Oregon state parks ramp up recruitment effort in anticipation of peak summer visits

The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is actively trying to hire 250 seasonal park ranger and ranger assistants in anticipation of another busy summer this year. The recruitment drive started in February, two months earlier than last year, and has already yielded more than 4,200 applications for seasonal park ranger assistants — a nearly 100% increase compared to the number of applications the agency received for this position from February to late March last year.

The agency won approval from state lawmakers last year to lengthen the duration of its seasonal positions up to nine months to better handle increasing numbers of visitors beyond peak summer months. There were an estimated 52 million day visits made last year, making it the second-busiest year on record for the parks system. Joining us to talk about how these recruitment efforts are going and what staffing looks like at their parks are Jason Elkins, park manager at Cape Lookout Management Unit which includes Cape Lookout State Park on the Oregon Coast, and Grace Neil, who recently started her second year as a seasonal park ranger at Wallowa Lake State Park in Eastern Oregon.

This transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. There were around 52 million day-visits to Oregon State Parks last year, making it the second busiest year on record. The Parks and Recreation Department for the state is gearing up for another busy high season right now, a little earlier than normal. Joining me now to talk about recruitment and staffing are Jason Elkins, the park manager at Cape Lookout Management Unit, which includes Cape Lookout State Park. And Grace Neil - she recently started her second year as a seasonal park ranger at Wallowa Lake State Park. It’s great to have both of you on the show.

Jason Elkins: Thanks, Dave.

Grace Neil: Hello. Thank you for having us.

Miller: Thanks for joining us. So Jason, first. Can you describe Cape Lookout State Park for people who have not yet been there?

Elkins: Cape Lookout State Park is a campground outside of Tillamook, and we have approximately 250 campsites, so a pretty good-sized campground. We offer tent sites, full hookup sites, as well as yurts and deluxe cabins with a great view of the ocean.  And we offer some great hiking trails here at the park as well, and a very popular day use area. The management unit spans from the community of Cape Meares, near where we have Cape Meares State Scenic Viewpoint, down to Pacific City, Bob Straub State Park being the furthest park to the south in our management unit.

Miller: You saw 137,000 overnight visitors last year, if I’m not mistaken, the second most ever. I can imagine a different world, where there was a peak during the height of the pandemic, and then a big drop. But that didn’t happen. There was a peak because people said, ‘well, what else can I do right now?’ And then it more or less stayed close to those pandemic highs. Why do you think that is?

Elkins: I think definitely people are getting out more and more into our state parks, and I think more people are transitioning to travel trailers or motor homes and utilizing what we call our shoulder seasons in the park - kind of outside of that Memorial Day to Labor Day time frame, where our campgrounds are typically full every night. And really, people are coming out earlier in the spring and later into the fall and visiting our campgrounds more often. It’s great to see, but it’s definitely a little bit of an adjustment, staffing-wise and everything for the agency.

Miller: What do you mean by that? What are the staffing considerations that you’ve had to implement because people are actually arriving earlier in the season or staying later into the fall?

Elkins: Typically, we would focus our hiring and bringing on our seasonal workforce in that Memorial Day to Labor Day time frame, because that’s when we needed that extra workforce the most. But that model doesn’t really work anymore, because we have a small number of permanent staff at Cape Lookout here. We have seven permanent staff, but we have 14 seasonal staff.

And without that seasonal staff here during those higher visitation times in the shoulder season, it makes getting the basics of operations completed a little bit more difficult, and puts a strain on getting additional tasks done, such as preventative maintenance or hazard tree work, those types of things. So, recently, we’ve been trying to extend those seasons for our seasonal workforce and bring them on earlier, say, April or May, and work their season through September and into October to help with that.

Miller: And my understanding is that the legislature helped out by actually increasing your budget, so you can hire those seasonal workers for longer. I want to hear more about hiring and the challenges, if there are some. But as I noted, Grace Neil is with us as well.

Grace, you’re in your second year now, or starting your second year as a seasonal park ranger at Wallowa Lake State Park. What led you to apply for a job with Oregon State Parks in the first place?

Neil: I decided to join parks because as a child, I had this grandiose dream of becoming a park ranger. What brought me to state parks was it was closer to home for me where I was, and they provide so many opportunities for learning and such a diverse day-to-day. In a national park setting, you’re probably gonna be more specialized in your area, whereas here, there’s days where you’re doing maintenance, you’re doing interpretation, you’re working in the booth, you’re doing so many different things. I just thought, post-pandemic, why not me? Why not apply to be a park ranger? This is what you wanted to do.

Miller: How familiar with Wallowa Lake State Park were you before you started working there?

Neil: This was actually a place I used to vacation as a kid. I have memories of being five to eight years old and swimming in this lake, being in this very same campground, so very familiar with the area and the place and the beauty of it. But now it’s very fun and interesting to be on the other side of the management unit and working to provide fun vacation experiences for everyone.

Miller: How prepared were you for the work that’s actually entailed? It seems like you are very familiar with some of the places around there, but did that prepare you for actually doing the work?

Neil: Good question. Yes, it helps knowing the area and what you’re going into, knowing the outdoors. But more so, you have to have a willingness to say yes, and be willing to learn. I have learned so much in this position, from changing electrical breakers to the right way to unclog a toilet. You have to be willing to learn in this position and say yes, be the yes person. You’re gonna get dirty, you’re gonna do hard physical labor, but being willing to work is the biggest thing I can say.

Miller: What’s an average day like for you in the middle of the high season?

Neil: We have about 200 campsites, and quite a few bathrooms. So you can expect every single day, you will at least be cleaning one bathroom. There’s a high probability you’ll also be doing some physical labor. There’s a lot of landscaping such as mowing and trimming. You gotta maintain the area around you and the campsites, but you’re also gonna have those positive interactions with campers and engage with them a lot. Campers are gonna ask you questions on the area, they’re gonna let you know something that might be going wrong in the park. There’s certain emergencies. Every day is different, but there’s a pretty seemingly structure of: bathrooms, taking care of camp, and then whatever projects you can get around to after that.

Miller: Jason Elkins, what has staffing been like for you in recent years?

Elkins: Coming out of the pandemic, it was pretty tough. I think people were a little bit reluctant, maybe, to get into those forward-facing jobs with the public. And so coming out of that, it was tough. A lot of parks across the state, a lot of management units, were not nearly up to fully staffed. And for Cape Lookout specifically, just in 2020, we had four seasonal workers that year. But it’s progressively gotten better, and last year, we were actually able to fill all of our positions, which was great. It takes a lot of pressure off of our permanent staff and helps us meet those standards that people are used to in Oregon State Parks.

Miller: How many positions are you hoping to fill for this year?

Elkins: This year? We’re currently recruiting for one of our seasonal ranger positions, and then five park ranger assistant positions.

Miller: My understanding is that the Parks and Recreation Department started the hiring process for seasonal workers in February, a little bit earlier than normal. Have you gotten a good number of applications?

Elkins: Yes. I think it’s definitely made a difference. For our ranger assistant position, we had just under 70 applications so far…

Miller: Just for that one position?

Elkins: For our ranger assistant position.

Miller: OK, and you have more of those?

Elkins: Yes, we have five of those positions. But our seasonal park ranger position, I believe, had 50 applicants, right around 50. And they’re very competitive. It’s a competitive applicant pool and I think it’s definitely helped with the ranger assistants, getting that recruitment out earlier.

If I can speak as a whole to the agency, I’ve been with the agency for just over 15 years, and I think our recruitment focus was much more localized before, and it was more people seeking us out. And I think, especially in the last five years, we’ve worked with our recruiting department and HR, and our communications division, really casting a wider net, and trying to get more people exposed to these positions, to help diversify the workforce, and hopefully fill all these positions that we’re having some difficulty filling across the state.

Miller: Has that worked? I mean, have you seen people applying with a broader array of experiences, or from a wider geographical area?

Elkins: Yeah, as an agency, we’ve definitely seen a lot more applicants applying for those ranger assistant positions. So far this year, across the agency, we’ve had around 4,200 applications for those ranger assistant positions, and that’s up by 2,000 applicants from last year. So, definitely a larger pool. And with that, at least from my experience, I’ve seen a much more competitive pool, people that just are bringing a lot more varied experience, and very hopeful for this year, that we’ll get some great people on, and they’ll make a career out of it. A lot of our people across the agency, even in upper-level management and leadership, started their career as a ranger assistant.

Miller: Is that true for you as well?

Elkins: It is actually, yes.

Miller: Where were you when you started?

Elkins: Detroit Lake State Park, and that was back in 2007. And I worked in different positions throughout the agency and most recently became the manager here.

Miller: Grace, what’s the best part about this job?

Neil: The best part is the diverse experience and life skills that you get to learn in a job and then apply to life. As I was mentioning earlier, the agency does a great job in building individuals and their knowledge. I, too, started out as a park ranger assistant, and within eight months got bumped up to a park ranger, seasonal. So definitely, the learning, and also interacting with campers, giving them a good vacation experience. Getting to meet people from all over the world makes the job worth it.

Miller: What’s the part of your job that most makes you say, ‘well, at least I’m getting paid?’

Neil: Yes. Not every day is rainbows and sunshine. You know, a lot of people expect that, being a park ranger, you’re gonna be out walking around in nature, hanging out with the birds and singing with the deer. No, there’s definitely days where you might be in a hole, you’re digging up sewage, you’re digging up pipes. It’s hot. Campers are frustrated because they want to get into their site and that’s definitely some of those days where you gotta get to work, and it might not be great.

But usually, the end result is great because you feel accomplished in something that you fixed. You may have learned something new in that way, and then eventually like a camper will be very thankful that, ‘oh, thank you for cleaning up our site,’ or fixing it. So yeah, it’s never fun having to work with sewage.

Miller: Jason, I’ve got to say, this is the third time that Grace has mentioned sewage or toilets in one way or another. Is that something that you tell prospective applicants as a kind of a warning – it’s not just going to be talking with deer?

Elkins: Yes, absolutely. Earlier on in my career as a hiring manager, I quickly realized that that’s important to bring up because not all people are willing to jump into that, but it’s definitely important to set that expectation, that a large part of these entry level positions are janitorial. And it’s a very important part of our job, and it’s a part of everyone’s job that works in the field. We all go out and lend a helping hand in cleaning a restroom or shower building. But, like Grace alluded to, it’s not every aspect of the job, but it’s definitely an important one.

Miller: Just briefly, Jason Elkins, how big a difference did it make that now there are same-day online reservations for overnight stays, statewide. What did that mean for the park system?

Elkins: Yeah, I think it’s definitely been a great help to staff that are operating the campground because they’re handling less cash. And that is a long process, the reconciliation process with cash and everything. So I think it cuts down on time with our campground operations and it gives the visitor peace of mind, the same day they can look for a site and know they have a site reserved when they get to the park, rather than taking a chance on it.

Miller: Jason Elkins and Grace Neil, thanks very much.

Elkins: Yes, thank you, Dave. Good talking with you.

Neil: Thanks for having us.

Miller: Jason Elkins is the park manager at the Cape Lookout Management Unit on the coast. Grace Neil is a seasonal park ranger at Wallowa Lake State Park. They joined us to talk about the effort for ramping up for the high season, which is coming sooner than it used to in the past.

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