A Park Ranger’s Life Lessons – Think Twice About That Tattoo

Tattoos have become common in our society.  Movie stars, athletes, gang members, military personnel, and ordinary people at times cover their bodies with skin art.  At times some perhaps do not put enough time and thought in designing their body ink.

A few years ago one of the Park Rangers I worked with had a pickup truck pass him going the opposite direction at a high rate of speed.  The Ranger turned and attempted to stop the truck.  Rather slowing or stopping, as most people would do, the driver attempted to evade capture.  The closer the Park Ranger got the faster the pickup moved out.  The pursuer backed off to prevent a collision that could be caused by pushing the escape suspect to their driving skill limits.

The pickup driver then left the Parkway squealing tires off a ramp onto a winding state road.  The pursuing Ranger, then joined by another Park Ranger, continued to follow the pickup down the hair pin turn and tight switch back road losing sight of the vehicle. 

Both Rangers rounded a curve to find the pickup they had been attempting to stop in a ditch.  The driver’s door opened, the driver exited the vehicle and ran into the woods.

As required by pursuit policy, as the supervisor I received a telephone call to inform me of the incident.  I was told that the suspect was John Jones (name changed to protect the guilty).

“So you have the subject in custody?”

“No”

“The vehicle is registered to him?”  Which does not prove the registered owner was driving?

“No.”

“You already know him from a previous contact and recognized him?”

“No.”

“Okay, so how can you prove who he is?”

“Well he wasn’t wearing a shirt.”

“So……what does that have to do with it?”

“Well…he had his name tattooed in big letters across his back at the top of his shoulders.”

Later when John Jones was located at his girlfriend’s residence and asked to remove his shirt he did indeed have his own name tattooed in large distinctive letters across his back.  He also had a revoked driver’s license which is why he would not stop and he admitted to having a couple beers before being seen by the Park Ranger.

Lesson Learned – think through those tattoo plans.  Whatever you decide on will be with you for life.  Or at least keep your shirt on.

More Information on Blue Ridge Parkway Plant Theft

As written earlier today, Park Rangers on the Blue Ridge Parkway charged individuals in two separate cases with the theft of plants from a National Park area.  It has come to my attention that in just one of these cases the thieves had 442 plant roots that weighed 7 lbs. and 2.4 oz.  That is before drying roots which reduces the weight significantly, but dried is how it is sold.  The thieves attempt to sell the dried ginseng roots with current  prices running $500 to $600.  Some buyers in the past have been known to even pay higher prices if the plants are from National Parks because markets consider these to be more pure.

In one day these individuals were able to steal 442 plants from you the American public.  It makes one wonder how many plants are being stolen nationwide on an annual basis from our parks.

Park Rangers were able to make this case based on their years of experience and skills in tracking not only to find suspects, but to retrace their steps to discover where they have been.  In many such crimes the perpetrators will stash or hide their take in the woods near a road and then return later, sometimes in a different vehicle, to claim their take.

Above are some photos of the ginseng that was confiscated from the thieves.  In most cases the ginseng roots are photographed and documented as evidence.  The roots are then replanted by Park Rangers.  In this case the roots were so dry and damaged from the digging that they would not re sprout resulting in each plant being lost.

Plant Theft From The Blue Ridge Parkway

As I have written before, plant theft from our National Parks is a growing problem.  Vegetative populations are being devastated for the financial gain of a few.  National Parks belong to us all and these criminals are stealing from each citizen of this country.

Recently Park Rangers on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia caught two groups of people illegally digging valuable ginseng plants within the park.

The following is taken from the October 9th National Park Service Morning Report;

Blue Ridge Parkway

Rangers Make Two Ginseng Poaching Cases

On Sunday, September 30th, protection rangers in

the Ridge District detected and apprehended two separate groups of poachers 

illegally taking ginseng from park lands.  A group of four was seen digging illegally by

rangers Jeremy Sears and Marc Cyr; three of them were cited for the illegal

removal of the plant. 



Rangers Zeph Cunningham and Miranda Cook then

contacted two people as they walked along the parkway to their vehicle.

Further investigation resulted in the rangers discovering a bag stashed in

the woods that contained a large amount of ginseng and digging tools. One

of the people they contacted admitted to digging the ginseng and was placed

under arrest. A search of their vehicle resulted in the discovery of a

second bag of ginseng. 



Wild ginseng is currently being sold for $500 to

$600 per pound. [Kurt Speers, Ridge District Ranger]

National Parks Impact On The Economy

I have written on this blog several times in the past about the significant positive impact National Parks have on our Country's economy.  Preservation, emotions, and ethics aside; like most tangible items and concepts in our society today it can all be boiled down to dollars.

Go to this website listed below for a graphic example of how our parks are related to our financial security.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/what-funding-cuts-could-mean-for-national-parks-infograph

A Park Ranger's Life Blog Selected As One of Top 100 Forestry Resources

The organization Forestry Degree.net has selected this blog as One of the Top 100 Forestry Resources on line today.

From the ForestryDegree.net web site:

• Conservation
• Silviculture
• National & State Parks
• Forestry Business
• General

Forestry is defined as the science, art, and craft of creating, managing, using, and conserving forests and other resources to meet a variety of goals and for the benefit of humans and the world at large. This broad term covers a multitude of occupations, organizations, and causes. As such, there are a many fantastic forestry resources available online, and it can be challenging to sort through all of them. We here at ForestryDegree.net have done that for you by compiling this list of 100 top forestry resources. We based selections on a variety of factors including traffic, search ranking, quality of content, and their overall success in achieving forestry’s many goals. They aren’t listed in a specific order, but are simply the best of the best. Any forestry student, professional, or anyone simply interested in the great outdoors should find something useful on this list.

You will find "A Park Ranger's Life" as one of the nine selected under the category of National and State Parks.  For more information and to see the entire list go to:

http://forestrydegree.net/top-100-resources/

Park Ranger - A Dangerous Job

One of the most common comments I get from those that have read my book, "A Park Ranger's Life,"  is that they are surprised how dangerous a ranger's job can be.  Although I have to admit facing a few potentially hair raising adventures during my career they do not come close in comparison to the dangers faced by Park Rangers in other parts of the world.

According to the Game Rangers Association of Africa 60 Park Rangers world wide have been killed in the line of duty this past year.  Most of these deaths occurred in Africa where it is like a war zone attempting to protect large game animals.

Elephants are still killed for their ivory and rumors of rhinoceros horn being a cure for cancer is resulting in the slaughter of these animals.  There is so much money available through international markets that the impoverished people of the African Continent find that risking their lives is worth the risk for the pay day.  A result is that they have no reservations about killing others to illegally take wildlife.

You can add years of war in certain regions of the continent and the related availability of military grade small arms resulting in heavily armed poachers going up against lighter armed and in most cases outnumbered and under trained park rangers.  A poacher who is desperate is quick to make the decision to kill to escape with their prize.

You can learn more about this situation at the National Geographic Daily News website.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/09/120909-elephants-ivory-rangers-need-help/

Author of "A Park Ranger's Life" to Speak at Roads Scholar Program

I will be one of the guest speakers at the Roads Scholar week long session on "Shenandoah National Park and Human History in the Blue Ridge."  The program will be conducted during the week of September 16th to the 21st based in Staunton, Virginia.

This Roads Scholar presentation is being coordinated through Virginia Commonwealth University.  For more information go to;

http://www.roadscholar.org/n/program/summary.aspx?id=1-4EBTRM

A Park Ranger Looks Back - Follow Up Questions From a Reader

A follow up to the reader questions posted earlier today;

The answer was very helpful, it's hard to find a lot of information like this online. Do you have any other advice? Will the pro's out-weigh the con's in becoming a park ranger? Are the politics worth dealing with? I'm currently working toward my B.S. in Criminal Justice and Recreation Administration and getting into the NPS is one of my goals. I realized after watching the documentary " The Law of Nature: Park Rangers in Yosemite Valley " that it really is hard to balance budget along with the battle between generalization and specialization. I guess I have a lot of questions to ask since it's not only hard to find straight forward answers, but because I want to make sure I am looking past the romantic image of the park ranger. Especially after reading your book, and with me currently reading Ranger Confidential, what I am planning in going into has never felt so real. As with any career there are many pros and cons.  As I used to advise people later in my career, "There is no Utopia out there."   And at times when individuals would become overly frustrated with administrative matters, thoughts of transferring would dance in their heads.  At this point my advise would be that every job is going to have "B.S" you have to put up with.  But sometimes you just need some fresh B.S. The other thing I learned related to this topic is that the park you work in is not as important as the people you work with.  You can be in a not so famous or well regarded park, but if you are working with people you like and work well with you may find this to be the most rewarding part of  your career. Yes, there are some hard parts about being a National Park Ranger.  It is not for everyone.  To paraphrase an old saying, "If it was easy, everyone would do it." Many I worked with had their own frustrations and demons to deal with.  I talk about many of these in my book.  But in the long run I have to say I can not think of a career path that could have been more rewarding or fulfilling for me than being a National Park Ranger.  The key is to keep yourself focused on the mission of the agency and what drew you to the job in the first place.  That is not always easy to do and life's distractions will certainly step in the way.  You have to decide that this is a life path you want to commit to.  If you have a family, you need to be sure they know what you are getting into. For one starting into this career I would advise that in addition to keeping your personal focus you maintain an outside life away from the park.  In many instances individuals that become tied to their park 24/7 with no outside support system are in danger of burn out and suffer for it.  Make and keep friends that do not work for the Park Service.  It is amazing the emotional grounding that can provide.  Luckily for me my wife is a teacher and that gave us an additional social group away from the park.  Parks can be very busy and demanding places that can eat away all your soul if you let it.  At first this is an exciting adrenalin rush, but over time this can wear on the emotional threads of our lives. I would highly recommend that you find and read the book "Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement" by Kevin Gillmartin.  His research included working with National Park Rangers so this is not just information for big city police officers. I was privileged to attend a session given by Dr. Gillmartin at a training course later in my career and found his research astounding and resonating like it was written about my life in dealing with the demands of being a Park Ranger.  I really wish I had this information earlier in my career.  I was so moved by this that I bought a copy of the book for all the Rangers on my staff.  So check that out. So bottom line, after working as a National Park Ranger for almost 33 years and now having been retired for three would I do it all again.  Yes, I have to say I would not hesitate.  There is something about belonging to an organization that has what I feel has such an important mission that sings still sings to my soul.

Generalist Park Ranger Positions

Questions from a reader:

Hello, I have read your book and understand that the NPS have rangers specialize in specific fields. Are there certain areas where there is still the "ranger-does-all," such as law enforcement, firefighting, EMS, interpretation, maintenance, etc...?

I noticed looking through USAJOBS that there was one listing out of the other listings titled "Park Ranger (I)" that hopefully will still be up on this link: http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/324159700 Would this be the kind of career I am talking about?

Thank you for writing the book!

Thanks for reading my book.  I hope you enjoyed it.

The type of job you are describing is termed a "Generalist Ranger" in National Park Service parlance.  Truly  and totally generalist positions are becoming harder to find.  The demands of modern society have required park rangers to receive specialized training to be certified to perform duties in law enforcement, firefighting, EMS, and search and rescue.  This time and education commitment is good on one hand, but on the other tends to lead toward more specialization of individuals.

As a result in most parks rangers are divided into two main categories.  Protection Park Rangers are the ones who are mainly charged with law enforcement, fire fighting, EMS, and Search and Rescue.  

The second category is Interpretive Park Rangers or what you noted on the USAJobs web site a Park Ranger (I).  This is where you find your naturalists, historians, and educators.  These Park Rangers in many parks also get involved in protection functions other than law enforcement.  This is not normally part of their job description and is done more often if the employee is interested in doing that work and they have a supervisor who supports it.

Some parks will tend to have their personnel in more specialized positions and others will have people more involved a variety of duties.  It may even depend on where in the park a person is assigned.  As an example in Yosemite National Park if one works in protection position in the main Valley they will be spending most of their time focused on law enforcement.  There are also park rangers who specialize in search and rescue and others in interpretation.  If the position is in another area of the park that is less populated with visitors the duties will be more general in nature.

When reading through vacancy announcements on USAJobs.gov be sure to carefully read through the section on Qualifications and Duties.  This will give you some idea of what that specific position will entail.  If possible, I would recommend that you contact the park and talk with the Chief Ranger or other Park Rangers to ask what duties and the percentage of time Park Rangers spend conducting each activity run.  Even better whenever possible would be to visit the park in person.

Look at parks in a bit more remote areas with smaller staffs.  These areas tend to have their staffs work in more general positions to cover all the functions within a park with their limited personnel resources.

I hope this in some way answers some of your questions.

National Park Service Seasonal Law Enforcement Park Ranger Training

I have received several requests for information and guidance in the process to qualify for a job with the National Park Service as a Law Enforcement certified Park Ranger.  As I have written in the past,  the vast majority of individuals start working as a temporary or seasonal employee.  Not only myself, but most of the park rangers I worked with during my career started out this way.

One of the, what many consider, the oddities of the National Park Service is that to qualify for a seasonal law enforcement or protection positions an individual must complete a training academy certified by the Park Service.  You will hear this referred to as the Seasonal Law Enforcement Training Program or SLETP.  These training academies are operated by colleges and universities across the country.  The odd part is that this program is done by the prospective Park Ranger on their own time and at their own expense.  Once completed the graduate can be considered for hiring for jobs that last for up to six months at a National Park anywhere in the country.  In some cases these programs will also qualify graduates to work for state and local agencies where they are located.

In addition, once someone is fortunate enough to be selected for a permanent Park Ranger protection position, they will be required to complete the training program at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC).

You can learn a lot more at these sites:

http://www.nps.gov/personnel/seasonalle.htm

http://anpr.org/academies.htm