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/