Paid in Sunsets: A Park Ranger's Story is a humorous memoir of David A. Dutton's life as a Federal Park Ranger. Park Rangers are called upon to do many dangerous things, like rappel down cliff faces to rescue stranded climbers, or cut fire lines in advance of raging forest infernos. Dutton didn't do those things. He spent thirty-one years sharing the natural world with others. This memoir retells the best of those experiences'bawdy encounters along the muddy Rio Grande, ghosts in a remote Southwest canyon, swimming with Great White sharks, tweezing pernicious Kentucky ticks off his body, carrying diarrhea out of the longest cave in the world, and getting pissed on by an indignant raccoon in a Mississippi backwater, to name a few. The memoir is about birth, life, and sometimes, death. It's about a journey'from being a greenhorn Park Ranger in New Mexico to becoming an ordained Senior Park Ranger in Mississippi, twenty years later.Paid in Sunsets: A Park Ranger's Story pays homage to rangers as an emblem of ruggedness, individualism, and courage. But more importantly, the memoir shows that Park Rangers are ordinary people, too'men and women who put on uniforms and hats everyday, step into the crowd, and commit themselves to the idea of protecting America's treasures for the benefit of future generations.

A lively, thought-provoking collection of essays and poems that represent diverse perspectives on national parks and trails. -- Kristen Rabe ― Foreword Reviews Features stories from Grand Canyon, Everglades, Olympic, Glacier, and Joshua Tree National Parks and the Appalachian and Pacific Crest National Scenic Trails Includes a diverse range of writers Inspired by America’s beloved national parks, Campfire Stories Volume II is a collection of modern prose, poetry, folklore, and more, featuring commissioned, new, and existing works from a diverse group of writers who share a deep appreciation of the natural world. While the original Campfire Stories captured many historic tales reflecting the first 100 years of the National Park Service, this completely new collection, focused on five different parks (plus two long-distance trails), depicts the parks as we know and experience them today. Contributors represent a range of rich and diverse voices, including from the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities. Award winners such as Lauret Savoy, Rae DelBianco, and Terry Tempest Williams; newer voices including Derick Lugo, Rosette Royale, and Ed Bok Lee; and even a poet laureate, Rena Priest--all share their unique perspectives on our national parks and trails. These new campfire stories revel in each park’s distinct landscape and imaginatively transport the reader to the warm edge of a campfire ring.

The Sun is so powerful, so much bigger than us, that it is a terrifying subject. Yet though we depend on it, we take it for granted. Amazingly the first book of its kind, CHASING THE SUNis a cultural and scientific history of our relationship with the star that gives us life. Richard Cohen, applying the same mix of wide-ranging reference and intimate detail that won outstanding reviews for By the Sword, travels from the ancient Greek astronomers to modern-day solar scientists, from Stonehenge to Antarctica (site of the solar eclipse of 2003, when penguins were said to sing), Mexico's Aztecs to the Norwegian city of Tromso, where for two months of the year there is no Sun at all. He introduces us to the crucial 'sunspot cycle' in modern economics, the religious dances of Indian tribesmen, the histories of sundials and calendars, the plight of migrating birds, the latest theories of global warming, and Galileo recording his discoveries in code, for fear of persecution. And throughout, there is the rich Sun literature -- from the writings of Homer through Dante and Nietzsche to Keats, Shelley and beyond. Blindingly impressive and hugely readable, this is a tour de force of narrative non-fiction.

National Park Ranger, a.k.a., Bleeding Green & Grey tells the stories that cover well beyond just the numerous and sometimes daily heroic deeds that other present park ranger books more than adequately validate. However, these new true-life tales not only embrace such topics as the customary high adventure cases, the sometimes humorous park visitors, and the dealing with the unfortunate death & mayhem; but now include various accounts of handling previously considered taboo matters such as limited budgets, hiring difficulties, increasing outside agency assists, and unfortunately, politics and bureaucracy. Also, something rather different in dealing with the typical stoical federal government, author Greg Moss actually enjoys to not only show the amusement side of dealing with the unusual park visitor actions, but also pokes fun of himself or other park staff. All those emergency life-or-death call-out operations and boring administrative meetings dont go off quite as smoothly as most other books on park rangers currently portray, or even totally ignore. This author uses a lot of dry humor, satire, and sarcasm in his book which makes you laugh out loud, scratch your head, and say, Really? Is that true?

The national parks of North America are great public treasures, visited by 300 million people each year. Set aside to be kept in relatively natural condition, these remarkable places of forests, rivers, mountains, and wildlife still inspire our "capacity for wonder." Today, however, the parks are threatened by increasingly difficult problems from both inside and outside their borders. This book, enriched with personal anecdotes of the author's trips throughout the parks of North America, examines changes in the park services of the United States and Canada over the past fifteen years. William Lowry describes the many challenges facing the parks—such as rising crime, tourism, and overcrowding, pollution, eroding funding for environmental research, and the contentious debate over preservation versus use—and the abilities of the agencies to deal with them. The Capacity for Wonder provides a revealing comparison of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and the Canadian Parks Service (CPS). The author explains that, while the services are similar in many ways, the priorities of these two agencies have changed dramatically in recent years. Lowry shows how increasing conflicts over agency goals and decreasing institutional support have make the NPS vulnerable to interagency disputes, reluctant to take any risks in its operations, and extremely responsive to political pressures. As a result, U.S. national parks are now managed mainly to serve political purposes. Lowry illustrates how in the 1980s politicians pushed the NPS to expand private uses of national parks through development, timber harvesting, grazing, and mining, while environmental groups push the NPS in the other direction. Over the same period, the CPS enjoyed a clarification of goals and increased institutional supports. As a result, the CPS has been able to decentralize its structure, empower its employees, and renew its commitment to preservation. Lowry considers several proposals to change the institutions governing the parks. His own recommendations are more in line with proposals to revitalize public agencies than with those that suggest replacing them with private enterprise, state agencies, or endowment boards. Lowry concludes that preserving nature should be the primary, explicit goal of the park services, and he calls for a stronger commitment to that goal in the United States.

What is a park ranger's life? A wild bear who favors Kentucky Fried Chicken A fugitive wanted in eight states A dog that saves his owner's life Wildland firefighters battling nature and fire A ghost haunting a colonial mansion Hikers who stay lost because they think searchers calling their names are wild animals Being willing to risk your life to make our parks safe and help preserve them for the future These are just a few experiences you will read about in A Park Ranger's Life. Drawn from the thirty-two-year career of National Park Ranger Bruce W. Bytnar, you will discover what it takes to be a park ranger, what threats to visitors and resources they deal with on a daily basis, and what you can do to help protect and preserve our national heritage.

Jerry Mernin’s distinguished career in the National Park Service spanned four decades, five national parks, and a remarkable 32-year stay in Yellowstone, the park he loved and never left. In his long-awaited memoir, Mernin takes readers behind the scenes to learn firsthand what it’s like to be a great park ranger. Along the way he shares a lifetime of exciting adventures, including dangerous rescues, remote backcountry patrols, and multiple heart-pounding encounters with grizzly bears. Thoroughly entertaining, this book also provides a valuable inside look at park operations from law enforcement to bear management.