Time for a ranger is a curious beast measured often not in the minutes and hours but instead by the seasons and years in takes to become a permanent one. Many people would love to work outdoors and make a difference in the natural world but as budgets get squeezed once again the chance to find a permanent role as a ranger is becoming like catching scotch mist.
At a recent gathering of countryside rangers from Fife and the Lothians hosted by the Hopetoun House ranger service, (pictured) there were colleagues there with a range of service, from those in permanent roles of between 17 – 4yrs of service. Down to those employed in their 1st season with a contract due to expire in Dec with no guarantees of renewal next year. An example of this in reality was at the East Lothian Ranger service who had 8 seasonal rangers in 2023 but this year due to budget cuts, they have just 1 to help manage their well-used sites. Thus, once you get a permanent role it rare to leave and its often-dead man shoes you are stepping into.
Hearing the experiences around the table caused me to reflect on my own journey of leaving a permanent role with Barnardo’s to work for 4 seasons for the National Trust for Scotland leading working holidays at NTS properties. Each season I’d lead 13 weeklong trips living out of a rucksack showing groups the best of Scotland and doing practical conservation. This was balanced with working for Underbelly at the xmas market in the off-season and other temporary roles before I joined the WOLCT in 2020. The seasonal ranger life is very much a young person’s game as it involves little security if you become ill, you can’t get a mortgage and making relationships work is tricky.
Thus, it’s maybe little surprise from the seasonal rangers I meet in my own journey that didn’t find a permanent role many have side stepped and are now working in landscaping, in forestry, the tourist industry or retrained into a different sector completely. Meaning that the knowledge they developed of their site was lost, the relationship with landowners and nature has to be rediscovered by each new staff member in turn, which can be time-consuming and mean long-term planning isn’t possible.
On the Water of Leith due to a minimum of there being almost 13 miles of river and walkway I’d confidently say it takes 2 years to develop your knowledge to feel confident about how to wade the river to avoid deep spots, to know the difference between Bells, Bog, Balgreen and Balerno when running tasks and of course the opening times of the Burton biscuits factory shop.
The Trust was fortunate to have had 23 years of Charlotte leading the conservation officer role and being a trail blazer in so many ways with projects on the river. Having lost 2 replacements (1 as it wasn’t the right role and 1 due to significantly more money in the private sector) within 2 years means we have experienced inadvertently the effect of seasonal contracts ourselves with more living in the moment recently than long term planning. But it’s more than that, across Scotland I’ve learned so much from the generation of rangers ten years older than me such as Alastair Eckersell at Ben Lomond, Kate Samspon on Arran , Andrew Warwick at Ben Lawers and soon they’ll be retiring and we’ll lose their knowledge and leadership. Without permanent positions and time to really master a role it’s going to hard for the next generation to take over the caring for these important landscapes without having to totally reinvent the wheel.
As the eternal optimist I hope that in years to come we’ll see an explosion of green jobs across Scotland with a return to more secure jobs for rangers allowing the next generation to be mentored by us currently in post, to have time to grow into a role and to lead the way in future but it’ll be interesting to hear in a year where our own Michael Inman is. As we reach our quieter period, we’ll be looking at our own staffing needs and making plans for the future of the Trust’s staff team.
