We look back on a year that saw rangers in the US facing significant job losses and uncertainty. Nevertheless, there were many inspiring initiatives by US rangers to continue protecting natural heritage, as well as promoting their profession and its importance. One newsletter, for example, invited rangers from around the world to exchange on their work and thus highlight its vital role.
It has been a most challenging year for rangers in the United States, with 3,400 positions cut at the US Forest Service and 1,000 at the National Park Service, the major employers of rangers and further park staff. To make matters worse, the recent government shutdown meant that rangers were unable to take up office work during the transition from field to office season – with their salaries suspended.
All the more inspiring, then, is a communications initiative launched this year by the Tongass National Forest, Prince of Wales Ranger District, in south-eastern Alaska: the newsletter of the local Wilderness Advisory Group (WAG) features an article that brings together US rangers with rangers from around the world. Here they share their stories, their daily tasks and their special tools. ‘WAG Tales 2025’ united 15 rangers from 7 countries in Oceania, Asia, Europe and South America, as well as rangers from the US Forest Service, to be interviewed for the ‘Ranger to Ranger’ article.
“We hope to highlight the often unseen work of rangers worldwide and to emphasize their essential role in protecting the enduring resource of designated wilderness and wild places.”
Editors of WAG Tales 2025
“By inviting rangers to share their version of ‘A Day In The Life,’ we hope to highlight the important and often unseen work of rangers worldwide and to emphasize their essential role in protecting the enduring resource of designated wilderness and wild places”, the editors of the newsletter present the rangers’ stories, which were compiled in collaboration with the International Ranger Federation and us as European Ranger Federation.
Rangers share insights on everyday work, ranger tools and success stories
The European rangers are represented by Catalin Josan and Alexandru Olteanu from Romania and Romain Lacoste from France. They shared examples of what their everyday work looks like: “We have a herd of around 220 bison already. A few of them have GPS collars. We monitor their health, look for newborns, and monitor feeding sites. We hike a lot in search of the bison; we take samples and record observations, gathering data to help the scientific community learn how the reintroduced animals adapt to life in the wild”, explains Catalin, a ranger with Rewilding Romania.
> Read interview with Catalin on Europe’s largest bison reintroduction programme
Alexandru, ranger at Foundation Conservation Carpathia, states: “It’s hard to have a specific plan each week, there are a lot of variables. It’s up to each Ranger to consider the weather, quantity of snow, recent wildlife presence, and manage their routes. We are currently working on a wolf monitoring project; we follow their tracks and collect genetic samples.”
Romain, ranger at Mercantour National Park in France, describes that his duties consist of “visitor sensitization, scholar and student sensitization, scientific data collection, wolf feces collection, bird and ungulate monitoring, law enforcement, ecosystem restoration, trails maintenance, and building relationships with different stakeholders.”
> Read double interview with Romain and Guido on coexistence with wolves and wild boar
When talking about specific ranger tools, Catalin shared a very special one: “We use a team of Border Collies to chase the bison away from the conflict areas. These dogs can get a lot closer to the bison. The bison are very stubborn and during the night they usually return. We are developing a fear based landscape for them and are chasing them away from agricultural fields where they bother people; we are trying to teach them that they should stay in the forest.”
Climbing route closed for nesting owl and 20 calves among reintroduced bison
Both Romain and Catalin have brought their success stories from the past year to the interview. While Romain and his team succeeded in working with multiple stakeholders to close a climbing route when an owl was found nesting in the rockface along the route, Catalin reported how the re-introduced bison are thriving with 20 calves that have been born last year and the programme of Rewilding Romania observing healthy predation patterns.