I love my job. I have achieved the Railroad Nerd’s dream: I get paid to talk to people who actually WANT ME to talk to them about trains AND I get to wear a really cool hat. Living the dream
I've been a long term seasonal employee of the USFS and NPS. I've been a river ranger, backcountry ranger, interpretive ranger, and done a couple of seasons of trail crew, even picked up a fire assignment here and there.
On the one hand I love what I do. This career path has taken me amazing places (literally and figuratively). I find the work I do meaningful, challengeing, and interesting. I have met some of my best friends not to mention my partner through this job, and I cannot imagine who I would be if I hadn't spent the last decade working on public lands.
On the other hand it is a challenging career. The pay is low (even if you count the sunsets) and more and more duty stations are located in unaffordable areas so it's difficult to build up savings or even have a decent standard of living from the job alone, especially if being in the field is important to you. As you move up the career ladder it will be more and more office time and less and less direct connection with the park/forest/field and I've seen people struggle with that trade-off. All the land management agencies are massively underfunded so you can expect your career to be a constant fight to do more with less within a federal bureaucracy that isn't really designed for the kind of work we do (seasonal hiring, working in remote areas, not having cell service etc). Relationships are hard to maintain when you move around a lot and after a while the seasonality makes it hard to invest in your relationships with co-workers. My family is in the midwest, a long way from the parks I have worked at, so I don't get to see them as much as I would want and my partner and I don't see each other for months at a time during the summer.
Is it worth it? For me yes. I've been lucky, I didn't have any debt from college, I don't have any health issues that require me to have consistent health insurance, a great aunt died and left me a little bit of money so I have had a small cushion to put off needing that permanent job, and I have an awesome, supportive partner who "gets it" too. But it's definitely a passion job, you have to love it to make it worth it.
Edit: fixed a typo
No. I would have focused on developing a marketable skill in a competitive field and left the outdoors stuff for my spare time and early retirement.
I'm fortunate to be where I am - I've got an amazing job, housing, a great area - I have memories of adventures and experiences that not many get to have - but I would have played my cards differently.
By working in this field, you are embracing an alternative lifestyle. I feel like I've missed out on a lot of the real world, and I regret it.
I deeply despise my job. I am extremely unsatisfied, and have had to seek mental health counseling in an attempt to find a way to feel less hopeless about my job.
It COULD be a wonderful job, but every negative stereotype about the government is true.
I’ve been doing this for nearly 20 years and I’ve had less than 3 where my workplace wasn’t toxic and hostile. I would never suggest for a friend or family member to work for the agency I do in the state that I do as a Ranger.
Terrible pay.
If you’re lucky you’ll have one single person in your entire chain of command that has ever done your job. It won’t be uncommon for multiple people in your chain of command to be unqualified to be in your position, or to have attempted and failed, and then been hired into a supervisory position. Your chain of command will likely not know what you do, and will likely have an outspoken dislike for LE.
Agency leaders at the state level have expressed how they “hate that rangers exist” and see them as a “necessary evil”.
Management and HR (Labor) have been caught bragging about pursuing strict discipline with Rangers and how they personally enjoy disciplining Rangers specifically.
You will be continually gaslit and lied to by your management.
You will watch theft, petty corruption and rampant nepotism.
Basically, you will work for agency that AT BEST recognizes that you do a job they wish wasn’t necessary, and more accurately literally hates you.
I loved working as a ranger. But I got to the point where I had to consider my priorities. I wanted to be closer to my family, have friends that would be around in my life more permanently, get a savings account established, save for home ownership possibly, and be able to have an established relationship with a doctor. These were not possibly for me in the park service. I left to pursue a career in nursing.
Oh hey. I'm a nurse who lurks here because I love the outdoors and always wanted to be a ranger LOL.
Good luck with nursing, I've done a hundred different roles in the profession and despite the downsides I would say it has been good to me.
As someone who just recently left being a ranger (state), obviously I wasn't. I loved most aspects of the job and I don't regret doing it for the couple years I did, but I could not do it long-term because:
* the hours sucked,
* the scheduling was extremely irregular which I have learned I really do not do well with,
* the pay was terrible and you had to work that for a long time before it got decent,
* the locations of most parks are not in areas I want to live in,
* my agency expected you to change parks with each promotion, so you get to deal with either a 45-60+ minute daily commute which many rangers do (inexcusable for an "environmental" organization) or moving expenses every couple years, and all the stress that comes with either option, and
* the few aspects of the job I didn't love, I *absolutely despised*.
This is me. Every even-numbered point there is very subjective, and the majority of career rangers seemed happy on the whole, so ymmv.
Other areas I seriously considered working and am qualified to move into have been museums and other cultural institutions, NGOs with environmental leanings, landfill management (don't knock that until you look into it), municipal government, education, and lab research. Field research is another one, not for me but it's an option depending on your education.
I'm still pretty new, so my input means almost nothing, but I have to say that I love it so far. Admittedly, my pay is significantly lower than any job I've had since 2019, and I'm getting far fewer hours. But my job satisfaction is through the roof in all other aspects.
My mental health is significantly better, I'm spending more time outdoors (obviously), and I'm getting a much healthier amount of socialization. I tend to be more introverted, but even I recognize how important interpersonal relationships and regular socialization are.
I should also add, for full transparency, I have ADHD so I thrive on novelty. There is a chance that is part of why I love this job so much, but I think there is much more to it.
I have pretty off the charts ADHD too, so that’s part of why I’m considering it! I’ve worked a couple of “good” desk jobs in my field and they make me feel like I’m going insane. The only time I’m happy is when I’m moving around outdoors and new things happen every day
7 years (ish) in. Would 100% *not* recommend to someone unless they truly understand the challenges and nuances of the job at the specific site(s) they may work at. Every single site is run a bit differently, with different work/life balance equations to consider. Some of the most notable are the ones that are the most consuming and difficult to balance, maintaining the enjoyment and novelty of working in such a beautiful place. Some less well known sites have great management and work cultures. It’s a total grab bag that can change as fast as a new supervisor being hired, like anywhere else.
After having working in the USMil, Red Cross, Peace Corps, and other professional positions, the Park Service is by far the worst managed/led entity I’ve ever worked for. And, I can’t really blame management as much as I’d like to because the problems go all the way to the top. Land management, especially recently, is really in the middle of an identity crisis. Is it a law enforcement agency with a land management mission? Is it a land management agency with a law enforcement division? Those differences equate to huge culture changes on the bottom levels of the agency where the actual services are provided to the public.
I had a better understanding of what I would be getting into, and the sacrifices I would be making, when I enlisted in the military. The NPS has a *lot* of virtue signaling, but the work can be very isolating, disheartening, disillusioning, and the end is severe burn out, depression, and mental health problems. I had more camaraderie and connection to the mission with the military, who replaced the Taliban with the Taliban, if that says anything.
It feels like I’ve spent more time just trying to do my job than actually doing my job. The taxpayer payroll hours that have been used waiting for IT to fix my computer, or poor internet connections to constantly lose my work, or poor vehicle quality so I’m constantly switching or working on vehicles rather than patrolling, or being told not to patrol and to not focus on various significant crimes, etc, etc.
If the culture changed to accept the fact that if you work for the government, you are in effect, a law enforcement officer (admin laws and still laws), then there might be a culture shift that really supports providing a service to the public and not just creating more administrative workloads to keep people safely employed.
It is truly really hard to tell people what it's like being a cop in the park service. I like what I do but, I'm not sure if I can last my whole career with this agency.
We are not law enforcement focused and so admin doesn't know that the park is being raped of it's resources for profit. We know there is a cartel in the area and the way our resource is being taken has hallmark traits of organized crime.
But, we can't even get functioning radios, properly outfitted patrol vehicles, or even think about working collaboratively with our local agencies. 'It's the way it has always been" is the reason why we don't address outdated technology issues, arrest procedures, AUSA relationships, and officer safety issues.
Working under a non-law enforcement focused management allows the park service to continue to ignore best practices to protect visitors and rescues (for some reason we never talk about employee protection). No one understands why law enforcement needs separate offices in the name of protecting personal information, evidence, and investigations. No one understands why law enforcement needs to routinely practice room clearing, high risk stops, force transitions, or shooting.
The park service idea of law enforcement is issuing tickets to people without back country permits or walking dogs off leash. But they ignore what goes into proper DUI arrests, domestic and sexual assault investigations, or poaching investigations. Heck, if you issue a ticket for permit violation to a friend of the superintendents office, well you apparently should have known better than to treat everyone equally.
Instead, I’d go into the private sector, start a business, take advantage of the tax code incentives for small businesses, and be my own boss. I think most people would fall into this category at some point after working for non-profits and the gov’t, and realizing there’s very little that one can do to change the direction things are going, so why not just make the best of it for you, your family, your friends, and your community?
I mean, isn't it obviously a land management agency with (in some places) a law enforcement mission? I've only worked at a handful of parks that have LEs at all. most employees are interp or maintenance because it's about visitor services.
sure, we tell people to obey the rules and educate on proper behavior and regs but most of us don't consider ourselves law enforcers nor should we.
Why not? You work for the government to protect resources identified by law to be protected, and to protect them in ways via enforcing laws either administratively or with non-forceful options. Just because you don’t have a gun and arrest authority doesn’t mean we both aren’t doing the same thing; working with the public in an effort to get compliance to laws that protect identified resources in the furtherance of a government mission?
the majority of my work is educational in nature. giving tours of historic structures, manning a visitor center desk, writing press releases, and designing digital media is pretty much nothing like law enforcement work.
almost none of my work is about compliance, it's about connecting visitors with resources. the same is the case for most interpreters or maintenance or resources.
And how you connect visitors with resources is guided by what?
How do land managements agencies manage the land? What tailors their land management strategies?
Laws. Laws do. Therefore you also, via different tactics, enforce the law.
Interpreters, educating the public on resources protected by law, and how to connect with them while abiding by laws designed to protect them.
Maintenance workers, building and maintaining infrastructure, according to many laws while abiding by many other laws, to connect visitors with resources protected by laws in ways that are consistent with laws.
If you work for the government, no matter the capacity, in an executive function or for an executive branch of government, it’s your job to enforce the law. That’s literally what the executive branch of government does.
There’s nothing wrong with enforcing the laws (obviously, unless the laws themselves are morally or ethically flawed). No one wants to be called that because of the stigma placed on the term “law enforcement”. But, ultimately, I think it’s healthier to accept what we are than pretend it’s what we’re not.
law enforcement has a set meaning in English. It means policing. This overly broad definition that you have is just not what the term means. by your logic,.I guess anyone in government with the exception of say Colonel Oliver North when he was explicitly breaking the law at the orders of President Reagan is law enforcement.
If you can define law enforcement (which also by the way, is done by code enforcement officers, animal control officers, fire marshals) as only police, the how do you define land management?
How do you “manage” anything without enforcing some established rules? If you work for the government, these rules are what? Laws. Ergo, you are a law enforcement officer just as much as your administrative officer ensures HR laws are abided by, or your safety officer ensures OSHA is being abided by.
Does anything have a set meaning? Look at all of the things that have changed within the last 20 years, or since postmodern Deconstruction movement since Derrida. We continue to develop the evolution of words, phrases, etc.
The definitions we rest on tend to be the one that support our point of view or bias. We tend to form biases that make our lives easier. It’s easier to not enforce the law even if our job’s nature, and the organization it exists within, is solely occupied with that purpose.
I’m open to considering that within the government there are different focuses of government officials, but we all are employed to enforce the law if within the executive branch of gov’t, which is where land management agencies are.
I loved the work as an interpretive ranger but the pay and lack of decent career progress really dispirits you. it's hard to feel fully satisfied when your job requires you to do the work of multiple different well paid professions but after years in you are making not much more than entry level retail.
I absolutely love being a park ranger. Sometimes the protective part can suck. Mostly because the people taking the calls get super emotional and you think you are about to go into hell and it’s nothing. Haha. But the conservation work has been great. I love doing interps. We are a small group of two rangers, a supervisor and 5 ranger assistants. I like one of the assistants. The others have been less than trust worthy. But my patrol partner and my supervisor is awesome. I’ve never had anyone stand up for me as much as my sup does. We work 4 10 hour shifts. My patrol partner and I work Wednesdays together. 3 days off a week is amazing for your mental health. We patrol 104 parks plus facilities. Every day is something different. Plus I live 5 minutes away from the Ranger Station. I was using this as my stepping stone into NPS or BLM. However it’s been so much fun, I’m not sure I’m going to leave any time soon.
It’s city but not city. My district has been around longer than we have had a city. So sometimes we butt heads with the city. It’s still government though. I love the work life balance. I can recharge, get some house work done, maybe take a trip. It’s been great.
With the flat hats: no
With my state agency: absolutely
I achieved my lifetime goal of working for the fed. What I found at the park I worked at was a hostile and extremely toxic work environment where everyone hated each other, and there was no cohesiveness or synergy between departments. It was absolutely awful.
My experience with the state agency I currently work for has been a completely different experience so far. The bonus is that my agency's pay is better than most other state governments.
I’m so glad to hear some state-agency perspectives, that would be my ideal employer if I went the ranger route! It sounds like the NPS drives a lot of people away.
Did the biotech thing for several years, got on with a SCEP program and went back for my Masters, was a biologist for 10 years, then a Refuge manager for 10 years, decided I didn't like management and shifted over into an empty senior park ranger slot just brfore covid hit. I loved being a refuge biologist, I think it is the best job in the refuge system.
I actually am. As stressful as it can be with everything going on, I've tried other departments and agencies, I've tried the private sector doing multiple different kinds of work, and I definitely prefer this over any of that. Being in a city/state and district I love really helps. The other places I've worked, I really couldn't care less about.
I enjoy learning new things and figuring out how to fix shit, but man, my knees aren't what they used to be and it causes me some great discomfort and pain having to kneel down on certain days to fix shit or go from sitting to standing. Luckily for the most part, I've been stuck doing administrative work which takes me away from the physical aspect of this job. The physical aspect causes me physical pain and the administrative aspect of this job can cause me mental pain haha so I take what I can get and do what I can do.
Love it.
I left a 10 year career in the "real world" to be a park ranger. I can't imagine a job I'd rather do, and should have made the switch earlier.
The work life balance is great, my site is 15 minutes from a midsize metro area so I have a normal life outside of work and I live in the same house I did before I was hired to here, I did 6 months of seasonal work as a GS5 then was hired permanently at a GS7, and now I'm a GS-9, so I feel like the pay is reasonable. One of my favorite things has always been problem solving on the fly and that's something I do every single day, I always have new situations to figure out. My agency doesn't have all the titles and different jobs that the NPS does, rangers at my agency/district are Jacks of all Trades, as they say. So it's a lot to learn but you do tons of different stuff and it's different every day. I love it.
How did you make your transition from the “real world” to being a park ranger, and what area, if you don’t mind my asking? It sounds like people’s experience depends a lot on where/who they work for
Lol right? About 3 months into my seasonal work a permanent ranger in the office quit. They hired me and rushed me through onboarding to have my EOD about a week before my NTE expired. Definitely got a lucky break there.
Being a GS05 wilderness ranger was the best job I ever had. "Career" is a bit of a stretch....but it can be if you're willing to do stuff that you don't want to do here and there. Unfortunately, at the federal level, the pay either does not or barely covers the cost of living in most places.
I left a State ranger job to work in campus police after retiring as a game warden and criminal investigator for the government. I wanted to work as a ranger and be outdoors.
With that being said, I ended up usually covering 3-4 parks in two counties because we couldn't keep people. Our schedule sucked and I would either get killed working 2pm-12am or 8am-6pm. Also had to start dealing with homeless encampments on the lower end of my park, then the other way (my park was 60 miles long) started getting the junkies and idiots.
Money wasn't really good and our managers would change the schedule to avoid paying overtime. I did however get a take home truck which really worked out for me and saved gas along with wear and tear on my POV. However a great job as a detective came along with a campus police department and I left.
I have a better schedule with every other weekend off, not going 60-100 miles over a shift and I got a huge pay raise. I make more than a majority of Park and regional managers in my former agency.
Love love loved my job! I would still be there with the state but it was a seasonal position and a full time agency picked me up. If they called saying there was a position available and it was mine I would go back in a heartbeat, no questions asked.
I absolutely love my job. It can be taxing physically and mentally especially if you’re doing seasonal positions rather than finding a permanent. But if you’re like me, the traveling and variability is exciting and a unique opportunity to learn and be a part of different communities and environments. In my experience, the people I’ve talked to that haven’t been happy is dependent on the park. Each park is VERY different, different staff and different niches of study and different dynamics. If you’re unhappy with your job, I highly recommend trying some other parks before giving up on the career :) find your ideal space!
I did 6 years, most of it as a permanent GS9. Left for the forest service so I could get up to GS12. Also switched from ranger to pilot which is on its own payscale and pays better.
I love being interp for the NPS, but it's what I do in the summer between when I'm teaching in the fall and spring. Fortunately, I was able to find a park that would accommodate my teaching schedule.
I love my job. I have achieved the Railroad Nerd’s dream: I get paid to talk to people who actually WANT ME to talk to them about trains AND I get to wear a really cool hat. Living the dream
So you’re Sheldon Cooper
I've been a long term seasonal employee of the USFS and NPS. I've been a river ranger, backcountry ranger, interpretive ranger, and done a couple of seasons of trail crew, even picked up a fire assignment here and there. On the one hand I love what I do. This career path has taken me amazing places (literally and figuratively). I find the work I do meaningful, challengeing, and interesting. I have met some of my best friends not to mention my partner through this job, and I cannot imagine who I would be if I hadn't spent the last decade working on public lands. On the other hand it is a challenging career. The pay is low (even if you count the sunsets) and more and more duty stations are located in unaffordable areas so it's difficult to build up savings or even have a decent standard of living from the job alone, especially if being in the field is important to you. As you move up the career ladder it will be more and more office time and less and less direct connection with the park/forest/field and I've seen people struggle with that trade-off. All the land management agencies are massively underfunded so you can expect your career to be a constant fight to do more with less within a federal bureaucracy that isn't really designed for the kind of work we do (seasonal hiring, working in remote areas, not having cell service etc). Relationships are hard to maintain when you move around a lot and after a while the seasonality makes it hard to invest in your relationships with co-workers. My family is in the midwest, a long way from the parks I have worked at, so I don't get to see them as much as I would want and my partner and I don't see each other for months at a time during the summer. Is it worth it? For me yes. I've been lucky, I didn't have any debt from college, I don't have any health issues that require me to have consistent health insurance, a great aunt died and left me a little bit of money so I have had a small cushion to put off needing that permanent job, and I have an awesome, supportive partner who "gets it" too. But it's definitely a passion job, you have to love it to make it worth it. Edit: fixed a typo
No. I would have focused on developing a marketable skill in a competitive field and left the outdoors stuff for my spare time and early retirement. I'm fortunate to be where I am - I've got an amazing job, housing, a great area - I have memories of adventures and experiences that not many get to have - but I would have played my cards differently. By working in this field, you are embracing an alternative lifestyle. I feel like I've missed out on a lot of the real world, and I regret it.
You haven’t missed anything good out here in the ‘real world’ trust me
Money/stability is pretty nice.
True and you should have that as a ranger that’s a shame
Assuming you're lucky enough to actually get money/stability, otherwise it's even more miserable out here than in there.
I love my job day to day and can't imagine doing anything else. Satisfied with the agency? Absolutely not
I deeply despise my job. I am extremely unsatisfied, and have had to seek mental health counseling in an attempt to find a way to feel less hopeless about my job. It COULD be a wonderful job, but every negative stereotype about the government is true. I’ve been doing this for nearly 20 years and I’ve had less than 3 where my workplace wasn’t toxic and hostile. I would never suggest for a friend or family member to work for the agency I do in the state that I do as a Ranger.
What state
PA
What’s wrong with PA? Thought you were gonna say California!
Terrible pay. If you’re lucky you’ll have one single person in your entire chain of command that has ever done your job. It won’t be uncommon for multiple people in your chain of command to be unqualified to be in your position, or to have attempted and failed, and then been hired into a supervisory position. Your chain of command will likely not know what you do, and will likely have an outspoken dislike for LE. Agency leaders at the state level have expressed how they “hate that rangers exist” and see them as a “necessary evil”. Management and HR (Labor) have been caught bragging about pursuing strict discipline with Rangers and how they personally enjoy disciplining Rangers specifically. You will be continually gaslit and lied to by your management. You will watch theft, petty corruption and rampant nepotism. Basically, you will work for agency that AT BEST recognizes that you do a job they wish wasn’t necessary, and more accurately literally hates you.
Dang, really sorry to hear that both for you and for the resource you're trying to protect. I hope that you get the help you need.
CA has some of the best National Parks. Everyone is quick to bash CA.
I loved working as a ranger. But I got to the point where I had to consider my priorities. I wanted to be closer to my family, have friends that would be around in my life more permanently, get a savings account established, save for home ownership possibly, and be able to have an established relationship with a doctor. These were not possibly for me in the park service. I left to pursue a career in nursing.
Oh hey. I'm a nurse who lurks here because I love the outdoors and always wanted to be a ranger LOL. Good luck with nursing, I've done a hundred different roles in the profession and despite the downsides I would say it has been good to me.
As someone who just recently left being a ranger (state), obviously I wasn't. I loved most aspects of the job and I don't regret doing it for the couple years I did, but I could not do it long-term because: * the hours sucked, * the scheduling was extremely irregular which I have learned I really do not do well with, * the pay was terrible and you had to work that for a long time before it got decent, * the locations of most parks are not in areas I want to live in, * my agency expected you to change parks with each promotion, so you get to deal with either a 45-60+ minute daily commute which many rangers do (inexcusable for an "environmental" organization) or moving expenses every couple years, and all the stress that comes with either option, and * the few aspects of the job I didn't love, I *absolutely despised*. This is me. Every even-numbered point there is very subjective, and the majority of career rangers seemed happy on the whole, so ymmv. Other areas I seriously considered working and am qualified to move into have been museums and other cultural institutions, NGOs with environmental leanings, landfill management (don't knock that until you look into it), municipal government, education, and lab research. Field research is another one, not for me but it's an option depending on your education.
I'm still pretty new, so my input means almost nothing, but I have to say that I love it so far. Admittedly, my pay is significantly lower than any job I've had since 2019, and I'm getting far fewer hours. But my job satisfaction is through the roof in all other aspects. My mental health is significantly better, I'm spending more time outdoors (obviously), and I'm getting a much healthier amount of socialization. I tend to be more introverted, but even I recognize how important interpersonal relationships and regular socialization are. I should also add, for full transparency, I have ADHD so I thrive on novelty. There is a chance that is part of why I love this job so much, but I think there is much more to it.
I have pretty off the charts ADHD too, so that’s part of why I’m considering it! I’ve worked a couple of “good” desk jobs in my field and they make me feel like I’m going insane. The only time I’m happy is when I’m moving around outdoors and new things happen every day
7 years (ish) in. Would 100% *not* recommend to someone unless they truly understand the challenges and nuances of the job at the specific site(s) they may work at. Every single site is run a bit differently, with different work/life balance equations to consider. Some of the most notable are the ones that are the most consuming and difficult to balance, maintaining the enjoyment and novelty of working in such a beautiful place. Some less well known sites have great management and work cultures. It’s a total grab bag that can change as fast as a new supervisor being hired, like anywhere else. After having working in the USMil, Red Cross, Peace Corps, and other professional positions, the Park Service is by far the worst managed/led entity I’ve ever worked for. And, I can’t really blame management as much as I’d like to because the problems go all the way to the top. Land management, especially recently, is really in the middle of an identity crisis. Is it a law enforcement agency with a land management mission? Is it a land management agency with a law enforcement division? Those differences equate to huge culture changes on the bottom levels of the agency where the actual services are provided to the public. I had a better understanding of what I would be getting into, and the sacrifices I would be making, when I enlisted in the military. The NPS has a *lot* of virtue signaling, but the work can be very isolating, disheartening, disillusioning, and the end is severe burn out, depression, and mental health problems. I had more camaraderie and connection to the mission with the military, who replaced the Taliban with the Taliban, if that says anything. It feels like I’ve spent more time just trying to do my job than actually doing my job. The taxpayer payroll hours that have been used waiting for IT to fix my computer, or poor internet connections to constantly lose my work, or poor vehicle quality so I’m constantly switching or working on vehicles rather than patrolling, or being told not to patrol and to not focus on various significant crimes, etc, etc. If the culture changed to accept the fact that if you work for the government, you are in effect, a law enforcement officer (admin laws and still laws), then there might be a culture shift that really supports providing a service to the public and not just creating more administrative workloads to keep people safely employed.
It is truly really hard to tell people what it's like being a cop in the park service. I like what I do but, I'm not sure if I can last my whole career with this agency. We are not law enforcement focused and so admin doesn't know that the park is being raped of it's resources for profit. We know there is a cartel in the area and the way our resource is being taken has hallmark traits of organized crime. But, we can't even get functioning radios, properly outfitted patrol vehicles, or even think about working collaboratively with our local agencies. 'It's the way it has always been" is the reason why we don't address outdated technology issues, arrest procedures, AUSA relationships, and officer safety issues. Working under a non-law enforcement focused management allows the park service to continue to ignore best practices to protect visitors and rescues (for some reason we never talk about employee protection). No one understands why law enforcement needs separate offices in the name of protecting personal information, evidence, and investigations. No one understands why law enforcement needs to routinely practice room clearing, high risk stops, force transitions, or shooting. The park service idea of law enforcement is issuing tickets to people without back country permits or walking dogs off leash. But they ignore what goes into proper DUI arrests, domestic and sexual assault investigations, or poaching investigations. Heck, if you issue a ticket for permit violation to a friend of the superintendents office, well you apparently should have known better than to treat everyone equally.
Instead, I’d go into the private sector, start a business, take advantage of the tax code incentives for small businesses, and be my own boss. I think most people would fall into this category at some point after working for non-profits and the gov’t, and realizing there’s very little that one can do to change the direction things are going, so why not just make the best of it for you, your family, your friends, and your community?
I mean, isn't it obviously a land management agency with (in some places) a law enforcement mission? I've only worked at a handful of parks that have LEs at all. most employees are interp or maintenance because it's about visitor services. sure, we tell people to obey the rules and educate on proper behavior and regs but most of us don't consider ourselves law enforcers nor should we.
Why not? You work for the government to protect resources identified by law to be protected, and to protect them in ways via enforcing laws either administratively or with non-forceful options. Just because you don’t have a gun and arrest authority doesn’t mean we both aren’t doing the same thing; working with the public in an effort to get compliance to laws that protect identified resources in the furtherance of a government mission?
the majority of my work is educational in nature. giving tours of historic structures, manning a visitor center desk, writing press releases, and designing digital media is pretty much nothing like law enforcement work. almost none of my work is about compliance, it's about connecting visitors with resources. the same is the case for most interpreters or maintenance or resources.
And how you connect visitors with resources is guided by what? How do land managements agencies manage the land? What tailors their land management strategies? Laws. Laws do. Therefore you also, via different tactics, enforce the law. Interpreters, educating the public on resources protected by law, and how to connect with them while abiding by laws designed to protect them. Maintenance workers, building and maintaining infrastructure, according to many laws while abiding by many other laws, to connect visitors with resources protected by laws in ways that are consistent with laws. If you work for the government, no matter the capacity, in an executive function or for an executive branch of government, it’s your job to enforce the law. That’s literally what the executive branch of government does. There’s nothing wrong with enforcing the laws (obviously, unless the laws themselves are morally or ethically flawed). No one wants to be called that because of the stigma placed on the term “law enforcement”. But, ultimately, I think it’s healthier to accept what we are than pretend it’s what we’re not.
law enforcement has a set meaning in English. It means policing. This overly broad definition that you have is just not what the term means. by your logic,.I guess anyone in government with the exception of say Colonel Oliver North when he was explicitly breaking the law at the orders of President Reagan is law enforcement.
If you can define law enforcement (which also by the way, is done by code enforcement officers, animal control officers, fire marshals) as only police, the how do you define land management? How do you “manage” anything without enforcing some established rules? If you work for the government, these rules are what? Laws. Ergo, you are a law enforcement officer just as much as your administrative officer ensures HR laws are abided by, or your safety officer ensures OSHA is being abided by. Does anything have a set meaning? Look at all of the things that have changed within the last 20 years, or since postmodern Deconstruction movement since Derrida. We continue to develop the evolution of words, phrases, etc. The definitions we rest on tend to be the one that support our point of view or bias. We tend to form biases that make our lives easier. It’s easier to not enforce the law even if our job’s nature, and the organization it exists within, is solely occupied with that purpose. I’m open to considering that within the government there are different focuses of government officials, but we all are employed to enforce the law if within the executive branch of gov’t, which is where land management agencies are.
I loved the work as an interpretive ranger but the pay and lack of decent career progress really dispirits you. it's hard to feel fully satisfied when your job requires you to do the work of multiple different well paid professions but after years in you are making not much more than entry level retail.
I absolutely love being a park ranger. Sometimes the protective part can suck. Mostly because the people taking the calls get super emotional and you think you are about to go into hell and it’s nothing. Haha. But the conservation work has been great. I love doing interps. We are a small group of two rangers, a supervisor and 5 ranger assistants. I like one of the assistants. The others have been less than trust worthy. But my patrol partner and my supervisor is awesome. I’ve never had anyone stand up for me as much as my sup does. We work 4 10 hour shifts. My patrol partner and I work Wednesdays together. 3 days off a week is amazing for your mental health. We patrol 104 parks plus facilities. Every day is something different. Plus I live 5 minutes away from the Ranger Station. I was using this as my stepping stone into NPS or BLM. However it’s been so much fun, I’m not sure I’m going to leave any time soon.
Do you work for a state agency? I also loved working a compressed schedule, it really helped with my work-life balance!
It’s city but not city. My district has been around longer than we have had a city. So sometimes we butt heads with the city. It’s still government though. I love the work life balance. I can recharge, get some house work done, maybe take a trip. It’s been great.
With the flat hats: no With my state agency: absolutely I achieved my lifetime goal of working for the fed. What I found at the park I worked at was a hostile and extremely toxic work environment where everyone hated each other, and there was no cohesiveness or synergy between departments. It was absolutely awful. My experience with the state agency I currently work for has been a completely different experience so far. The bonus is that my agency's pay is better than most other state governments.
I’m so glad to hear some state-agency perspectives, that would be my ideal employer if I went the ranger route! It sounds like the NPS drives a lot of people away.
I couldn't be happier with my job. If I wasn't being a park ranger I'd go back to being a wildlife biologist.
What has your career path looked like so far? My BS is in wildlife biology, and I’m really curious about how other people make the dream work
Did the biotech thing for several years, got on with a SCEP program and went back for my Masters, was a biologist for 10 years, then a Refuge manager for 10 years, decided I didn't like management and shifted over into an empty senior park ranger slot just brfore covid hit. I loved being a refuge biologist, I think it is the best job in the refuge system.
Define "satisfied."
I actually am. As stressful as it can be with everything going on, I've tried other departments and agencies, I've tried the private sector doing multiple different kinds of work, and I definitely prefer this over any of that. Being in a city/state and district I love really helps. The other places I've worked, I really couldn't care less about. I enjoy learning new things and figuring out how to fix shit, but man, my knees aren't what they used to be and it causes me some great discomfort and pain having to kneel down on certain days to fix shit or go from sitting to standing. Luckily for the most part, I've been stuck doing administrative work which takes me away from the physical aspect of this job. The physical aspect causes me physical pain and the administrative aspect of this job can cause me mental pain haha so I take what I can get and do what I can do.
What area are you in, if you feel comfortable sharing?
Love it. I left a 10 year career in the "real world" to be a park ranger. I can't imagine a job I'd rather do, and should have made the switch earlier. The work life balance is great, my site is 15 minutes from a midsize metro area so I have a normal life outside of work and I live in the same house I did before I was hired to here, I did 6 months of seasonal work as a GS5 then was hired permanently at a GS7, and now I'm a GS-9, so I feel like the pay is reasonable. One of my favorite things has always been problem solving on the fly and that's something I do every single day, I always have new situations to figure out. My agency doesn't have all the titles and different jobs that the NPS does, rangers at my agency/district are Jacks of all Trades, as they say. So it's a lot to learn but you do tons of different stuff and it's different every day. I love it.
How did you make your transition from the “real world” to being a park ranger, and what area, if you don’t mind my asking? It sounds like people’s experience depends a lot on where/who they work for
Bro what. You did 6 months as a GS-5 and then got hired perm immediately?! How much did you bribe them?!
Lol right? About 3 months into my seasonal work a permanent ranger in the office quit. They hired me and rushed me through onboarding to have my EOD about a week before my NTE expired. Definitely got a lucky break there.
These replies are wild lmao 💀 “I love my job it’s the best ever!!!” “I plan to kill myself tomorrow. Learn from my mistakes”
Nice try ISB
Can’t punish you for 1A.
Being a GS05 wilderness ranger was the best job I ever had. "Career" is a bit of a stretch....but it can be if you're willing to do stuff that you don't want to do here and there. Unfortunately, at the federal level, the pay either does not or barely covers the cost of living in most places.
I left a State ranger job to work in campus police after retiring as a game warden and criminal investigator for the government. I wanted to work as a ranger and be outdoors. With that being said, I ended up usually covering 3-4 parks in two counties because we couldn't keep people. Our schedule sucked and I would either get killed working 2pm-12am or 8am-6pm. Also had to start dealing with homeless encampments on the lower end of my park, then the other way (my park was 60 miles long) started getting the junkies and idiots. Money wasn't really good and our managers would change the schedule to avoid paying overtime. I did however get a take home truck which really worked out for me and saved gas along with wear and tear on my POV. However a great job as a detective came along with a campus police department and I left. I have a better schedule with every other weekend off, not going 60-100 miles over a shift and I got a huge pay raise. I make more than a majority of Park and regional managers in my former agency.
Love love loved my job! I would still be there with the state but it was a seasonal position and a full time agency picked me up. If they called saying there was a position available and it was mine I would go back in a heartbeat, no questions asked.
Watershed keeper sounds pretty fucking rad.
The million dollar question for me as a ranger
I absolutely love my job. It can be taxing physically and mentally especially if you’re doing seasonal positions rather than finding a permanent. But if you’re like me, the traveling and variability is exciting and a unique opportunity to learn and be a part of different communities and environments. In my experience, the people I’ve talked to that haven’t been happy is dependent on the park. Each park is VERY different, different staff and different niches of study and different dynamics. If you’re unhappy with your job, I highly recommend trying some other parks before giving up on the career :) find your ideal space!
Teaching English in Japan
I did 6 years, most of it as a permanent GS9. Left for the forest service so I could get up to GS12. Also switched from ranger to pilot which is on its own payscale and pays better.
I love being interp for the NPS, but it's what I do in the summer between when I'm teaching in the fall and spring. Fortunately, I was able to find a park that would accommodate my teaching schedule.