ROSS, Calif. — When the government shutdown closed Muir Woods, interpretive ranger Adrian Boone found a new way to stay busy. He’s now part of a furloughed park rangers program that brings rangers into local classrooms, letting them share their love of nature with preschoolers—and earn a paycheck while doing it. He’s traded his Smokey Bear hat for a paper crown, courtesy of one of his new students.
Furloughed park rangers program a hit with kids–and rangers
Boone was supposed to be patrolling trails and answering visitors’ questions about towering redwoods. Instead, he’s leading circle time at Ross Preschool, holding up a shiny leaf from a California bay laurel tree. “What do you think it smells like?” he asks.
“Stinky!” one kid yells.
“Bubble gum!” says another.
“A cookie!” adds a third.
Boone laughs. “The fun thing about this leaf,” he tells them, “is it grows in a redwood forest. Native Americans used it for medicine—they’d make tea with it if they had a cold.”
It all started with a chat
Boone is part of an inventive fix to the furlough blues. The company Grasshopper Kids, which connects schools with enrichment instructors, found a way to bring out-of-work park rangers into classrooms to teach about nature—and get paid for it.
Co-founder Cris Tcheyan, a Muir Woods volunteer, said it all started with a chat at a park staff party. “He said he’d been applying to be a substitute teacher to help pay the bills, but the process was moving slowly,” she said. “So I said if rangers are interested, we could get you into schools earning money. And he said, ‘That would be great.’”
And just like that, the idea sprouted. Within two weeks, furloughed rangers had led more than 20 classroom sessions—with many more schools calling to book. “We’ve never seen schools move faster,” Tcheyan said.
Grasshopper Kids charges $200 for a school visit, keeping $10 for processing. The ranger takes home $190—enough for groceries and a tank of gas. “It was a pretty immediate relief,” said seasonal ranger Riley Morris.
Nature’s magic–even indoors
For Boone, the biggest reward is the reaction from the kids. “It’s pretty awesome for us to still be able to talk about [the] connection [to nature],” he said. “We want to give these students just an idea that they live in a special area.”
Even without the magic of standing beneath real redwoods, the lessons still click. “It’s just been so cool seeing that when all of that is taken out of the equation, these kids are still totally glued to the information,” Morris said. “You can just tell they’re almost vibrating with excitement.”
Ross Preschool director David Allen-Hughes calls it “a win, win, win—support a ranger and give the kids some inspiration.”
As for Boone, he’s hooked. Even when Muir Woods reopens, he plans to keep teaching. “Hope to see you in the woods!” he called as the kids waved goodbye—a ranger still on duty, just in a smaller forest.
To learn more about rangers and the Grasshopper Kids program, read a feature story in the LA Times.
RELATED
- National parks losing $1 million a day in fees
- Top 5 national parks stay mostly open; details sketchy
- What RVers need to know about national parks and possible shutdown
- How a government shutdown could affect your RV trip to national parks
- Visitors may not see the strain, but national parks are operating with thinner teams
- National parks face devastating cuts, with majority in jeopardy
- Interior Secretary orders national parks to stay open amid staffing cuts
- National park visitors face reduced access and services across the country
RVT1234b
Superior article and most inventive program on part of the school system and the supporting NPS employees. Everyone wins with this one! Kids most of all – well, maybe not – teaching is a great deal of satisfaction as well. I would hope something like this might catch on – edu. system-wide……! Fun to read a positive article on this shutdown thing which is wearing all of our patience d..n thin!
Great Idea Most parents don’t have time or energy to connect their kids to nature. I was lucky that my nursing job only required one weekend a month so I had the kids out on weekends for picnics, swimming at the beach and the occasional camping trip.
This is outstanding. Hopefully it carries on well beyond this temporary shutdown.