Not everyone has the advantage of growing up as a park brat, but that doesn't mean that a life in the Park Service is out of reach. We talk with people all the time who are convinced that it's their dream job, but there's just no way that they could do it. They don't think they could compete, they don't think they could relocate, and most of all they don't think their skills are applicable to the service.
The reality is that the NPS is a complex organization, with thousands of different jobs and duties. The Rangers that visitors see are the public face of the Park Service, but for ever Ranger you see there are 5-10 support staff working to ensure that everything goes smoothly in the background.
Many of the contributors to this blog are members of the support staff. We operate in jobs that the public is never going to see, doing things that people don't associate with the National Parks. We don't wear uniforms, or give programs to teach people about the parks, but we bleed green and grey just the same. Our talents aren't suited to interacting with visitors day after day, but we still work hard to ensure that the parks remain safe, functional, and preserved for future generations to enjoy.
If you're interested in becoming part of the Park Service, but don't want to become a "Ranger", then it might help to have a brief overview of the organization of NPS.
NPS Employment within a park, monument, region, etc. breaks down into 5 main "Divisions", each with designated duties related to the Park Service mission.
Administration: The admin staff of parks handles things like payroll, budget, human resources, Information Technology, and purchasing. Other departments, such as Concessions and OPAC (office of planning and compliance), usually also end up as a subset of this division.
Facility Maintenance (also known as "Design and Engineering"): The maintenance staff works to cover everything from building and housing maintenance to trail construction and waste management. In most NPS locations this is actually the largest portion of the staff.
Science & Resource Management (also known as "Natural\Cultural Resources"): S&RM functions as the academic side of the Park Service. Staff who work for S&RM include Biologists, Botanists, Zoologists, Archaeologists, Paleontologists, Hydrologists, Geologists, and every other kind of "ologist" you could imagine. They work in tasks as varied of their specialties, with duties ranging from active research to historic preservation.
Interpretation: These are the Rangers that people think of when they imagine the National Park Service. Flat hats with green and grey uniforms giving programs or guiding events in the park. Interpretation staff make up half of the "Ranger" title. They offer presentations and programs, provide visitor information, and cover all kinds of other work designed to help people learn about, and enjoy their National Parks.
Visitor and Resource Protection: V&RP includes the primary other "Ranger" type. Law Enforcement Rangers. This division also includes programs like Backcountry Management, Fee Collection, Wildland and Structural firefighting, Emergency Services, and campground staff.
Once upon a time in the Park Service a "Ranger" was expected to be everything for a park. The law enforcement, the scientist, the interpreter, and the maintenance staff. These days the requirements of each job have become compartmentalized, because you can't expect every employee to be a federally credentialed law enforcement officer while also having a degree in Botany and knowledge on how to work a bulldozer. Because of this the Park Service family is incredibly varied in skill set, and just because you can't track a deer through the woods or give a Ranger Program to a crowd doesn't mean that's not a place where your skills can be put to use.
So, if you think that you'd rather have a Bison for a neighbor than an apartment building, or you feel like you'd rather be paid in sunrises than cold hard cash, consider taking a look joining the NPS family. You'll kick yourself every time you see your paycheck, and you'll wonder why you signed up for 150-mile grocery runs, but every time you get to step out and enjoy the beauty around you you'll understand that it was the best bad decision you ever made.
~CBD
Can you tell me more about research positions? I'm a parent who is very interested in the NPS, and I've found lots of positions for which I think I'll be very qualified upon graduation. Do you find families in NPS? If not, what are the obstacles?
ReplyDeleteHi Lindsay,
DeleteWithout knowing your specific field I'm just making guesses, but here goes:
Almost all parks have some kind of research going on. Sometimes the research is completed by Park Service staff; sometimes it's completed by "cooperators" or outside organizations (Research firms, Educational institutions, nonprofit groups, etc.) that have an agreement with the Park Service. The larger parks tend to have their own scientific staff, while smaller parks either work with cooperators or "borrow" staff from the larger parks for individual projects. The majority of research jobs in big parks are field positions for data collection, but there are occasional positions managing projects as well. Generally it's easiest to get in as a field researcher and then work your way up to managing your own projects.
Family life in the NPS can be very complicated, and depending on where you are looking at may be a small change or a huge one. In a big park like Grand Canyon you have an entire community, including a school, medical clinic, grocery store, and a daycare center. We operate as a mostly self-sufficient small town (as long as you don’t want to go to the movies or get anything to eat after 9pm). Living here isn’t much different from any rural community, besides the fact that 7,000,000 tourists flow through every year. On the other end of the spectrum you have parks like Katmai (www.nps.gov/katm ) that are located in the middle of nowhere and are only accessible by boat or plane. Working in a park like this would likely mean separation for a family, with one parent and the children living in the nearest town, and the NPS employee commuting daily or on weekends.
With all that being said, NPS Living is often very hard on families. For every family we know living together at Grand Canyon we know at least one family that is separated. Sometimes that’s just a couple hours down the road in the nearest city, but sometimes it’s thousands of miles. For couples without children it can also be a major challenge, as each step up in a career is likely to take you to a new park. Due to the laws that manage federal hiring there’s not any guarantee your partner will be able to find a job in the new location. Many couples that enter the Park Service do not make it, because every career choice is likely to be an either/or option for members of the couple to have a job.
The last part of working towards a career with the NPS is that the family must be willing to give up any sense of long term stability if you care about career advancement. Working your way up is likely to require relocating your family every few years. For some families, it’s an adventure and they love every moment of it, but for others it can be too much.
I hope all that isn’t too disheartening, but it is a harsh reality of working with the NPS. Both my partner and I have firsthand experience with the havoc it creates for personal lives. She left everything and everyone she’d ever known to move to a park 2,000 miles away to jumpstart her career. I moved for my NPS job as well, leaving behind my partner of 5 years and the entire social circle and life we built as a couple. Neither of us regrets the decisions we made because we get to see the sunset over the canyon every evening, but that doesn’t make the process that got us here any less real.
-CBD