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Career Description

Plan, develop, and conduct programs to inform public of historical, natural, and scientific features of national, state, or local park.

What Job Titles Park Naturalists Might Have

• Environmental Education Specialist
• Naturalist
• Park Naturalist
• Park Ranger

What Park Naturalists Do

• Conduct field trips to point out scientific, historic, and natural features of parks, forests, historic sites or other attractions.
• Prepare and present illustrated lectures and interpretive talks about park features.
• Plan and organize public events at the park.
• Provide visitor services, such as explaining regulations, answering visitor requests, needs and complaints, and providing information about the park and surrounding areas.
• Develop environmental educational programs and curricula for schools.
• Research stories regarding the area's natural history or environment.
• Perform emergency duties to protect human life, government property, and natural features of park.
• Confer with park staff to determine subjects and schedules for park programs.
• Assist with operations of general facilities, such as visitor centers.
• Plan and develop audio-visual devices for public programs.
• Construct historical, scientific, and nature visitor-center displays.
• Prepare brochures and write newspaper articles.
• Compile and maintain official park photographic and information files.
• Take photographs and motion pictures for use in lectures and publications and to develop displays.
• Plan, organize and direct activities of seasonal staff members.
• Survey park to determine forest conditions and distribution and abundance of fauna and flora.

What Park Naturalists Should Be Good At

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).

What Park Naturalists Should Be Interested In

• Realistic - Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

What Park Naturalists Need to Learn

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
• History and Archeology - Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Geography - Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
• Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
• Biology - Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.