What are /r/ParkRangers' favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Sort of. I keep a pocket-sized Rite-in-the-Rain notebook in my cargo pants pocket. I use it to record my hours worked for each park, which I can later use to report my volunteer hours back. When visiting other parks, I use it to get the visitor stamps or stickers. I record the number of Bluebird eggs or hatchlings when I inspect nesting boxes. I keep all the radio callsigns and phone numbers for Important People like the park rangers and maintenance staff. I record measurements and dimensions for projects.

What I don't do is a lot of actual journalling. I tried. I really tried. But I find hand-writing things to be painfully slow and often illegible when I got done. (The nuns gave me grades of D for handwriting and it never got better.) And my drawing skills have never advanced beyond stick figures. And not even good stick figures. I found that my cellphone camera is a much better choice for recording memories. And if I want to remember anything else, it waits until I get home and can type it into Evernote. Which has become my repository of All Things That I Should Know and Remember.

For summer, standard khakis should work to get you going. If you can afford more, I really like Duluth Trading Firehose Flex Cargo pants for most things. Their Firehose cargo pants for heavy labor. Other Rangers swear by Carhartt.

I prefer lighter boots. These Adidas Training Shoes are my favorite for anything that doesn’t require a steel toe.

Bugs-Try to find some that are moving slow and watch them. Most people I see with bad reactions to i sects seem to be reacting to sudden, unexpected, fast movement. Watching them slow desensitizes you and may help. And of course, sudden movement on your part just stirs them up more, making it worse. Be calm, be friendly. This also applies to 6 year olds.

Welcome!

Sounds good! The NPS has quite a few interpretation jobs. They range from environmental to historical interpretation. If this is the route you want to go with read the book “Environmental Interpretation” by Sam Ham.

https://www.amazon.com/Environmental-Interpretation-Practical-People-Budgets/dp/1555919022

Also, this book by Edward Abbey.

https://www.amazon.com/Desert-Solitaire-Wilderness-Edward-Abbey/dp/0345326490

If you fancy playing in the dirt more look for a trails advocacy group in your area and hit up some volunteer trail work days. You can search for hiking and mountain bike clubs. Outside of rural areas you will have the best luck with these types of groups. If more rural Backcountry Horseman of America does some trail work on public lands, as do several ATV and snowmobile clubs, in addition to the hiking and mountain biking groups. A little experience volunteering will help you decide if this is the path you want to take, while boosting your resume. You can also search www.volunteer.gov for other opportunities to try things out. The SCA also puts lots of people to work in trails jobs on USFS lands. Best of luck!

I love my Victorinix Multi-tool. The pliers are the strongest I’ve found. The fold out tools all outside is very convenient for me.

The one thing I use everyday is my Rite in the Rain Metal Pen.

Federal resumes are VERY different. A normal resume is about 1 - 2 pages, a federal one can easily be 6 pages. Put every dumb detail you can think of. Here's a helpful guide: https://zety.com/blog/federal-resume-example

It is an excellent book on how Kenner was mistreated by Superintendent Eric Brunnemann (at many agencies, 3 whistle blower complaints & an IG investigation would have meant Brunnemann would be filing papers in a basement) as well as on the history of the National Park Service, especially how it has evolved in the last 50 years.

https://www.amazon.com/HARD-LESSONS-LAND-experience-retaliation/dp/B0948BCGL6

I use Celestrons from Amazon: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B73JONS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They're a decent budget set and I wasn't able to tell the difference in quality between them and most binos that cost less than $300.

OP my recommendation to you is to get a ham radio and add the repeater frequencies from the parks in your area. Then listen to the traffic during your free time. That will give you more a bit of insight into the life of a ranger day to day.

I work at a state park, so I don't think I can order from VF Solutions.

Would it look something like this? https://www.amazon.com/Darn-Tough-Standard-Light-Cushion/dp/B01F47M8XU/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1490741633&sr=8-20&keywords=darn+tough+socks

edit: not sure if it's my computer screen but it doesn't look really brown, more like a dark gray. Seems harder than I'd imagine to find dark brown socks!

1000 lumens is pretty easy to get these days. Check this one out Helotex G4 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZGUCIPO?psc=1

I love having recorded contacts, and I don't feel that it makes my reports any more difficult (but often more precise). Just know that there's a good bit of policy regarding recording devices. My agency has both national policy and local policy. One of the stipulations is that I can only use agency issued devices for recording.