Conservation Scientist / Park Ranger

Career Area: Agriculture, Horticulture, & the Outdoors

Occupation Group: Rangers and Foresters

Salary

Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.

An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.

A typical Conservation Scientist / Park Ranger earns the following wages (national and state):

State

The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $42,790

National

The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $43,764

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

Manages ranges or large tracts of land. Monitors the environmental impact of farming and grazing on the land and tracks plants needed to support grazing livestock. Develops resource management plans to protect wildlife habitats or to support outdoor recreation; works to prevent damage from wildfires and invasive species.Leads informational programs for park visitors about the history and environmental features of public parks, and promote awareness of protecting park land. Welcomes and provides assistance to park visitors, assists with educational programs, oversees park events and activities and patrols park land.

Employment Trends

The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.

Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:

Skills

A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:

Baseline Skills

The following are baseline skills every Conservation Scientist / Park Ranger is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:

• Physical Abilities: Physical Abilities, which refers to the ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with the body, arms, and/or legs. These abilities often require strength, endurance, flexibility, balance and coordination.
• Research: Experience performing creative and systematic work to understand a product, market, or customer, either before building a new solution, or to troubleshoot an existing issue
• Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
• Planning: Working experience with the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve desired goals.
• Writing: Experience expressing business messages effectively in written form. This may include planning drafting and revising as necessary.

Specialized Skills

These skills are specific to working in this career:

• Natural Resources: Natural resources are resources that exist without actions of humankind.
• Repair: Restoration of a broken, damaged, or failed device, equipment, part, or property to an acceptable operating or usable condition or state.
• Scheduling: Working experience making schedules, which are basic time-management tools, consisting of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place withing an organization.
• Natural Resource Management: Natural resource management refers to the management of natural resources such as land, water, soil, plants and animals, with a particular focus on how management affects the quality of life for both present and future generations (stewardship).
• Resource Management: In organizational studies, resource management is the efficient and effective development of an organization's resources when they are needed.

Distinguishing Skills

Any Conservation Scientist / Park Ranger that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:

• Law Enforcement or Criminal Justice Experience: Law enforcement is the department of people whoenforce laws, investigate crimes, and make arrests
• Restoration Projects: Working experience of Restoration Projects, which is the scientific study supporting the practice of ecological restoration, which is the practice of renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats in the environment by active human intervention and action.
• Plows: Definition of plow 1 : an implement used to cut, lift, and turn over soil especially in preparing a seedbed 2 : any of various devices (such as a snowplow) operating like a plow
• Range Management: Working experience of Range Management, which is a professional natural science that centers around the study of rangelands and the conservation and sustainable management for the benefit of current societies and future generations.

Experience

This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Common Job Titles

It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:

• Park Ranger
• Soil Conservationist
• View
• Park Ranger I
• Natural Resource Specialist

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring similar occupations, you may want to research the following job titles:

• Soil / Plant Scientist
• Forest / Conservation Technician