Ranger Confidential

Ranger Confidential
Author: Andrea Lankford
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2010-04-02
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0762762683

For twelve years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes. Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it. In this graphic and yet surprisingly funny account of her and others’ extraordinary careers, Lankford unveils a world in which park rangers struggle to maintain their idealism in the face of death, disillusionment, and the loss of a comrade killed while holding that thin green line between protecting the park from the people, the people from the park, and the people from each other. Ranger Confidential is the story behind the scenery of the nation’s crown jewels—Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Great Smokies, Denali. In these iconic landscapes, where nature and humanity constantly collide, scenery can be as cruel as it is redemptive.

A Park Ranger's Life

A Park Ranger's Life
Author: Bruce W. Bytnar
Publisher: Wheatmark, Inc.
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2009
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1604943459

What is a park ranger's life? A wild bear who favors Kentucky Fried Chicken A fugitive wanted in eight states A dog that saves his owner's life Wildland firefighters battling nature and fire A ghost haunting a colonial mansion Hikers who stay lost because they think searchers calling their names are wild animals Being willing to risk your life to make our parks safe and help preserve them for the future These are just a few experiences you will read about in A Park Ranger's Life. Drawn from the thirty-two-year career of National Park Ranger Bruce W. Bytnar, you will discover what it takes to be a park ranger, what threats to visitors and resources they deal with on a daily basis, and what you can do to help protect and preserve our national heritage.

Nature Noir

Nature Noir
Author: Jordan Fisher Smith
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2006
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780618711956

Smith chronicles his 14 years as a park ranger on a huge tract of government land in the Sierras, illuminating some startling truths about America's wild lands.

Park Ranger

Park Ranger
Author: Nancy Eileen Muleady-Mecham
Publisher: Vishnu Temple Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2004
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780967459547

The author joined the National Park Service as a naturalist. In the remote parks she was assigned to, she discovered a ranger must be ready for everything. She gradually became qualified to handle Law Enforcement, Fire, Search and Rescue, medical emergencies and anything else Nature and visitors to the Parks throw at her. Her true stories could be the basis for Nevada Barr's fiction.

National Park Ranger

National Park Ranger
Author: Charles R. "Butch" Farabee, Jr.
Publisher: Roberts Rinehart
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2003-06-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 1570984468

In this celebration of one of America's most enduring symbols, fromer ranger Butch Farabee brielfy revies the evolution of this national symbol.

Haunted Hikes

Haunted Hikes
Author: Andrea Lankford
Publisher: Santa Monica Press
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2006-04-01
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1595809856

Ghosts! Curses! Hoaxes! Unsolved mysteries! Paranormal events! Take a walk on the creepy side of North America's National Parks! Andrea Lankford, a 12-year veteran ranger with the National Park Service, has written a thoroughly investigated yet often tongue-in-cheek guidebook that takes the reader to the scariest, most mysterious places inside North America's National Parks. Lankford shares such eerie tales as John Brown's haunting of Harper's Ferry, the disembodied legs that have been seen running around inside the Mammoth Cave Visitor Center, and the "wailing woman" who roams the trail behind the Grand Canyon Lodge. Lankford also uncovers paranormal activities park visitors have experienced, such as the chupacabra that roams the swamps inside Big Thicket National Preserve and the teenage bigfoot who rolled a park service campground with toilet paper. She also reports on long-forgotten unsolved murders, such as the savage stabbing of a young woman on Yosemite's trail to Mirror Lake, and the execution style shooting of two General Motors executives at Crater Lake. The witnesses to the supernatural occurrences are highly credible people-rangers, park historians, river guides, and the like-and each tale has factual relevance to the cultural or natural history of the park. Haunted Hikes provides readers with all the information they need: for each hike: a "fright factor rating" is listed along with trailhead access information, detailed trail maps, and hike difficulty levels. Most of the haunted sites included in the book can be reached by the average hiker, some are wheelchair accessible, and others are for intrepid backpackers willing to make multi-day treks into wilderness areas. Intriguing photographs of many sites are included. Haunted Hikes is sure to satisfy readers looking for those spine-tingling moments when you begin to wonder if maybe, just maybe, we are not alone.

Hey Ranger!

Hey Ranger!
Author: Jim Burnett
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publications
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2005
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 9781589791916

In his thirty years with the National Park Service, Jim Burnett has seen it all: boatramp mishaps that have sent cars into the water; skunks in the outhouse and bears at the dumpser; visitors looking for the bridge over the Grand Canyon.

The Last Season

The Last Season
Author: Eric Blehm
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2009-10-13
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0061869996

"As Jon Krakauer did with Into the Wild, Blehm turns a missing-man riddle into an insightful meditation on wilderness and the personal demons and angels that propel us into it alone.” — Outside magazine Destined to become a classic of adventure literature, The Last Season examines the extraordinary life of legendary backcountry ranger Randy Morgenson and his mysterious disappearance in California's unforgiving Sierra Nevada—mountains as perilous as they are beautiful. Eric Blehm's masterful work is a gripping detective story interwoven with the riveting biography of a complicated, original, and wholly fascinating man.

Oh, Ranger!

Oh, Ranger!
Author: Mark J. Saferstein
Publisher:
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: National parks and reserves
ISBN: 9780978710125

Oh Ranger provides an insider?s view into the most beautiful and culturally significant treasures in America. Oh Ranger is a collection of exciting stories told directly by the experts ? national park rangers. From animal encounters to fire fighting and search and rescue missions, rangers share their most memorable, life changing experiences. This book is a tribute to National park Service employees everywhere and was inspired by the original storybook written in 1928 by Horace Albright, the first superintendent of Yellowstone National Park. His memory lives on in the heroic actions of all those who proudly wear the instantly recognizable green and grey and flat hat ? the rangers. These are the men and women who work hard to protect and preserve our national parks for the enjoyment of millions of visitors, now and in future generations.Profits from the sale of this book will be donated to support national park education programs and the Employee and Alumni Association of the National Park Service. The original version of ?Oh, Ranger!" was co-authored by Horace Albright and Frank Taylor. Perhaps it's nostalgia that still attracts people to the stories of the adventures and the devotion to the National Park Service, but the image of the green-coated ranger stands tall to this day.Profits form the sale of this book will be donated to support National Park education and interpretive programs and the Employee and Alumni Association.