So what exactly does a Park Ranger do anyway?

I don’t think many people know the answer to this question. I certainly didn’t REALLY know what a ranger did until the last few years when I started to look into it as a career. Most people have the iconic image of the National Park Service Ranger in their head. The funny looking hat, the smiling face, the person who answers your questions about the best views and hikes, the guy who hangs out with Smokey the Bear and Yogi. Most of these are true to some extent but there is more to the story.
First off every person you see in a national park wearing green pants and a grey shirt is not a park ranger. There are lots of people who do lots of important things from maintenance, to fee collection who are not rangers. As far as rangers go there are two distinct types. The first one is the Interpretive Ranger. These people…. Interpret…. the park for all the visitors. They give lectures and lead tours talking about the history, wildlife, geology, etc. of the park. The second type of ranger is the Protection Ranger which is where I’m headed.

Protection rangers can have a whole host of job responsibilities depending on what park they work in or which specialties they choose to pursue. Their primary job is to enforce the laws of the park and protect the people and the things therein. A slightly ridiculous but somewhat useful saying about the protection ranger’s job says they should “Protect the park from the people, the people from the park, and the people form the people”. Most people don’t realize that rangers carry guns and carry out all the duties of a federal law enforcement officer in the park.

The academy here in Arizona, as well as all other seasonal academies like it around the country, primarily focuses on the law enforcement aspect of the job. It’s basically a police academy with a natural resources management slant to it. It includes all the traditional skills that you might associate with the job of a street cop. So far we’ve covered firearms, pursuit or emergency driving, defensive tactics, all types of federal law, arrest and detention, etc. etc. etc. Ranges also go after poachers and investigate archeological and environmental crimes among other things, so we receive training in those areas as well.

Although the analogy is useful in describing the training rangers aren’t nor would I like to be a street cop. I have no hesitation about doing what needs to be done when necessary but the main draw of being a ranger is the diversity of the work. In addition to the law enforcement aspect, protection rangers are the parks primary emergency medical providers (EMS). Most rangers are either first responders or EMTs. In some parks this is a huge chunk of their jobs since hospitals can be a long way off and getting to one often involves a helicopter ride. Hand in hand with EMS is search and rescue or SAR. Hundreds of people get lost or stranded in the backcountry of the parks every year. When that happens rangers go looking for them. In many parks rangers are the primary wildland and structural fire fighters as well. With all these responsibilities you could be out patrolling a camp ground one minuet looking for people doing something illegal, next thing you know you hanging from the bottom of a helicopter rescuing somebody from the backcountry with a broken leg and by the end of the day your putting out a brush fire.

And now for your enjoyment check out the video and pics below from the last few months.

I'm an Uncle!!

My nephew Cole Timothy Garrod was born on Monday, September 21st. I'm so excited to be an uncle and very happy for my sister Cheryl and my brother in-law Tim. I can't wait to see him.

Life after the Peace Corps

Looking back its been more than three months since my last post. So much has happened since then I'm not really sure where to begin. Life has obviously changed quite dramatically from our days in The Gambia. Some things for the better some for the worse but mostly things are just different.

Our last few weeks in The Gambia were filled with painful goodbyes for the most part. Friend after friend that we will most likely not see again or for a very long time came to say goodbye and give their wishes for safe travel. The worst part was the last few days with our host family whom we had developed such a close relationship with. Leaving a place that had become our home was hard but leaving them behind was particularly difficult. Since being back in The States we have talked to them a few times and the kids wrote us a letter but its not the same as sitting under the mango tree on a humid night talking about nothing in particular.

We left The Gambia on June 28th. Two years and 14 days after we arrived. Just going to the airport was something of a flashback since the last time we were there was the day we stepped off the plane from America in 2007. Ever since leaving I have been unable to mentally digest my time there. Mostly it seems like it never happened or maybe it was just a dream. There is next to nothing in America that would indicate that a world like the one I left exists, and its amazing how quickly I have been able to at least superficially settle back into life in The States. I would like to be able to look back on my time in The Gambia and fully understand its lessons and implications, but it will be a slow process over the next months and years.

Enough of that reflective stuff. It took me an hour to write those last few paragraphs with all the incoherent thoughts running through my head.

After leaving The Gambia Lydia and I took about a week to swing through Europe. We didn't have time to see too much but we had a great time. We met some friends in Amsterdam and spent a few days enjoying a great European city. Highly recommended for its laid back attitude and great sights. It didn't get dark till about 11pm each day so we took full advantage of the time and made it to all sort of museums and things. After we left Amsterdam we spent a few days in Brussels and Bruge, Belgium.

We arrived back in The States on July 4th. It was great to see all the people we missed over the last few years. We flew into Tampa to visit my sister and her husband for a few days and pick up our car. Ironically, upon returning to the land of clean and sterile, I spent the first night and next few days sick from an infected toe and going to the doctor. After I got the toe under control we had a good time just hanging out and catching up with Cheryl and Tim. After leaving Tampa we headed up through Florida seeing friends in Gainesivlle and Tallahassee along the way and then onto Shalimar to visit family and friends. We spent a couple of fun weeks in Shalimar hanging out and getting some good fishing time in.

As you know we decided Fort Collins was going to be our new home town when we got back. So, after a few weeks in Florida Lydia few out to Denver to meet her folks and search for a place to live in Fort Collins. After a little struggle to nail something down she found a little (very little) place right in the part of town we were hoping for. David, Lydia's brother, and I headed out on a road trip with U-haul in tow and spent three days cruising various roadside attractions along the way.

Turns out Fort Collins is as sweet as we had been lead to believe. We have found no shortage of fun things to do from mountain backpacking, to numerous breweries there is no end. We pretty much walk, ride our bikes, or take the bus everywhere so its easy and low stress to get around but it's also not a big city which is nice.

Most of you know that I decided not to return to the computer field when I got back. I made that decision a long time ago and decided I would be a hell of a lot more fun to work outside and make a lot less money. So I thought being a Park Ranger for the U.S. Park Service would be a pretty good way to meet both those criteria. I'm looking to start that career sometime next spring so I jumped right into getting as much experience and certifications as I could.

After being in Fort Collins for just a few days I headed down to Boulder, Colorado for 10 days of wilderness medical training or Wilderness First Responder. The class was fun and the instructors were great. If your planning on breaking your leg or fracturing your rib while climbing in the backcountry I can help you out.

Next up on the list was wildland firefighter training in Salida, Colorado. One of the great things about being a ranger is the variety of things that your job entails. Emergency medicine, firefighting, law enforcement, search and rescue, resource protection, visitor education... the list goes on. Firefighter training was good fun and hard work and hopefully I will get to put those skills to use soon since I signed up with the county wildland fire crew in Fort Collins.

After that I had about a month break in Fort Collins in which I just tried to get things settled in while Lydia started working. It was nice to have the time to get all that stuff out of the way, it always amazes me how much there is to do to get settled in when you move to a new place.

That pretty much brings us to the present. I'm sure there were quite a few things I missed in there and this isn't the most exciting blog to read but I'm a little rusty and trying to play catch up. Right now I'm sitting in my temporary apartment in Flagstaff, Arizona. I'm here for about 3 months for a park ranger academy. Its one of the requirements to become a seasonal ranger which is the first step to becoming a full time ranger. The academy covers all sort of things from law enforcement skills, to legal and resource protection issues. So far its been fun and interesting and its been great to get to know all the other guys and girl( yes just one) in the class. We're together everyday all day so we all got to know each other pretty quick. The variety of backgrounds is amazing. Age ranges from 21 to over 60 and as many previous occupations and backgrounds as there are people in the class. If I can make time I will try to give some more details on the academy as I progress through it.

I guess that's about it. Sorry for all the boring details but I write this as much for myself to stir my memories down the road as I do for anyone who reads it. That being said I hope you enjoy.