Volunteering 2/2011



Yes, that is a cake baked to depict an archaeological site!





Ranger Landis Ehler here, and I wanted to talk about volunteering in the parks! 

 It is perfect for people with a chunk of extra time, be it as a ranger between parks or an individual looking for a change of scenery.  The tour of a volunteer can cover any expertise or project, from giving nature walks to carving park signs, or anything in between!  Natural resource divisions are often in need of volunteers for wildlife monitoring, and many back country cabins rely on kind souls to clean them out seasonally.  The point is if you have a passion, the parks can probably find a place for you to explore it!  Of course there will be standards and oversight, but public lands function best with the public involved.

I have volunteered at two different parks so far, as I have waited for NPS seasonal jobs to start.  Since not all parks have the same seasons of intensive use, rarely does one park's season start right after another's close.  After exploring the ancient sites at Aztec Ruins National Monument, I drove down to the border in Arizona to volunteer with Tumacácori National Historical Park in 2009.
 


It really is this much fun!  NPS photo 

 Just north of Nogales, Mexico lies the small village of Tumacácori.  Nestled in the hills around the Santa Cruz River, the park unit protects three Spanish colonial missions, that also encompass ancestral villages of the native O'odham people.  Suffice to say the local cultures are vibrant, their food is tasty, and Tumacácori N.H.P. is truly a gem in the park service!

I spent the better part of December 2009 assisting the park in preparations for their annual Tumacácori Fiesta, a tradition for the past 40+ years!  Over usually the first weekend in December a couple thousand people descend on the park to celbrate with food, dancing, horse riding, and games!  The year I participated there were over 40 vendors selling a cornucopia of food, crafts, and piñatas.  I helped prepare the festival grounds and staffed the children's area, where visitors could write their names with goose quill pens just as the padres had done.  It was an exhausting, exhilerating experience! 


The event is focused on locals, from both sides of the border, and is probably one of the finest neighborhood parties that I have ever been to!  Who said parks are not relevant or serve a part of local life?


After the Fiesta, I helped staff the visitor center, and worked with a chain saw with their natural resources division.  A most fulfilling experience!  So much so that I had the pleasure of returning to the park as a ranger, but that is a story for another post.




Volunteered December 2009

Tumacácori National Historical Park

1891 East Frontage Road

Tumacácori, Arizona  85640

(520)398-2341

www.nps.gov/tuma/index.htm

Pueblo Bonito

My next experience as a park volunteer (or volunteer-in-park, VIP) was early in Spring 2011.  Through connections I had made while working at Aztec Ruins National Monument, I had always wanted to work in Chaco Canyon.  Truly gigantic buildings were erected here in the sparse desert beginning in the ninth century AD, with associated irrigation canals and formal roads snaking across the canyon heads.  Eventually by the early eleventh century this system of formalized public buildings, ritual, and roads left their imprint on a region some 60,000 square miles in size.  Nothing in the United States has ever come close to this florescence, and its center is preserved in Chaco Culture National Historical Park.


What follows is an excerpt from a blog I wrote as a volunteer in February of last year:


"As of this day I have been "in canyon" for exactly one month now! While this is just a coincidence of dates rather than a set goal on my part, this is a great opportunity to write down some thoughts and experiences from my time here at Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

Risking the cliché, the desert is home to such emotion-filled stretches of stark beauty! The sun, especially at either extremity of the day, dances across the canyon walls in ever changing golden hues, punctuated by the inherent shadow and crimson of the sandstone walls. This riot of living color is balanced by the night sky, a glorious profusion of infinite stars streaking across the heavens. Within the passage of night and day the various desert dwellers make their presence known, from the opportunistic soaring of the ravens to the chorus songs of the fickle coyotes.

Here in Navajo Land, the barren steppes and harsh hills are teeming with life in its cycles. The quiet box canyons shelter the stately herds of Elk, while the seasonal rains brings out the croaking of frogs long dormant. Water is everything here, and its mastery at Chaco brought forth a florescence of culture, human culture!

For thousands of years people have called this remote canyon home, farming the wash at its center and seeking shelter in the ever present sandstone. Starting in A.D 850 though, the pattern of life shifted, as the inhabitants began to build massive buildings, larger than anything seen before in what is now the US! As a volunteer I have the privilege to explore these masonry monuments with the tours I guide, wandering through the empty halls and plazas of ancient villages. The largest buildings encompass hundreds upon hundreds of rooms in of themselves, now filled by the awed shuffle of feet and the voiced inquiries of tourist and ranger alike. I don't think that I am exaggerating when I claim that Chaco Canyon is the premier archaeological site in the United States!

In addition to guiding tours, as a volunteer I also help staff the park visitor center, answering what questions I can and helping to collect fees for the site's continued upkeep. With my background in archaeology, I have also been blessed with the chance to assist the park Cultural Resources division. It is powerful to tenderly care for a pot that witnessed the same sun that the last emperors in Rome did!

There are many opportunities for volunteers at Chaco Culture or at other National Park units. It can be a very rewarding experience, as you help steward the national treasures of this country, alongside the very talented and motivated park staff! Beyond the professional reward, the American Southwest is home to many diverse and vibrant cultures, many descended from the original inhabitants of Chaco. Whether one encounters Chaco as a visitor or volunteer, the experience is definitely worth the visit!"


I couldn't agree more! 


Volunteered Spring 2011

Chaco Culture National Historical Park

P.O. Box 220

Nageezi, NM

(505)786-7014

http://www.nps.gov/chcu/index.htm

Volunteering in the parks can be a hugely rewarding experience!  If anyone is interested in becoming involved, I would suggest finding a park that you are interested in, and starting a conversation with their volunteer coordinator.  Many parks can offer housing for volunteers, in exchange for at least 32 hours of work.  Not all National Park units have the same resources, so an accomodating attitude can be key to getting the most out of your travels.

For more info please visit
http://www.nps.gov/getinvolved/volunteer.htm


Thank you Lauren, GB, Russ, Kathy, Roger, Dabney, Roger, Anita, Don, Vicki, Gabbie, and everyone else who has made my time as a VIP so enjoyable!


Happy Travels!






Mad Dogs, or Englishmen?

  Fresh from a great season at Aztec Ruins National Monument (AZRU in park speak), I went into the fall of 2010 with a quandary.  It can be very hard for a relatively untried ranger to find a job, especially for the winter months!  It is an impersonal expression of economics that fewer people visit the parks in the winter, which means there are fewer job openings.  Without experience a new ranger often has to make do, be it in a coffee shop or as a substitute teacher!  I turned towards my first employer out of college...

I ended my time at AZRU on a Friday in August, and that Sunday I started a job as a crew leader for the Southwest Conservation Corps in Durango.  I was to head a small crew of contractors in a fire effects monitoring project, with the NPS in the west Texas region.  Basically we were on our own for 10 weeks, locating GPS markers and inventorying forest health.  My job was to guarantee the project quality, paperwork, and to act as a liason with the parks.

It was an incredible fall, hiking through four different parks!  Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Carlsbad Caverns N.P., Big Bend N.P., and Fort Davis National Historical Site all had their own wonders to share.  Tarantulas and Tarantula Hawks battling it out in Gumo, climbing mountains in CAVE, watching Javelinas in BIBE, and eating Mexican food at a little hole in the wall at FODA.  I wore out a pair of park boots that season, and learned how to use a Triimble GPS unit to navigate the back country.  Marvelous!

Thinking back I can't begin to capture all the adventures, from sharing a dumpy apartment at Panther Junction, to a moonlit hike to hotsprings.


Special thanks to Christine, Sebastien, Kirsti, Dr. Faust, Sarah, and Christina for an AWESOME time!


Fall 2010

Southwest Conservation Corps

Four Corners office
701 Camino del Rio, Suite 101
Durango, CO 81301
(970)259-8607
http://www.sccorps.org/

 

Ta-DA!  Landis Ehler is a real ranger!

My first job as a real ranger was at Aztec Ruins National Monument!  It was an amazing opportunity, where I was able to try my hand at Interpretation and Archaeology.     


Please note that the discipline of interpretation involves connecting the public with a park's story, not translating actual languages.  Imagine how much fun it is explaining that to a tour bus full of foreign visitors! 

I relished in the chance to assist in a fill level adjustment program, working part time with the cultural resource division, as well as learning to put together a ranger program.  The reconstructed Great Kiva was a phenomenal backdrop for my first ranger talks! 

That pile of rocks are the result of an entire day of excavation!  And Gary said it looked like a sheepherder's monument...

And then there was the Atlatl!  I will always remember facilitating 80 fourth graders in the fine art of throwing spears.  Most could barely manage a ten foot launch.  One student launched the spear a full 200 feet on his first try!

Would you run towards someone so armed?  A trespassing jogger did one day, while all the students were throwing!  Did they slow down, or turn around?  No. 

Many thanks to Tracy, Aron, Cyresa, Marti, Gary, Shiana, Erin, and everyone else who made this such a positive experience!

Fall 2009-August 2010

Aztec Ruins National Monument

#84 County Road 2900

Aztec, NM 87410

(505)334-6174

http://www.nps.gov/azru/index.htm