Thank you for doing this, even though, I am looking to become a Park Ranger/study environmental science as a 35 year old guy changing his career, it is really helpful. What you do matters and makes a difference :)
Thank you so much for putting this together! It’s so comprehensive and a great resource for people new and interested to opportunities in fire ecology (like me haha!)
I really appreciate it! I'm still working on how to better structure stuff in video format (not something I'm too used to), but I was trying to make something that I couldn't find when I was looking for work. Glad it was helpful!
I'm 24 and I don't have any experience working in NPS...I live in SC so I am close to Blue Ridge and all that! It's amazing. I'm very interested in becoming a park ranger I'm just feeling lost.
I just graduated last year with a degree in Social and Behavioral Science with a minor in Env Studies. I really want to get into wildfire planning and resilience work and I have no idea where to start. CALFIRE is my goal but it’s so competitive and hard for a social scientist to get into resource management. I applied for a seasonal DSI position recently but I need to keep applying and to other agencies! What would you suggest? The Forest Service seems like it barely has any openings and when it does, I don’t qualify.
Ahh, sorry for completely forgetting about this comment! So getting into a resource management position is going to be tricky with a behavioral science degree, I’m not too familiar with cal Fire specifically however if you’re in California there’s a ton of agency options with other state lands, BLM, and fish/wildlife. I would say a good tool is searching up ‘forest service hiring events’ so you’re not just obsessing over search year round and instead are looking with a weekly saved search maybe and getting ready for the big weeks. All those agencies have a big emphasis on fire especially just because they’re in California haha. But a couple of places to look here is probably looking into something that’s more close to interpretation work either as a ranger or doing public safety work. With the interp ranger spots I think that might be closer to your degree and land management agencies will generally still allow you to get READ status(for recreation resources which people come in contact with the most) and you can do outreach about Fire in a number of other ways as well as whatever topics your park wants/ you choose to eventually focus on. The other path which I’m less aware of but might honestly be a better bet is looking into public safety related work and just becoming part of an interdisciplinary fire team. I worked a season in cali and was absolutely blown away by how many jobs were available with counties, and how many state agencies outside of CAL Fire were involved in wildfire so I’d say look into that because the state itself has such a big budget and so many jobs. Definitely worth a look at just how many agencies are probably around you. Hope this is helpful, sorry it’s so late!
Hi, I have a bachelor in renewable energies, but I reoriented myself in bioengineering, to specialise in forestry. I have some Ecology related classes (not much), do you think it's a good way to get into the fire Ecology world? I live in Belgium, so there's much less fire related things here as wild fire are not a issue here (yet). Studying the topic in the US might be easier, but it is crazy expensive compared to Europe... Here you can pay for 2 semesters at university with 1000€ (not including accommodation). I would happily work oversea to gain experience, and potentially come back to Europe later on...
Hey, so I’m not as familiar with non US agencies (though it’s something that I hope to get into in the future); however, I would definitely not worry too much about specifically coming to school or studying in the US for fire ecology related jobs. Outside of the Mediterranean getting some more wildfires recently there probably doesn’t seem like much but fire is present in every landscape and any forests near you probably have had some gnarly events that are just outside of local memory if you look into it. The path into fire ecology doesn’t need to be completely centered in wildfires though (some places they are more frequent and predictable and it’s cool to be involved in the rush of response), a lot of agriculture and forest management uses fire for restoration and management. In the US any job that falls into conservationist roles (wildlife, forestry, rangeland, even archeology and recreation) leads to being able to work with Fire as a management tool and more so do monitoring and fire ecology based work. That’s where my knowledge of your local agencies kind of falls off and I’m not sure how it works near you but maybe talking to some of the nearer forestry management agencies or even agriculture agencies (with emphasis on riparian buffer spaces and forest cover this is also a popular field coming up a lot of places) might be a good place to get a lead. The alternative is usually if you want to live in a city and most jobs in that space would involve doing remote sensing. My first fire ecology experience though was in New York which is vastly different than working near the raging fires in the west haha and I hope that any of this can help you get a lead on where to look!
Thank you for watching and let me know if you have any feedback! My voice was a bit raspy when I filmed so thank you for baring along!
Thank you for doing this, even though, I am looking to become a Park Ranger/study environmental science as a 35 year old guy changing his career, it is really helpful. What you do matters and makes a difference :)
Thank you so much for putting this together! It’s so comprehensive and a great resource for people new and interested to opportunities in fire ecology (like me haha!)
I really appreciate it! I'm still working on how to better structure stuff in video format (not something I'm too used to), but I was trying to make something that I couldn't find when I was looking for work. Glad it was helpful!
I'm 24 and I don't have any experience working in NPS...I live in SC so I am close to Blue Ridge and all that! It's amazing. I'm very interested in becoming a park ranger I'm just feeling lost.
Responded on the other videos comment!
I just graduated last year with a degree in Social and Behavioral Science with a minor in Env Studies. I really want to get into wildfire planning and resilience work and I have no idea where to start. CALFIRE is my goal but it’s so competitive and hard for a social scientist to get into resource management. I applied for a seasonal DSI position recently but I need to keep applying and to other agencies! What would you suggest? The Forest Service seems like it barely has any openings and when it does, I don’t qualify.
Ahh, sorry for completely forgetting about this comment! So getting into a resource management position is going to be tricky with a behavioral science degree, I’m not too familiar with cal Fire specifically however if you’re in California there’s a ton of agency options with other state lands, BLM, and fish/wildlife. I would say a good tool is searching up ‘forest service hiring events’ so you’re not just obsessing over search year round and instead are looking with a weekly saved search maybe and getting ready for the big weeks. All those agencies have a big emphasis on fire especially just because they’re in California haha. But a couple of places to look here is probably looking into something that’s more close to interpretation work either as a ranger or doing public safety work. With the interp ranger spots I think that might be closer to your degree and land management agencies will generally still allow you to get READ status(for recreation resources which people come in contact with the most) and you can do outreach about Fire in a number of other ways as well as whatever topics your park wants/ you choose to eventually focus on. The other path which I’m less aware of but might honestly be a better bet is looking into public safety related work and just becoming part of an interdisciplinary fire team. I worked a season in cali and was absolutely blown away by how many jobs were available with counties, and how many state agencies outside of CAL Fire were involved in wildfire so I’d say look into that because the state itself has such a big budget and so many jobs. Definitely worth a look at just how many agencies are probably around you. Hope this is helpful, sorry it’s so late!
Hi, I have a bachelor in renewable energies, but I reoriented myself in bioengineering, to specialise in forestry.
I have some Ecology related classes (not much), do you think it's a good way to get into the fire Ecology world?
I live in Belgium, so there's much less fire related things here as wild fire are not a issue here (yet).
Studying the topic in the US might be easier, but it is crazy expensive compared to Europe... Here you can pay for 2 semesters at university with 1000€ (not including accommodation).
I would happily work oversea to gain experience, and potentially come back to Europe later on...
Hey, so I’m not as familiar with non US agencies (though it’s something that I hope to get into in the future); however, I would definitely not worry too much about specifically coming to school or studying in the US for fire ecology related jobs. Outside of the Mediterranean getting some more wildfires recently there probably doesn’t seem like much but fire is present in every landscape and any forests near you probably have had some gnarly events that are just outside of local memory if you look into it. The path into fire ecology doesn’t need to be completely centered in wildfires though (some places they are more frequent and predictable and it’s cool to be involved in the rush of response), a lot of agriculture and forest management uses fire for restoration and management. In the US any job that falls into conservationist roles (wildlife, forestry, rangeland, even archeology and recreation) leads to being able to work with Fire as a management tool and more so do monitoring and fire ecology based work. That’s where my knowledge of your local agencies kind of falls off and I’m not sure how it works near you but maybe talking to some of the nearer forestry management agencies or even agriculture agencies (with emphasis on riparian buffer spaces and forest cover this is also a popular field coming up a lot of places) might be a good place to get a lead. The alternative is usually if you want to live in a city and most jobs in that space would involve doing remote sensing. My first fire ecology experience though was in New York which is vastly different than working near the raging fires in the west haha and I hope that any of this can help you get a lead on where to look!
@@ecologystorymode Yes, all your input is very useful. Thanks a lot!
Your channel is helpful, thanks for putting the effort into it!
I appreciate it!