Become Park Ranger, Park Ranger Schools, College, Training, Jobs, and Careers

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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