Illinois has a great diversity of habitats ranging from prairies to marshlands – all of which draw visitors to their scenic beauty. State owned and leased parks, forests, trails, and fish and wildlife areas in Illinois receive 45 million visitors a year. These visitors spend nearly $1 billion a year, which contributes significantly to the state’s economy.
Some of the notable state parks in Illinois include the following:
- Starved Rock State Park
- 18 canyons are formed by the erosion of streams and the melting of glaciers
- Sparkling waterfalls can be found at the heads of all of these canyons in the spring
- Cache River State Natural Area
- It contains true southern swamps uncommon in the north
- Tupelo gum and bald cypress trees over 1,000 years old
- 39 types of plants and animals that are endangered or threatened in Illinois
- It contains true southern swamps uncommon in the north
- Pere Marquette State Park
- Famous for having bald eagles during the winter
- Overlooks the Mississippi River
- Wildlife Prairie State Park
- Bison and bears roam the grounds
Park rangers in Illinois can work at the federal level with the National Park Service or at the state level with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Historic Preservation Agency. Each of these two organizations maintains its own education, experience and training requirements, as described below.
Becoming a Park Ranger with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Park rangers in Illinois work for either the Illinois Department of Natural Resources or the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency depending on the site in which they work. The qualifications and job requirements are the same for both organizations.
Park rangers in Illinois work to coordinate the improvement, care, and maintenance of site grounds, while supervising the site technicians who carry out site maintenance and outdoor recreational and interpretive programs.
Educational Preferences:
The state of Illinois prefers that park ranger job applicants have an associate’s degree with coursework in the following areas:
- Parks and recreation
- Life sciences
Ideally, candidates would also have a year of experience in interpretation or maintenance. In some cases, experience can be substituted for education.
Required Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities:
- Working knowledge of rules and regulations of their department
- Elementary knowledge of the administration of natural programs and outdoor recreation
- Ability to work under adverse environmental conditions
- Ability to prepare and maintain reports and operating records
- Ability to make minor repairs to equipment and tools
- Ability to supervise staff
- Ability to provide assistance, information, and direction to the general public and sports enthusiasts
Major Roles of Park Rangers in Illinois
- Supervising workers:
- Functionally supervising workers engaged in the following:
- Maintaining sites
- Providing outdoor natural programs and recreation
- Assigning, reviewing, and controlling work activities
- Providing guidance, direction, and training
- Providing input into performance evaluations
- Functionally supervising workers engaged in the following:
- Maintenance:
- Overseeing and participating in maintenance of the following:
- Trails
- Beaches
- Grounds
- Canals
- Waterways
- Repairing and maintaining the following:
- Signs
- Interpretive exhibits
- Picnic tables
- Overseeing and participating in maintenance of the following:
- Helping to administer outdoor recreational programs:
- Collecting boat rental fees
- Selling hunting and fishing licenses and camping permits
- Planting and cultivating wildlife food plots
- Operating hunter check stations
- Building and placing hunting blinds
- Assigning hunters to hunting areas
- Implementing safety and security programs
- Supervising Site Security Officers
- Directing traffic
- Advising site uses of regulations and rules
- Notifying the appropriate authorities when necessary
Becoming a Federal Park Ranger in Illinois
Park rangers who work for the federal government in Illinois protect lands of the National Park Service. In Illinois, it manages the Shawnee National Forest and five national wildlife refuges.
Chautauqua National Wildlife refuge is known for the hundreds of thousands of birds that stop as they migrate in the spring and fall. In addition to its wetlands, the park has native prairieland that is rare in this day and age.
The federal government hires different types of park rangers. Those who specialize in enforcing the federal and state laws are known as protective park rangers. The requirements to obtain the latter type of position are shown below.
Basic Requirements:
- Valid driver’s license
- Being 21 years old
Educational Requirements:
- One year of graduate school (GS-07 level)
- Bachelor’s degree including 24 hours of relevant courses (GS-05 level)
Experience Requirement:
Applicants without formal college training can still apply if they have experience such as the following:
- A year using LEO skills to protect resources and visitors (GS-07 level)
- A year in a position such as an LEO or a park guide (GS-05 level)
Applicants can also use a combination of education and experience to become a federal park ranger.
Illinois Park Ranger Salaries
Although the National Park Foundation reports just one national park in Illinois, which is the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, there are 85 historic landmarks. In addition, Illinois shares with other surrounding states historic trails including the Lewis & Clark and Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trails as well as the Trail of Tears.
In Illinois, park rangers are employed through the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. There is an entry-level ranger position and then a senior ranger position. The park ranger salary in Illinois begins at $43,656. Below are the complete salary figures for park rangers in Illinois:
Ranger
- Step 1c: $43,656
- Step 1b: $45,108
- Step 1a: $46,536
- Step 1: $47,976
- Step 2: $49,752
- Step 3: $51,720
- Step 4: $53,724
- Step 5: $55,608
- Step 6: $57,672
- Step 7: $60,912
- Step 8: $63,348
Senior Ranger
- Step 1c: $45,552
- Step 1b: $47,064
- Step 1a: $48,552
- Step 1: $50,064
- Step 2: $52,020
- Step 3: $54,048
- Step 4: $56,388
- Step 5: $58,500
- Step 6: $60,696
- Step 7: $64,152
- Step 8: $66,684
Additional entry-level salary data is shown in the tables below. This includes various titles that park rangers in various roles are recognized:
Recreation Workers Salaries in Illinois
Tour Guides and Escorts Salaries in Illinois
Recreational Protective Service Workers Salaries in Illinois
Gebhard Woods State Park
Park rangers at Gebhard Woods State Park are faced with many challenges when it comes to providing successful administration of park operations. Tucked just southwest of Chicago near the Illinois River, the park is an oasis of biodiversity and tranquility between the Nettle Creek Aqueduct and the Illinois and Michigan Canal. The range of activities offered to visitors of Gebhard Woods helps to provide some insight into why this place is one of the most popular state parks in Illinois:
- Fishing and boating, especially canoeing
- Trails for hiking and biking, or for skiing and snowmobiling in the winter
- Camping and picnicking areas
- Viewing opportunities of an abundance of wildlife, including many species of birds
- Annual festivals and activities
Gebhard Woods State Park is also the starting point of a 61-mile canoeing, hiking, and biking trail stretching between Morris and Joliet, known as the Illinois and Michigan Canal State Trail. Another trail is popular among scouts, named after a chief of the Potawatomi tribe, the Shabbona Trail.
Park Ranger Duties at Gebhard Woods State Park
A ranger’s responsibilities at Gebhard Woods State Park can be described as operations management. This is a broad description for many specific duties that must be carried out with expertise and finesse, including:
- Management of other park staff, especially site technicians
- Facility maintenance and upkeep
- Overseeing events and activities
- Coordinating park operations
At the top of a ranger’s priorities is ensuring that visitors are safe. Because motorboats are prohibited on the canal, kayaks and canoes are a favorite means of transportation. Although the water surrounding the park is not particularly swift, boating accidents are an important concern, especially during cold seasons. The park’s three fishing ponds can also pose their own risks when they become iced over in the winter.
In general, park rangers must be on greater alert when hikers, skiers, and other winter sport enthusiasts are enjoying Gebhard Woods. Recently, rangers aided in the search for a missing woman from Ottawa after her husband reported she may be in need of assistance. Rescuers discovered the woman’s car parked at the Gebhard Woods and after 2.5 hours of searching found her unconscious but alive near Nettle Creek. She was placed in a special rescue basket and taken to a nearby hospital.
Flooding is also a periodic occurrence at Gebhard Woods, and some years this is worse than others. Nevertheless, park rangers must always maintain their readiness to respond to instances of flooding plus its associated dangers and destruction.
Park rangers also play an instrumental in making activities at this site possible. A recent example of this was the Gebhard Woods Dulcimer Festival, which has been held at the park for over two-and-a-half decades. Rangers welcomed instrument builders, musicians, and their families from across the region to celebrate this instrument, with variants that are part of Appalachian cultural heritage. The festival is one of the largest Dulcimer music events in the area and comes complete with a barn dance and nationally recognized performers.
Illinois Beach State Park
As the backbone of Illinois Beach State Park, dedicated park rangers welcome the visiting public to a safe and efficiently run natural setting that also happens to be one of the state’s most popular beach destinations. Acting as the primary management and administration staff, park rangers ensure the many amenities of the 4,160-acre Illinois Beach State Park are easily accessible, including:
- Fishing
- Picnicking and camping areas
- Bicycling and jogging trails along 6.5 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline
- Sand dunes with over 650 species of plants
- Black oak and pine forests
A good park ranger can make the difference for visitors unfamiliar with the area, whether they are visiting from the Chicago area or from overseas.
Candidates who would like to learn more about becoming a park ranger at Illinois Beach State Park can start by reviewing the basic qualifications for these jobs, as determined by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Historic Preservation Agency.
Working as a Park Ranger at Illinois Beach State Park
Park rangers at Illinois Beach State Park will encounter everything from nudists to wildfires. Their primary duties are to ensure that the hundreds of thousands of visitors every year are safe and experience a well-managed and maintained state park.
To succeed in these duties, rangers must take a multi-pronged approach to ensure the safety of visitors and the preservation of natural resources:
- Wildfires can spring up at any time. Just recently a brush fire was sparked at the beach, requiring a rapid response from the Zion Fire-Rescue Department.
- Fires at Illinois Beach State Park can and have posed a radiological risk because of the park’s close proximity to the Zion Nuclear Power Station. Recently workers who were decommissioning the site accidentally caused a fire when their cutting torches ignited some nearby industrial grease. From fire or other accidents, park rangers must be prepared to manage park evacuation in the event of an emergency.
- Park rangers also keep track of alerts issued by the National Weather Service about the conditions on Lake Michigan. In the past these have warned of dangerous riptide conditions that may pull swimmers out into the Great Lake that have been known to cause people to drown. Strong winds and cold water temperatures can also prove deadly to swimmers.
Although not officially sanctioned in the park rules and regulations, one portion of the Illinois Beach State Park has acquired the reputation for being a nudist swimming area. Park rangers use their own discretion when dealing with this location, which can prove to be a moral challenge for some rangers.
Park rangers also participate in managing events taking place at Illinois Beach. One recent event that may cause nudists to have second thoughts involved the release of a large snake population at the park. The snakes had previously been found hibernating near the Zion Nuclear Power Station and were relocated to make way for a railroad work crew. After undergoing a period of rehabilitation, they were released at Illinois Beach.
Although park rangers do not act in a law enforcement capacity, they can and do make visitors aware of the park rules and regulations- especially when these are being violated. One of the most common violations relates to alcohol. This is forbidden along beaches, picnic areas, trails, shelters, and many campsites. The reasons for this have to do with safety and pollution control. Statistically, the chances of being involved in a swimming or boating accident increase when alcohol is involved.
Starved Rock State Park
For more than 100 years Starved Rock State Park has attracted sightseers and nature goers that come to view its scenic overlook of the Illinois River, hike among its Saint Peter sandstone bluffs, or cool off near its glacially-carved canyon waterfalls. The park boasts 13 miles of trails, boat rentals to enjoy fishing in the river, eagle watching, and 129 campsites, all just an easy drive to the southwest of Chicago. Last year the park saw 2.1 million visitors, making it one of the state’s most popular parks.
Making the experience of millions of visitors educational and safe is no small feat, yet park rangers with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Historic Preservation Agency do just this each and every year. Rangers are the foundation of Starved Rock’s operations, without which the park would cease to function. Prospective applicants for these positions can start by researching the necessary qualifications to become a park ranger at Starved Rock State Park.
Working as a Ranger at Starved Rock State Park, Illinois
The primary mission of rangers at Starved Rock State Park is to ensure the smooth operation of activities and operations, which includes supervision of other park employees such as site technicians. Accomplishing this mission involves a wide range of duties from administrative to maintenance.
When it comes to the safety of visitors to Starved Rock, rangers have two main concerns. One is swimming in the Illinois River and the canyon waterways that connect to it. The fact that the park is located near a dam means that river currents can be unpredictable and change quickly, making swimming potentially dangerous. Rangers must maintain a constant vigilance for people attempting to swim or play in the water of the Illinois River, which is forbidden by park rules.
Each year rangers respond to reports of visitors who are injured by falls in the park’s canyons. These happen because people are not paying attention to where they are walking or because they get too close to the edge of the seductively appealing canyon rim. That is why park rangers make sure to emphasize the danger these canyons pose to the public. Rangers must also be on the lookout for:
- Boating accidents
- Fire dangers, from both campfires and wildfires
- Potential dangers posed by visitors to park wildlife
Every year park rangers also ensure annual events run smoothly and without incident. Some of these include:
- Winter Wilderness Weekend
- Cross Country Ski Weekend
- Eagle Watch Weekend
- Fall Colors Weekend
- Annual Wildflower Pilgrimage
One of the most common questions park rangers are asked is where Starved Rock State Park gets its name. According to the legend of tribes native to the area, the name is derived from a story of retribution. After the murder of a chief who was traveling to attend a council, his tribe sought justice from the offenders. While fleeing from pursuit, members of the offending tribe sought refuge on one of the sandstone buttes in the park. Surrounded by their pursuers, they remained on the rock until they starved.