Park Ranger - Duties, Disciplines, and Specializations

Duties, Disciplines, and Specializations

The duties of the modern park ranger are as varied and diverse as the parks where they serve and in recent years have become more highly specialized. Regardless of the regular duties of any one discipline, the goal of all rangers remains to protect the park resources for future generations and to protect park visitors. This goal is accomplished by the professionalism and sometimes overlapping of the different divisions. For example, an interpretive ranger may perform a law enforcement role by explaining special park regulations to visitors and encouraging them to be proper stewards of natural and cultural history. Law enforcement rangers and other park employees may contribute to the mission of the interpretive ranger by providing information to park visitors about park resources and facilities. The spirit of teamwork in accomplishing the mission of protecting the parks and people is underscored by the fact that in many cases, the U.S. National Park Rangers in particular, park rangers share a common uniform regardless of work assignment.

• Law enforcement: Law enforcement rangers have police powers and enforce national laws as well as park regulations. In some developing countries, the park rangers patrolling natural preserves may be heavily armed and function as paramilitary organizations against organized poachers or even guerrillas. In many other developing countries however, park rangers have no law enforcement authority, they don't carry firearms as they seek to achieve respect for nature by building good relationships with local communities and the visiting public. In units of the U.S. National Park System, law enforcement Rangers are the primary police agency; their services may be augmented by the US Park Police, particularly in the Washington, DC and San Francisco metropolitan areas. The U.S. National Park Service also has a section of "Special Agents" who conduct more complex criminal investigations. According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, National Park Service Law Enforcement Rangers suffer the most number of felonious assaults, and the highest number of homicides of all federal law enforcement officers. The City of New York has a uniformed division of Park Rangers called the New York City Parks Enforcement Patrol who are responsible for patrolling the city parks, pools and beaches.
• Interpretation and education: Park Rangers provide a wide range of informational services to visitors. Some Rangers provide practical information—such as driving directions, train timetables, weather forecasts, trip planning resources, and beyond. Rangers may provide interpretive programs to visitors intended to foster stewardship of the resources by the visitor. Interpretation in this sense includes (but is not limited to): guided tours about the park's history, ecology or both; slideshows, talks, demonstrations; informal contacts, and historical re-enactments. Rangers may also engage in leading more formalized curriculum-based educational programs, meant to support and complement instruction received by visiting students in traditional academic settings and often designed to help educators meet specific national and/or local standards of instruction. All uniformed rangers, regardless of their primary duties, are often expected to be experts on the resources in their care, whether they are natural or cultural.
• Emergency response: Rangers are often trained in wilderness first aid and participate in search and rescue to locate lost persons in the wilderness. Many National Parks require law enforcement rangers to maintain certification as Emergency Medical Technicians or Paramedics. Depending on the needs of the park where assigned, rangers may participate in high-angle rescue, swift-water rescue, may be certified scuba divers, and can become specially trained as helicopter pilots or crew members.
• Firefighting: Rangers are often the first to spot forest fires and are often trained to engage in wild land firefighting and in some cases structural fire fighting. Rangers also enforce laws and regulations regarding campfires and other fires on park lands. In the face of a fire outside their control, rangers will call for help and evacuate persons from the area pending the arrival of additional firefighters.
• Dispatcher: Some rangers work as park protection dispatchers, answering emergency calls and dispatching law enforcement rangers, park fire fighters or Park EMS crews by radio to emergency calls for service. Park Dispatchers provide pre-arrival instructions to callers to help them stay alive until responding units arrive. Dispatchers coordinate multi-agency responses to emergencies within the park boundaries and utilize computer systems to check for criminal histories of subjects stopped by park law enforcement rangers. Park Dispatchers typically perform other duties such as taking lost and found reports, monitoring CCTV surveillance cameras and fire alarms. Dispatchers are assigned to the Park Protection Division.
• Park guard: is an NPS employee who is used to supplement law enforcement staff. Park Security Guards assist in providing a uniformed presence within a site and perform general security functions to prevent criminal activity. Guards check to see that gates are locked, that closed roads are not in use, that unauthorized persons keep out of closed or sensitive areas, etc. Some parks have been identified as potential targets for terrorist attacks and in these areas, such as the Gateway Arch, Independence Hall and parts of Boston National Historic Park, guards may screen visitors using magnetometers and x-ray devices. These are generally contracted security. Any individual in a National Park service uniform wearing a duty belt and firearm is likely to be a US Park Ranger, a federal law enforcement officer.
• Scientists and scholars: Rangers are responsible for protecting the natural resources or cultural sites for which they work. This includes obtaining and preserving knowledge about the area. As such many different types of historians and scientist are employed as rangers. Some scientific positions often filled by ranges include archeologist, many different types of biologist, ecologist, fire scientist, geologist, hydrologist, paleontologist, soil scientist, volcanologist etc. Rangers in these positions are expected to study, monitor, and inform others (in the from of published peer-reviewed scientific papers as well as internally) about their findings. These people add to the knowledge dispersed in interpretive and educational programs, and provide information need by managers and others to more effectively protect the resource.
• Maintenance: Some rangers perform routine maintenance on facilities or equipment—especially in preparing for winter closures and spring re-openings. Rangers are often the first to discover vandalism or weather-related damage to roads or facilities.
• Administration: In many cases administrative staff members are categorized officially as park rangers and may wear the distinct park ranger uniform while working "behind the scenes" to ensure the continued operation of the parks. These rangers may set policy for the parks, or handle park budgets, computers and technology, human resources, or other fields related to the administration of parks. In the case of management these positions are usually field by individuals who have moved up from other field based positions. These individuals are often heavily cross trained in order to allow for a knowledge of all other areas and duties under their authority.