What is an interpretive park ranger?
Sometimes, when I tell people I’m a park ranger, they say, “OH! That’s so cool! Do you carry a gun?” My reply is usually a laugh, followed by, “It is really cool, but I’m not a law enforcement ranger. I’m an interpretive park ranger.” Though both interpretive rangers and LE rangers wear the same uniform, they have vastly different roles. However, both types of rangers’ end goal is the same: protection of the resource.
First, what is a resource? In the National Park Service, our resource is the park, or what the park contains. Be it structures, fish, trees, mountains, historical documents, battlefields, memorials, or innumerable other things; the resource comes in many different forms.
Typically, a law enforcement ranger protects the resource through means of federal law, insuring visitors are using the resource without harm (either harm to the resource or harm to other visitors). They let you know if you’re using a campsite improperly, they’re enforcing speed limits on park roads, and they’re making sure you’re not going to spray paint the St. Louis Arch.
So if LE rangers are enforcing protection, how to interpretive rangers protect the resource? In short: we talk with visitors. What do we talk about? Everything.
Interpretive rangers are responsible for learning everything there is to know about their park. Their goal is to relate, or interpret, what they’ve learned to the visitor. An interpretive ranger might be walking around answering questions, behind a desk at a visitor center, or leading a group of people on a guided tour or hike. The goal of this human interaction is to provoke the visitor to find value in the resource.
Side note: Even though we’re responsible for learning everything, we don’t know everything.
Freeman Tilden (we’ll talk about Tilden at length in another blog post, don’t worry), is often referred to as the Father of Interpretation. He stated, “Through interpretation understanding, through understanding appreciation, through appreciation protection.”
Interpretive rangers help convey the importance of the resource to the visitor, hopefully making a connection between the two, to ensure the resource will stay protected.
(And often times, our most important job is letting visitors know where the nearest bathroom is!)
