Supervisory Park Ranger (Protection)

Chief Ranger

The Incumbent serves as Chief, Division of Visitor and Resource Protection (Chief Ranger), at Big Thicket National Preserve. The position is located at Preserve Headquarters north of Kountze, Texas, and reports directly to the Superintendent. The Chief Ranger is responsible for organizing, planning, directing, coordination, administration of law enforcement and visitor protection activities. The Preserve contains more than 113,000 acres, divided into nine widely separated land units and six water corridors, totaling approximately 267 miles of waterways. Preserve management units encompassing more than 600 miles of boundaries are situated in seven counties in southeast Texas and are dispersed over an area of 3,600 square miles. As one of the first two National Preserves in the National Park System, Big Thicket was established "to assure the preservation of numerous representative areas typical of the Big Thicket Region, and to protect and preserve the natural values which make this 'biological crossroads' unique in the United States.

Some of the major duties you will perform include but are not limited to the following:

• The incumbent serves as Chief Ranger. As the chief of the division, the incumbent is responsible for planning, directing, and executing all park programs dealing with visitor and resource protection. The incumbent is the principal advisor to the Superintendent relative to visitor and resource protection issues and assists the Superintendent with a variety of park management assignments.
• Directly supervises one GS-11 Supervisory Protection Ranger, one GS-9 Park Ranger (Protection).
• Plans work schedules and sequences of operations on a long-range basis. Revises work schedules and goals to meet changes in workload, and assures coordination of work schedules and operations among subordinate units and with other divisions when activities affect the whole park.
• Reviews resource requirements data and other material for proper determination of what staffing, equipment, space requirement, materials and other resources are needed to accomplish the mission of the division. Adjusts figures based on overall determination of needs.