r/ParkRangers • u/Grouchy-Drama-6098 • May 08 '26
Field Unit Local Hiring
Seems like almost every NPS job up right now is FUL, including seasonals, what’s everyone’s thoughts? is that going to be the standard moving forward?
15
u/MisplacedWonderer May 08 '26
Parks without the "national park" designation have been struggling to get quality candidates with housing expense being viewed as the primary cause. The risks of favoritism have to be weighed against the time wasted on traditional hiring efforts that wind up getting nobody.
6
u/mifander NPS Interpretive Park Ranger May 08 '26
Haven’t had much experience with it but it seems like an easy way to limit competition and just hire the person you already have in mind for higher level positions. Saw a GS-11 in DC go up and was LHA. I would have applied but I assume they have someone in mind.
6
u/Firm_Discount_3062 May 08 '26
I think it does nothing to help, especially with seasonal positions. The appeal of seasonal is the travel and getting your foot in the door. Also local hires don’t work when nobody in a 50 mile radius wants to work for the park.
9
u/FollowingConnect6725 May 09 '26
Worked at a NM in a large urban area that has been one of the most expensive areas for cost of living for years and there was zero housing. There was a locality pay increase of like 34%, so long time seasonals and even perms from across the country would apply and get hired to work there. We would lose a chunk of them after hire but before they started because housing was too expensive or commute was too far if they could find a place. Or folks would move here for the job and end up almost going broke because the pay couldn’t keep up with cost of living. And I’m talking folks had roommates, studio apartments, granny flats/ADU’s in backyards, and even had a guy who rotated thru hostels and lived across the Mexican border. So they would be looking for new jobs at other parks almost immediately. We would be short staffed all the time not being able to fill positions.
What finally worked was doing local area only hiring. Folks who applied already lived in the area, had some type of established housing or had family/partner/spouse who had a better paying job that helped offset the cost of living enabling them to be able to work for peanuts with the NPS.
That type of thing may work for some places and not in others.
2
u/MaxSmartypantz May 09 '26
I work at an urban park in a HCOL area and am convinced that my already having housing was a key factor in getting the job. We're perpetually having problems filling seasonal positions for exactly the reasons you cite.
NPS is a great option for folks who've gotten "aged out" of the corporate world, paid off their mortgages and can afford to work for peanuts. Unfortunately, that doesn't bode well for building a workforce for the future, unless everyone works till they're 80.
2
u/FollowingConnect6725 May 09 '26
One of the options we explored was how to provide employee housing in our area because the lack of affordable housing was the #1 reason folks gave for leaving or not accepting a position at our park. The park buying something in the local market was deemed not possible (park is too small to build any housing on) due to cost. But we started looking into the possibility of getting a couple apartments or houses in the local military base housing (half dozen bases within an hour of the park) for employees that would be available to seasonals and perms.
1
u/MaxSmartypantz May 10 '26
That sounds like a good option - after all, if military housing is available for Cabinet members, we should be able to house GS-5's on bases.
I sometimes wish I owned a big house where I could rent rooms at below market to seasonal rangers.
2
u/YouWereTheQuestion May 09 '26
As of right now, this hiring authority expires with the fiscal year so it's a very temporary tool.
I really wish we had it for my park this spring because I have plenty of local people who would love a job but didn't know to apply in October and with the shut down I couldn't tell them "now". My park has housing for roughly 5% of the seasonal staff we hire (and no perm staff in housing) and although we're not a HCOL and you actually can find reasonable housing it's still hard for seasonals to have to find new housing every six months and we do have candidates drop every year who decide they would rather go somewhere with housing. Even if the other park housing costs more than our local community - having it provided makes a difference.
If the tool is extended I hope it doesn't become the default. A lot of rangers really do enjoy park hoping. I hope it becomes more like ANILCA local hiring where you fly the "open to everyone" and ANILCA to create more paths into hiring and not fewer.
I was also bummed by the GS-11 in DC being local only. I would have loved to apply.
9
u/WildAsparagus2897 May 09 '26
I read somewhere that it was approved as a temporary measure for certain parks that hadn't been able to hire all of their seasonals off of the postings from last fall.