-171(Click here for more information on the SF-171) and OF 612 forms. They can be picked up at any federal building or through the Office of Personnel Management.

I thought the following little story was interesting about one of the most recognizable symbols of the Park Ranger...the Hat! This story was written by Henry Groskinsky.

In Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, the rangers have a simple rule for determining which of the folks they're guiding should not crawl through a tunnel in one Anasazi Indian ruin. "If you're wider than this," they say, holding up the stiff brimmed ranger hat, "you may not fit."

The Park Service has a hat rule as well: To fit the part, a ranger must wear the hat when meeting the public. (There are exceptions, like dispensing with the hat indoors.) Furthermore, it should be worn about two fingers above the eyebrow, parallel to the ground. But it may never be worn, sunflower style, on the back of the head; for a jaunty look it may be tilted slightly forward and to the right.

Some say that the regulation winter felt or summer straw hat with cordovan leather hatband is derived from the campaign hat worn by the cavalry. Others trace it to the Texas Rangers or Canadian Mounties. And confusion arose when, in 1944, the Forest Service adopted an ursine mascot wearing what even rangers sometimes call the Smokey Bear hat (more arose when nonranger staffers began to wear it too). In any case, one of the first written rules, in 1920, required the use of a "belly color " Stetson with "stiff or cardboard brim."

One of the first recorded complaints appeared in 1931. A park offical testified that it "cannot be firmly seated on the head without a great deal of discomfort and in many cases without incurring a headache." Nor have such complaints disappeared - not comfortable, not waterproof (without raincover), not warm.

Still, most rangers cherish the symbol and some manage to find creative uses for it. Rangers have employed it to distract bears, to water their horses, to jolly tired kids on nature walks, to play Frisbee, to fan campfires and to carry (an incomplete list) mud balls, blueberries, injured birds, turtle eggs and lecture notes. Before the eyes of astonished tour groups, rangers at Arizona's Wupatki National Monument place their hats atop a hole over an underground fault system that "breathes," and everyone watches them levitate two feet in the air. But the truest use of all is as an insignia of office - verified by a ranger (we shall not identify him lest he face disciplinary action) who, for some reason, went public without it: "I was mistaken for a bus driver."

Park Ranger vs. Forest Ranger (From the Sequoia/King's Canyon webpage)

Email: yoseranger@hotmail.com