Ranger Dan the State Park Man

 July 22, 2022

    When choosing a path into the STEM field, there are endless options. It can range from lab work, and computervisitor science, to fieldwork and beyond that. In the fieldwork category, state forests park rangers are a very interesting job choice. In today’s activity, on July 22, we went to Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park. Here we met Ranger Dan. After the conclusion of the tour, I interviewed him to learn more about his experience as a park ranger. I have a connection to this because I also work in a state forest at Bass River State Forest in NJ. It was very interesting to see how similar jobs could be so different based on location. 

    State Forests were brought to most of the states by the CCC, or the Civilian Conservation Corps. This is where young men built living quarters, trails, picnic areas, and more to make the area's visito friendly. The CCC is responsible for 711 parks in the USA. They officially created the parks service in 1935, although the first state parks date all the way back to 1985. (https://media.rff.org/documents/RFF-BCK-ORRG_State20Parks.pdf) The state forest I work at was the first one in NJ and was created in 1905 by the CCC. The  Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park was open to the public in 1999, but the land was bought in 1908 and the quarry became active in the 1960s. More about the history of the park can be found here: https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/windley-key-fossil-reef-geological-state-park/history 

    Rangers at State Forests are important because they make sure that the park is serving its purpose to preserve the land while being educational to its visitors. While talking to Ranger Dan, I learned that one of his favorite parts of the job is educating and also learning from the visitors. He has only been learn-as-you-go working at this park for about a year, so he is constantly learning more each day. He is able to identify a large amount of the flora and fauna located in the park due to studying field guides as well as training classes. He has a strong passion for the environment and is very sociable with the visitors. Ranger Dan says that the job could be a great fit for anyone with those characteristics regardless of their past because it is a learn-as-you-go job. 

    In fact, Dan actually had quite a few career changes before he became a park ranger. He got his bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice, then became a cop. After that, he worked at a fishery for a long while before he moved on to being a park ranger. Being in the field of the police got him an “in” to working for the DEP as a full-time employee. He enjoys that the job is constantly changing day to day with new visitors. His job description even just updated to where he now gets to dive for the state doing things such as replanting seagrass, repairing buoys, or doing fish surveys. He shared that because of his jobs in the past, he is able to live comfortably based on this salary, but if it were not for his past it would be tough. He makes about $31,000. Being in a tourist town, even the small places of living are expensive, which makes it even tougher. Some other state parks offer housing for their employees on the campgrounds, which would make that salary much more manageable, but this state park does not feature that option. One thing that took him by surprise when he started the job was just how many mosquitoes there were. Because it is protected land, they are unable to spray the area to eradicate the mosquitoes. Some days, mosquito netting is necessary in order to withstand being outdoors. 

Ranger Dan is an example of one of the many State Park Rangers out there. This job description varies greatly based on location. While his job and my job were similar in that we manage visitors and keep the park looking nice, diving is nowhere in my job description in NJ. I hope you were able to get some insight into what a park ranger does and learn if this is a good fit for you!