The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is actively trying to hire 250 seasonal park rangers 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 extend 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.

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