A friend of my mine recently told me about a park ranger job opening at a nearby forest preserve. I like forest preserves but I don't want to be a cop.
most park rangers are concerned with protecting public property, not private property, so I'm gonna agree with jabrd
It depends. Are you a park ranger that 'manages' a small city park where your primary job is shooing away the homeless and yelling at kids -> cop
Are you a park ranger that manages hiking trails and yells at litterers? -> not a cop
It'd be in a larger forest park. I'd let the twenty-somethings on acid have their fun and only yell at the RV boomers grilling a metric ton of beef.
Once I went camping at a lovely little spot near a river. Set up a hammock just vibing. Suddenly about 11pm a giant toy hauler rv shows up. The back bursts open and atv roared out. At the same time what seemed like a dozen kids and dogs spilled out of the RV and just started running around yelling at each other. I had to leave and set up camp a mile away around 1 am because they would not shut up. I could still hear them.
I would've loved to have a ranger like you there at that moment.
I interned for a minute with the NPS at a forest about 20 mins from a big city.
the job, as it was explained to me, was walking around on the main trails and if you catch people fucking on the main trails in broad daylight, tell them that they are in poison oak so they'll leave. while fucking in the woods is cool to some people, fucking in places where kids are sure to see you is not.
and if people are on ATVs on the highly erodible, clearly-marked pedestrian-only trails, to try and get a description of them or their main vehicle in the parking lot, because they're being assholes and it's your duty to tell whoever is in charge at the ranger station.
I am almost certain both of the full timers that worked there were acid heads or at the very least, high-functioning stoners.
I think even one of them said if someone was smoking weed to tell them to get better at hiding it, and this was back in the serious prohibition days in a hardcore asshole state with cops pretending like weed dealers were supporting al qeada.
Park rangers are good. Typically not armed, tasked with preserving natural environments as opposed to capital, and you get payed to chill out in cool places and don't have to interact with people much.
I know everyone has said alot already but I've thought about this alot. Some do have law enforcement commissions such that they are armed and pretty copish.
It used to be different though. In 1970 in Yosemite national park some rangers tried to evict many people camping in and trashing Stoneman meadow which resulted in them being attacked with rocks... which resulted in injuries and the summoning of the national guard.... which resulted in the increase in armed rangers above. There are/were old school rangers from prior who refused to carry guns even after a law enforcement commission was required due to them not wanting to be cops.
on the other hand protecting natural resources from people fucking it up with atvs or littering is incredibly important thankless hard work. and of course, especially in the Backcountry, being there to save a lost or injured park goer is absolutely critical. you could actually save lifes as a ranger instead of shotting dogs as a city cop.
Basically it depends on the gig. But broadly no they're good with the potential to be shitty in specific cases.
There are cop elements to it. I suppose it depends on the nature of the nature you are working in. See this other post
It'a sin, I know. 😔 Thank you for contributing to my self-crit of the day.
Super cringe to not have an encyclopedic knowledge of these things do better
Woe to those who have useful knowledge about things like... idk.. nature
Counterpoint: Wear the biggest, goofiest cowboy hat so everyone knows you're a-coming
Impossible to enter a doorway comfortably
Which is fine, cuz their ain't no doors in the Great Outdoors
Any door that isn't fitted to enter on a horse in a novelty cowboy hat isn't worth entering anyway
edit for clarity both you and the horse are wearing a novelty hat
And you need a right proper appellation so that folks can call you it when you ride past
Sasapirilla Slim and Horsham the Wonder Horse
That's a brilliant way to show your devotion to the woods
That's the stuff
Bring down poachers with a lasso and fight a bear until it becomes your best friend and partner
You could just not do the cop stuff. Who's gonna know? The trees?
The ones that dont do enforcement are cool. Not to be excessively horny but, um. Park rangers are generally cool and fun people, Ive met a lot of lesbian park rangers, and the uniforms are cute.
I've been pulled over by park rangers for driving while punk, they sure acted like cops then
In the National Park Service, there are some park rangers who are literally cops. As in they are federal law enforcement officers who have the legal power to make arrests and issue tickets and so on
Most National Park park rangers dont have that power tho.
Also, tbh, call me an authoritarian or something but i dont see an issue with having law enforcement officers tasked with protecting natural resources. People are out there vandalizing native American ruins, littering, degrading natural resources. We have to take of this stuff and preserve it.
If we have government agents who's job it is to stop people from doing this or this I dont see that as immoral.
Hm... I guess it would be good to find out if park rangers have some kind of arrest quota or something they have to fill.
They'll probably tell you details like that if you look into the job
