Video
Melinda McFarland - Interpretive Ranger
Transcript
Hi. My name is Melinda and I am a park ranger here at Tonto National Monument in Arizona. My job description is a little varied. I have a lot of brackets attached to park rangers. So I am also the lead interpreter and the volunteer coordinator. So you can find me staffing the lower cliff dwelling, interacting with the public, doing outreach programs, but also helping my peers with their programming.
As volunteer coordinator which is probably one of my favorite duties that I have is I get to interact with all of our volunteers here on the monument which are both local but from across the United States. And this is a highlight because they bring their own wisdom to it, their knowledge, their experience and it really rounds out our team and also helps fulfill that mission of connecting visitors to the site.
This is the eighth site that I've worked at. So my career here or my pathway here rather was pretty varied. It took me all across the United States as a seasonal park ranger and I got to meet some incredible people along the way. Experience from the shores of Acadia National Park to the caves of Timpanogos cave in Utah to other cliff dwellings like Mesa Verde and Montezuma castle and the swamps of Louisiana.
And this pathway translates into what is an important skill I have, which is flexibility with the Park Service. A lot of us move around a lot and our jobs are so varied that it's good to be flexible. It's also good to stay curious because you move around, you get to learn incredible new things all the time.
So I got to learn about these 700-year-old cliff dwellings in Tonto National Monument and it's been an amazing thing, especially in years like this year where we've had an amazing bloom. So hopefully, you all get the chance to come out to Arizona and visit Tonto National Monument.
Description
Melinda McFarland - Interpretive Ranger
Duration
1 minute, 52 seconds
Credit
National Park Service
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