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Becoming a Park Ranger
Thank you for your inquiry into employment as a ranger. The goal of a national park ranger is to proetect and preserve public resources while helping people enjoy them. This may be accomplished by fighting fires, enforcing land use regulations, or studying the natural world to learn how to better care for it. Education or interpretation is another field in which rangers work. Teaching people about parks, national monuments, and historic sites helps people understand and appreciate these national treasures and inspires their desire to protect them. These varied tasks can all be part of the job of a ranger.
Many rangers start as seasonal employees or volunteers. They work in urban and rural areas and often work in several different parks or positions to find the situation they enjoy the most. Some move into permanent positions and higher government service levels as their careers continue and they take on more administrative or legislative responsibilities.
If you are interested in following this career path, there are several information sources and programs to help you get started. Look up <Park Ranger Careers> on the National Park Service's website at http://www.nps.gov/index.htm The Student Conservation Association cooperates with the National Parks with a volunteer program which provides valuable on-the-job training. Undergraduate and graduate studies focused on physical sciences, resource management and business administration or pertinent work experience can also help a candidate qualify for a ranger position. Applications for seasonal ranger work can be found on the web at http://www.nps.gov/personnel/seasonal.htm Special local knowledge about a park near home can be useful in the National Park Service's local hire program. These are some of the ways you can begin a ranger career. For jobs other than seasonal positions, check out USA Jobs at http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/
To learn more about being a seasonal ranger at the Anchorage Alaska Public Lands Information Center, go to http://alaskacenters.gov/upload/Seasonal-Student-Park-Ranger-Position.pdf for a PDF.
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