OUT ON THE RANGE

Life in the National Park Service takes rangers all over the country. After working in some amazing locales, these rangers now call the Outer Banks home.

Out on the

Range

BY STEVE HANF

Josh Nelson hadn’t been at the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site very long when he made his rounds one day along the Thomas Hariot Nature Trail. At the end of the loop just beyond Roanoke Island’s famed Waterside Theatre, he encountered two men lounging on the beach.

Josh recalls the day as beautiful: Sunny and warm, but not too hot. He asked one of the visitors how they were doing and was immediately struck by the reply.

“He said he hadn’t been that relaxed in two years,” Josh says. “I don’t know what had happened in his life, but that little park was enough to completely relax him.”

The rejuvenating power of nature in general, and America’s national parks in particular, is well documented. More than 237 million visitors logged more than a billion hours of park time with the National Park Service’s 400-plus destinations in 2020.

The history and beauty of the parks also draws nearly 20,000 workers into the park service for some of the most coveted jobs in government. Josh, an interpretive ranger at Fort Raleigh, explains that the ability to experience so many unique environments is one part of that draw. Another is simply the “idea” behind the parks.

“It’s the idea of being able to collectively protect the place for everyone,” he explains, before pausing and gazing into the distance as he searches for more words.

“Then there’s obviously the benefit of being able to experience incredible places daily,” he continues. “I can honestly say that there’s not

Continued >

From top to bottom: Josh Nelson at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, Meaghan Johnson at Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida, and Josh at another job at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota.

WIND CAVE

SOUTH DAKOTA

Josh Nelson at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico (right). Dave Hallac at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming (below). CARLSBAD CAVERNS NEW MEXICO

been a day that I haven’t wanted to go to work. And that’s a pretty good thing to be able to say.”

ACCORDING TO MIKE BARBER, THE PUBLIC AFFAIRS SPECIALIST FOR THE OUTER BANKS GROUP OF PARKS, around 80 fulltime employees and 60 to 65 seasonal staff members work for the National Park Service (NPS) at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the Wright Brothers National Memorial and the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. These rangers found their way to the Outer Banks in a variety of ways, but all share the same passion for the job.

Dave Hallac, the current superintendent of the National Parks of Eastern North Carolina, arrived here from Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park after first working at Everglades National Park in Florida. Meaghan Johnson, the deputy chief of resource management and science for the Outer Banks Group, is also now on her second gig with the NPS after transferring here from Dry Tortugas National Park in the Florida Keys.

And then there’s Josh Nelson, who along with his wife, Toni, pinballed across the country before landing here on the Outer Banks. Josh grew up in Maine and remembers seeing park rangers in action on his home turf of Acadia National Park as well as on trips to the Western parks his family took every year. When he was little, the notion of being an “outdoor police officer” hooked him, and a job with the NPS was the only career he ever wanted.

He worked seasonally at Acadia while pursuing a parks management degree in college, then hit the road. Toni got a volunteer position at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota and Josh worked at a nearby state park in order to make ends meet before he was able to land a seasonal position at Wind Cave as well. That began their eight-year odyssey.

From Wind Cave to Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, to Zion National Park in Utah, and back to Wind Cave and then Carlsbad – Josh and Toni spent a season here, a season there, making ends meet with ski resort jobs in the offseason, carving out a spartan existence but enjoying every bit of the ride.

“Our material life really fit in an 8x5 enclosed trailer, combined,” Josh says. “It’s been a challenge, but on the other hand, it’s where our priority is.”

After earning valuable experience and service time at Carlsbad Caverns – Josh and Toni started looking for other postings. The park service isn’t like the military, with rangers getting new orders every few years. When rangers are ready for a new adventure, they have to visit a government website, see what’s out there and apply.

“Spending so much time in the Southwest, we were looking for a little bit of green, a little bit of water, and turns out we got a lot of water and also a lot of green,” Josh says of his current job at Fort Raleigh, which he started in the fall of 2018. “We’re really happy here. I’ve loved each place I’ve worked in, but there are so many other places out there to see that I haven’t ever really regretted moving.”

WYOMING

“Sometimes there’s a dream job out there, but you didn’t know it was your dream job until you hear about it.” -Superintendent Dave Hallac

DAVE HALLAC’S FAMILY HAS ALSO TRAVERSED THE COUNTRY, but with substantially longer stops during his employment at three different national parks. He began his current posting in 2014 and is now in charge of the NPS’ 22nd most-visited park per 2020 numbers, with more than 2.6 million visitors flocking to the Cape Hatteras National Seashore last year – the highest visitation numbers in 17 years. Like many, Dave wound up working for the NPS after spending time with another federal agency. He was a biologist on Everglades restoration projects for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when a supervisory position at Everglades National Park opened up, and one of his NPS colleagues told him that he’d be great for the job.

While he loved the Everglades – and still does – Dave jumped at the chance to serve as lead scientist at one of America’s most beloved national parks seven years later. During his subsequent four years at Yellowstone, he worked on fisheries restoration projects and monitored the park’s expansive herds of wildlife.

“Sometimes there’s a dream job out there, but you didn’t know it was your dream job until you hear about it,” Dave says. “That was the case [at Yellowstone].”

“It felt somewhat unnatural to see people just coming and going from their positions so frequently, but it was also a little refreshing because there are so many opportunities to have new experiences at different parks and to take those experiences on to the next park.”

WYOMINGDRY TORTUGAS FLORIDA

- Ranger Meaghan Johnson

Meaghan Johnson scuba diving at Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida (above). Dave Hallac on the job at Everglades National Park in Florida (below).

Still, when the opportunity to manage an entire park group became available, Dave knew it was the right move. He was named superintendent of the Cape Hatteras Seashore and the Outer Banks Group of parks in 2014.

“I got a total spectrum of reactions from, ‘you’re crazy for leaving Yellowstone’ to ‘oh my gosh, I can’t believe you lasted that long in Yellowstone,’” Dave says with amusement when asked about moving on from such an iconic location.

And there’s also the fact that a posting at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore is known to be a bit controversial. Visitor access and the protection of the landscape has always been a battle at national parks, so things such as off-road vehicle management at Everglades Cape Hatteras is just part of the job. But Dave can still appreciate some of the fierier local debates that have emerged during his time here.

“Even if folks are angry about something, the reason they’re really angry about it is that they care so deeply,” Dave explains. “The other thing I enjoy most about the Outer Banks is its dynamic nature. You go to Yellowstone and you can certainly see something pretty similar [every season]. In Hatteras, you can go to a place like Cape Point today and then go back in a year – or even six months from now – and it might look completely different.”

WHILE THE NPS IS A RELATIVELY SMALL AND CLOSE-KNIT ORGANIZATION, Dave Hallac and Meaghan Johnson never crossed paths during their time in South Florida – although, like Dave, Meaghan also came to the NPS from an outside organization.

She had been living and working in the Florida Keys for 14 years doing coral reef monitoring, restoration and research for The Nature Conservancy when a fisheries biologist position opened at Dry Tortugas National Park. It was a natural fit for Meaghan since she had already been working in the park with many of the same people. After three years at Dry Tortugas, Meaghan made the move to the Outer Banks in the fall of 2019 to be closer to family. “It was kind of eye-opening to me when I started with the park service to see how transient it was,” she says. “It felt somewhat unnatural to see people just coming and going from their positions so frequently, but it was also a little refreshing because there are so many opportunities to have new experiences at different parks and to take those experiences on to the next park.” Meaghan does miss the scuba diving that was a huge part of her job at Dry Tortugas, but she’s excited that her small child is now closer to family in North Carolina. Meaghan also enjoys working on various aspects of all five of the eastern N.C. parks – including Cape Lookout National Seashore and the Moores Creek National Battlefield – as the deputy chief of resource management and science. “It’s about both cultural and natural resources, so that’s a lot. It’s all things living, including our nesting shorebirds and sea turtle nesting management, and anything to do with our lighthouses and cultural resources,” Meaghan explains. “Moores Creek, Fort Raleigh, Wright Brothers – there are a lot of cultural resources at all three of those locations. “I’ve only really been with two parks now,” Meaghan adds with a laugh when asked about her travels. “But I think I picked two good ones!” The common bond with all of these staff members is their love for the National Park Service: Love of the land. Love of interacting with visitors. Love of the mission. “The mission is incredible,” Dave adds. “Sometimes people say that we’re in the ‘forever business,’ because our job is to protect and preserve these resources for the enjoyment of future generations. The parks almost become a part of you – and in some cases you can feel that attachment for the rest of your life.”