The candidates’ age is an important consideration because the public will defer to an older man more readily than to an equally well informed young man. Our most effective ranger naturalists have usually been over thirty years of age.
The park naturalist should personally select his staff. He should not give too much weight to recommendations, because the men giving these recommendations are very seldom familiar with the requirements for the position of ranger naturalist and the conditions under which ranger naturalists must serve.
A fruitful means of selecting ranger naturalists is by the park naturalist personally going to universities to interview prospective candidates.
The salary scale for ranger naturalists should certainly be raised because at the present time it is quite frequently impossible to secure the best qualified men on account of the small pay, and quite frequently when well trained men do join the staff they are making a personal sacrifice because of their love for the work.
The ranger naturalist application blanks which are at present filled out by all applicants have proved to be a splendid means of weeding out incompetents. Many men who formerly applied insistently realize for themselves upon setting down their records that they are not well qualified. With applications on file it is easy to select the men of outstanding scientific qualifications. This is merely an indication of their possible qualifications, however, and should be followed up by personal interviews or by detailed confidential letters to men under whom applicants have worked, with questionnaires to be returned analyzing personal qualifications.
Comments by Mr. E. I. Kotok, Director of the California Forest Experiment Station
For the fullest development of the individual, a man must be given opportunity to carry out personal projects or experiments. The man may then keep up intense interest in his work. The actual project may not of itself be of great importance, but assumes importance be cause it stimulates the man to mental activity.
Mr. Kotok stressed the fact that in work with the public, ranger naturalists should accentuate broad relationships in Nature rather than individual facts. He pointed out that it is much more important to tell the story of botany than to name the different species of flowers. Visitors should be interested in the way in which plants are associated with each other. A picture should be painted of the forest as a complex community, each member of which is dependent upon all others. The ranger naturalist should also point out the effects of various kinds of natural and man-caused destruction, such as fire, grazing, insect attacks, and attacks by fungous disease.
Fire may be the most important factor in the growth and appearance of the forest as it. causes the most serious change when it occurs. In years past, fires were mots disastrous because no efforts were made to suppress them.
