Hey, everyone! Welcome back to Rewildology where we explore conservation, travel, and rewilding the planet. I’m your host, Brooke Mitchell-Norman, conservation biologist and globe-trotter.

If you’re anything like me, you love visiting national parks. Many vacations have been planned around these protected tracts of land and some of our greatest travel memories were formed here.

I’m also sure that once or twice you interacted with a park ranger, hopefully in a positive way and not because you were doing something…you shouldn’t have been.

Have you wondered how these people became rangers? What does this job actually entail? And…what should someone do when the park’s budget is cut by 80% and you lose three jobs in a row?

This week’s guest, Jesse Weiland, answers these questions and more. He takes me through his rather unique path into becoming a park ranger in the Rocky Mountains, losing three ranger jobs in a row to COVID, and launching an outdoor education company called Rugged Research along with other Rocky Mountain National Park Rangers. 

If any of you are considering entering the national park service or are currently looking for a role in the conservation field, you will not want to miss this conversation. Jesse’s story is full of hope, determination, and finding a way to monetize his environmental science masters degree when all other options were lost.

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And now, here is my conversation with Jesse.