Seasonal Rangers Help Keep White Sands Running During its Busiest Months

National Park Service employees lead programs, answer visitor questions, maintain trails and facilities, study ecosystems, protect historic resources and perform the many other jobs necessary to keep parks operating and accessible.

Sources: National Park Service (via Facebook), White Sands National Park (via Facebook)
Photos: Courtesy

Behind every visit to a national park is a workforce doing much of its work outside the public eye.

National Park Service employees lead programs, answer visitor questions, maintain trails and facilities, study ecosystems, protect historic resources and perform the many other jobs necessary to keep parks operating and accessible.

At White Sands National Park, that workforce expands each year as warmer weather and spring winds signal the approach of the park’s busy season.

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Seasonal park rangers work throughout the National Park Service, filling roles that can include staffing visitor centers, leading guided hikes, maintaining signs, treating invasive plants, selling passes and permits, protecting park resources, maintaining facilities and assisting with law enforcement and search-and-rescue operations.

White Sands welcomed six seasonal rangers this year working across its interpretation, fees and resources divisions: Catelyn, Corey, Elaine, Christine, Paige and Allison.

White Sands National Park/National Park Service. Pictured: Ranger Christine, Ranger Paige, Ranger Corey, Ranger Elaine, Ranger Allison and Ranger Catelyn.

The park recently recognized the six as part of its “Staff Saturday” series, describing seasonal rangers as the “backbone of park operations during the busiest months of the year.”

The recognition coincides with a broader National Park Service tribute to the employees, past and present, whose work makes visits to the nation’s parks possible.

“Every national park has stories happening behind the scenes, and people who help care for these places and connect us to them,” the National Park Service wrote.

At White Sands, six of those people now have names and faces.