NPS Ranger Qualification Standards and Training

28. August 2007 by Ranger.

 I suspect that most readers, other than some National Park Service (NPS) employees, do not realize that NPS Rangers are not required to have a college degree.  Perhaps more surprisingly, NPS rangers who currently enter the Service with a college degree, and that is most of them; it is not required that their college education be specifically in the fields of study one would logically suspect for an agency that is responsible for the preservation, management and protection of some of America’s finest natural and cultural resources. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has never recognized the work of a park ranger as professional which required a professional degree which is required for a biologist, forester or an archeologist for example . In the eyes of OPM, park ranger work is too diverse, therefore ranger work is not  recognized by OPM as professional.

 Theoretically, a prospective National Park Ranger could be hired without a high school education and no experience as a GS-1. That may have happened at some time in the history of the NPS after there was an OPM, but I doubt it.  Six months of general experience, which is broadly defined, and graduation from high school, is required for a GS-2 grade. To qualify as a GS-3 you would need one year of college, six months of general experience and three months of specialized experience (experience that demonstrated the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform successfully the duties of the position to be filled.) A GS-4 position candidate must have completed two years of college with twelve semester hours of related course work, six months of general experience, and six months of specialized experience. Most permanent park rangers are hired at the GS-5 level. This requires four years of college leading to the bachelor’s degree with twenty-four semester hours of related course work (this “related course work” is discussed later in this blog), no general experience is required and one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-4 level is required. The specialized experience requirement gives the seasonal rangers and other candidates performing similar work, but with another agency, a “leg up.”

 However, don’t get excited. I have never met a permanent park ranger below the GS-5 level in my entire career. Several may have existed somewhere, but I didn’t know about them. The reality is, and has been for decades if not for the entire history of the NPS, that the competition is horrendous for the few permanent jobs available. Just about all candidates have a bachelor’s degree and seasonal experience. Many candidates have graduate degrees. An important aspect of OPM’s Qualification Standard is that since at least 1957 there was language that allowed equivalent combinations of education and experience to qualify for all grade levels for which both education and experience are acceptable.

 The first park rangers after the creation of the NPS in 1916 were woodsmen and handymen. They knew the backcountry and were self-sufficient folks who knew something about hunting, wilderness travel, survival and horses. No formal training was required and none was offered. The earliest source of field training available began about nine years after the formation of the NPS. This was a six week training session offered by Dr. Harold Bryant’s Yosemite School of Field Natural History in 1925, which remained in operation until 1953.

 Frank Kowski, the first NPS training director, established the agency’s first training facility at Yosemite in 1957. In 1962, the NPS opened a newly constructed training center at Grand Canyon National Park. It is known as the Horace M. Albright Training Center (HOAL); named after the agency’s second director. In 1964, the NPS established its principal interpretive training center, the Stephen T. Mather Training Center (STMA) at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. It was named after the agency’s first director.

 Education requirements to qualify for the GS-5 park ranger position from 1957 until some time during 1969 specified a four year college degree with  “major study in such fields as forestry, conservation, physical geography, wildlife management or in natural history, or the field courses of biology or geology. Training not directly applicable to the work of park ranger positions will not be accepted as qualifying unless supplemented by an adequate amount of course work which is applicable to the work of park ranger positions.”  You still could have come up through the ranks by gaining experience at the next lowest level, but note that most entry level, permanent park rangers at the GS-5 level were required to have a major in the field aspects of natural science. A college major is 30 semester hours and most college majors have more than 30 semester hours in their chosen field of study. During the 1960’s candidates for permanent ranger positions had to pass the Federal Service Entrance Exam (FSEE), and submit their college transcripts to OPM requesting consideration for only two government agencies. Those that were selected by the NPS had to pass a physical exam and an interview which was performed by a park superintendent nearest your place of residence. The Washington Office then made all the selections. Those selected were sent to HOAL Training Center at Grand Canyon for a 12 week training session entitled Introduction to Park Operations. Upon completion of this training the new rangers were sent to “Training Parks” for nine months of on the job training.  I don’t recall all the designated training parks, but they were typically the larger parks of the system including Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Mt. Rainier, Rocky Mountain, and Glacier.

 Specific skills training that a ranger might need to work effectively in any particular park was acquired from wherever the experts might be that could provide the training. Often times the training was available from other park rangers who were known experts in some particular skills, but it could also be from the Department of Justice, The United States Military, the National Interagency Fire Center, various sheriff departments, a metropolitan police or fire department, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, local hospitals, the Scripps Institute or wherever the needed skill training could be found.

 In 1969, the NPS changed the Qualification Standard that had previously been designated GS-452 (park naturalist) and GS-453 (park ranger) to GS-025 (park manager). The designation of park naturalist within the OPM Standards was dropped. All new park rangers would be officially designated by OPM as park managers. The new standard still required a full four year college education with a bachelor’s degree for qualification as an entry level park manager at the GS-5 level, and you could still substitute experience for education to qualify. Candidates that began their career after completing the bachelor’s degree were now required to have “24 semester hours in one or not more than two of the following: park and recreation management, any field oriented natural science, history, archeology, police science, sociology, business administration, the behavioral sciences, or closely related subjects applicable to park management.”   During this period there was the requirement to pass the FSEE and a pre-employment interview. Successful candidates then attended the 12 week park operations course at HOAL. Many of the HOAL graduates from this era were sent to urban parks for their “basic in-park experience” as the Service began to recognize the importance of urban parks serving a large segment of the population, and the difficulty in getting the rangers from the large western parks to take assignments in those urban areas. In the first year after the new standard was in effect, only 33% of all new employees in the Park Ranger Series had a degree of any kind because OPM allows the substitution of experience for education. By the late 1970’s a personnel survey showed that only half of all park rangers held degrees in the natural or cultural sciences. This was largely due to the substitution of experience for education, the numerous acceptable courses of study in the 1969 Standard, and the lack of a required college major in that 1969 Standard.

 Prior to the 1970’s rangers acquired their law enforcement training partly during the Introduction to Park Operations  training at HOAL, and additional academy type law enforcement training was acquired at various sheriff’s academies if they happened to be near the park of employment. A number of rangers were selected to attend the FBI National Academy over the years. Sometime in the early 1970’s all law enforcement certified rangers had to attend the Federal Law Enforcement Center 12 week course which was initially in Washington, D.C., and eventually was relocated to Glynco, Georgia, where it is to this day.

 The FSEE was abolished in 1973, and replaced with the Professional Administrative Career Exam (PACE), though it was abolished in 1980. The comprehensive 12 week training experience became a Ranger Skills course in 1979 and varied from six to nine weeks in subsequent years.

 The NPS changed the educational requirement for the Qualification Standard again in 1985. The entry level GS-5 park manager still required a bachelor’s degree (or the substitution of experience for education if they already had status as a GS-4), but they now needed “30 semester hours of course work in any one or combination of the following: any field oriented natural science, natural resource management, earth science, history, archeology, anthropology, park and recreation management, or closely related subjects pertinent to the management and protection of cultural and natural resources.” A qualified candidate could have a college major in one of the above areas of study or 30 semester hours by any combination of the listed areas of study.”  There were no exam requirements such as the FSEE or PACE. There was no interview requirement, and there was no centralized training experience for the new rangers.

 The latest change in the Qualification Standard for park ranger (officially park manager) took place in 1990.  Entry at the GS-5 grade level specified a bachelor’s degree but reverted back to “24 semester hours of related course work in the fields of natural resource management, natural sciences, earth science, police science, social sciences, museum science, business administration, public administration, behavioral sciences, sociology or other closely related subjects. Course work in any field other than those specified may be accepted if it clearly provides applicants with the background of knowledge and skills necessary for successful job performance in the position to be filled”.   Essentially just about anything in the college catalog could be construed as qualifying by the hiring official which was now the park.  OPM also instituted a new set of exams entitled Administrative Careers with America (ACWA). Potential park rangers are required to take the test for law enforcement officers under this exam. Interviews could occur if the hiring official in the park chose to conduct interviews. There is no centralized training experience such as the 12 week Introduction to Park Operations course, but HOAL has produced several videos that are available for new employees to view, though they are not mandatory.

 The work of National Park Rangers varies widely depending upon the park that one is assigned. While some of the day-to-day duties are similar in historic parks in the eastern part of our country and the large western parks in the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest or Alaska; the skills requirements are very different. Generally speaking the duties of a working park ranger in the field are broadly involved with park conservation, public safety, public use and recreation, interpretation, public relations, law enforcement and park management. That fact is at the center of OPM’s conclusion that the work of a park ranger is too diverse to command a professional degree requirement.  However, what I, and others, contend is that OPM’s decision ignores or dismisses the actual structure of the way things really operate in the NPS areas, the autonomy of those positions and the fact that many of those employees with educational training in something other than natural or cultural science go on to higher level management positions where their day-to-day decisions can affect one park or resources in many parks.

 Depending on the park they are assigned, NPS rangers have such a wide assortment of responsibilities that they frequently function as game wardens, health and sanitation officers, border patrol agents, customs agents, coast guard enforcement, search and rescue specialists, emergency medical personnel and local police officer. It is even possible that a ranger might be involved in a variety of these responsibilities in the same day. Rangers today enforce a broader range of laws than any other agency of government. Though the variety of ranger work is more diverse and complex than any other agency of government; the NPS does not provide an extensive ranger academy training experience other than the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center at Glynco, Georgia. That is a major agency failure

 NPS rangers have a great deal of autonomy and the range of that independence increases significantly as one ascends the ladder to more responsible positions. Sub-district, District and Chief Rangers regularly make day-to-day decisions that could affect park resources.  They comment on park plans for all campgrounds, facilities, visitor use, fire management, concession operations, park closures, and make decisions involving stock or human access in the backcountry. Superintendents and his or her assistants do the same. The incremental impacts of those decisions over the years are significant.

 Likewise the opposite could occur. A responsible and conscientious ranger or superintendent, because of their lack of comprehension and innate fear of not wanting to be the decision maker that could destroy or negatively impact park resources, might be more likely to deny access or institute closures because they do not fully understand the resiliency of some park resources, or they might find it easier to prevent access rather than manage the situation in such a way that….” shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments, and reservations hereinafter specified by such means and measures as conform to the fundamental purposes of the said parks, monuments, and reservations, which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations”.  (NPS Organic Act 1916)

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