Q&A WITH JIM MCCOY
Get to know the district ranger for the Sylamore-St. Francis Ranger District
Q: How did your path turn to parks and tourism?
A: -I intentionally turned my career toward outdoor recreation. I began my career with the Forest Service as a wildlife biologist but soon got very interested in large-scale, fire-adapted ecosystem restoration. So at that point, my career bent toward fire management, and it became obvious to me that restored ecosystems are not only ecologically healthy, but they are also very beautiful to look at. There is an obvious tie to recreation here, and nobody seemed to know much about that, so I chose to transfer to Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in Kentucky to learn how to manage ecosystems in a heavily recreation-focused area. It’s been very interesting mixing biology/ecology, anthropology, the business of tourism and common sense in understanding how and where people prefer to recreate. When the opportunity came up to be the district ranger for the Sylamore-St. Francis Ranger District, I really couldn’t believe my luck. It’s pretty much everything I ever wanted in a job. I’ve got swamps and alligators in the Arkansas Delta, and caves and bats in the Ozarks, and the most diverse ecosystems in the state, not to mention Blanchard Springs Caverns.
Q: What is a typical “day at the office” for you?
A: Well, honestly, there is no such thing as a typical day for me; that’s a big part of why I love this job. Some days are pretty straightforward — making natural-resource-management and personnel decisions, signing documents, and talking with internal and external partners. Other days just take a different track. I might wake up to a textmessage alert for a missing hiker, or a tornado that is heading toward a campground, or a rain storm that has the potential to cause flooding. I really never know what my day will hold. Sometimes I get halfway home from a “routine” day, only to be called back for an emergency, such as a search and rescue or a wildfire. So if I had to describe a typical day, I’d say it’s just like a martial-arts sparring session with a solid opponent. I just keep staring in the middle trying to figure out where the hit is going to come from.
Q: What is the best part of your job? The most challenging?
A: For me, the best part of this job is working with people. I absolutely love developing young people. It is so much fun when a young person shows up full of energy and enthusiasm. I really enjoy giving them a challenge to see how they’ll attack it. I’ve learned over the years that there is so much learning that happens in the struggle to meet a real challenge. I know it seems tough to some people, and it may not be much fun when it’s you that’s struggling, but watching a young professional struggle and learn their way through a problem is the best way of teaching. After a while, they all learn that they were never going to actually fail because the team was watching the entire time. So they learn real lessons about the best ways of getting their jobs done efficiently, and they learn that they really can’t do it alone. So the best part of my job is making new leaders who will replace me because people trained in this way are learning basic principles of leadership all along the way.
I also really enjoy working with partners. The federal system can get a bit heavy with red tape, and after 17 years, I know the ropes pretty well, so it is an honest pleasure when I can help a partner develop and implement a good idea, especially ideas that help local communities in some way because we all get to see the results quickly.
The most challenging part of my job is paperwork. I don’t like it. … I never have and likely never will. But of course, it’s essential, so I have to manage it, and I do, but I still don’t like it.
Q: What does being a district ranger entail?
A: Being a district ranger is all about being responsible. I’m responsible for all outcomes and all conditions in my district. That doesn’t mean that it’s all up to me, by any means. I have an outstanding team of people working for me in the district and a great team helping me at the forest level. Each national forest is subdivided into ranger districts. National forests are managed by a forest supervisor who is responsible for developing a plan for how their national forest will be managed. Rangers are responsible for things such as timber management, wildfires, controlled burning, trails, roads, facilities, personnel, budgets and, in my case, the only true “show cave” in the U.S. Forest Service. But that’s part of the beauty of being a district ranger; each district is different from all the others.
District rangers, in a broad sense, are responsible for implementing the Forest Plan. The Forest Plan sets out expectations for everything, from how much timber will be harvested to how much trail will be constructed and maintained. There’s a lot that goes into that, but generally speaking, each year as a team, we decide what we are each going to do toward implementing the plan, then just get it done. People who work for me sort out the details of things such as how much and where we will harvest timber, prescribe-burn, maintain trails and roads, etc. I set expectations and serve as their guide and decision-maker if conflict arises. I formulate budgets, make sure people are hired for the work and that they are trained for what I’m asking them to do. I also spend a lot of time on our strategies and working with partners. We get a lot of curveballs throughout the year, though, so it’s less like a rigorously managed system and more like a system managed by setting priorities.
Q: What are your goals for the future?
A: My goals are the same as they have been for years. I just want to be a better ranger today than I was yesterday. There are a few specific things I’d like to see accomplished. I’d like to see increased visitation at Blanchard Springs Caverns and more use of the district’s trails. I’ve got a few things in the works toward those goals, but I’m also thinking of a few changes to better meet the evolving use patterns we’re seeing, so stay tuned as we continue to learn and adapt. Keeping in mind that I manage about 160,000 acres of public land, I’m also still very interested in continuing to educate our visitors and the public on natural-resource issues and management. I view outdoor recreation as a way of getting people to a place where a tree or a rock or a Northern bobwhite quail can teach them something. I like to say I have no professional aspirations; I’m very happy being a ranger. One of these days, I may outlive my usefulness, and it will be time to move on, but I don’t feel useless yet.