What is a Park Ranger?
If you are a lover of nature, the park ranger career may be ideal for
you. If you are a lover of law enforcement, the park ranger career may
also be ideal for you. If you are a lover of nature and law enforcement,
then the park ranger career is definitely for you.
Park Rangers protect and police the national, state, and local parks. Their primary duties are protecting the park from the people, protecting the people from the park, and protecting the people from each other. In the course of doing these, they perform the following:
1. Control Forest and Structural Fire
2. Supervise and Manage the Conservation and Use of Resources in National, State, and Local Parks
3. Gather and Disseminate Natural, Historical, and Scientific Information
4. Demonstrate Folk Art and Crafts
5. Enforce Federal, State, and Local Laws and Regulations
6. Investigate Violations, Complaints, Encroachments, and Trespasses
7. Manage Historical, Cultural, and Natural Resources
8. Investigate Accidents
9. Perform Search and Rescue of Missing People and Animals
10. Lead Guided Tours of the Park
11. Etc.
A park ranger has to be a people person. This means he or she should be able to interact with the public. He or she should also be able to work independently and handle emergency situations.
How to Become a Park Ranger:
Unlike in the past, having a college degree in becoming the norm for
getting a park ranger job. An associate degree or bachelor degree will
give you the upper hand against the competition. You will sometimes need
a master’s degree if you want to advance into supervisory or management
positions.
It is advised that you major in park and recreation management, business
or public administration, law enforcement or criminal justice, or the
natural sciences. It would not be a bad idea to major in one of the
above, with a minor in the other. For example, you can major in criminal
justice, with a minor in park and recreation management. This way, you
kill 2 birds with one stone.
Another thing that can help is to do seasonal or volunteer work
for the park service. In fact, some park services will not consider you
for employment unless you have done this. We don’t see this as a
problem. You simply need to do your internship with a park service while
getting your degree.
Park Ranger Salary:
The salary you make as a Park Ranger will depend on where you are
employed. In the state of California, park rangers make as much as
$27,000 per year to start. After the initial 18 weeks training period,
their pay will rise to about $28,000 per year.
Federal Park Rangers make about $24,000 per year to start. This goes up to $33,000 per year after two years on the job.
Park Ranger School:
If you are interested in getting your associate or bachelors
degree in criminal justice to become a park ranger, there are excellent
online criminal justice schools to help you. One of them is AIU Online.
You can request their free no obligation information through this link.
Another one is Kaplan University.
Request for their free no obligation information by clicking this link.
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Criminal Justice Careers