Depending on where you live, look into your local volunteer fire department. As PP said, many of these activities (including park rangers) need EMTs, and one way to "get in" would be to become an EMT, one way to do that may be through an organization such as this. It takes a serious level of commitment, but the only way to find out if it's something she's interested in is to start. I know that our local volunteer fire department is always looking for volunteers, and I think they start taking volunteers for some positions pretty young.

From what I've heard, getting hired as a park ranger is really hard, and so is making a living as a biologist, even with a PhD. Geology can lead to environmental testing and restoration with field work. Becoming an arborist or an outdoor guide for hiking, climbing, or rafting (in the summer and working at a ski resort in the winter). If she wants to go in to emergency services, becoming a certified paramedic is the best way to get in.

Anonymous wrote:What's wrong with being a park ranger ? I have college classmate who is a superintendent of a national park in Hawaii and has been at parks all over the country. She seems to have a pretty cool life.

National Park Service has summer programs for high school and college students too. A friend worked in Acadia one summer and spent another in Yosemite. I'd love it for my girls. Also, look at NOLS programs.

I agree with this - National Park Service Rangers are awesome. There are forestry programs and I think Michigan State has an entire undergrad program devoted to park service, and there are lots of opportunities for HS and college:

https://www.anpr.org/academies.htm

Also, grad students in biology etc. work with the parks for conservation issues. It's not the most lucrative work, but from what I can tell, it is incredibly satisfying and the people are happy to be outdoors and doing what they love.

where on the west coast?

There's a co-ed version of boy scouts called Venturing for kids age 14/freshman+ http://venturecrew2473.wix.com/venturingcrew2473 My DD sounds like yours and I'll be encouraging her to try that when she's the right age. She does girl scouts now and they do some outdoorsy things but not as much as she would like. We try to put her in a lot of outdoors/adventure camps so at least she gets it in the summer and she's hoping to be a counselor at her favorite one when she's a teen. I also point out to her friends of ours who do outdoors jobs...

One is a professor who teaches conservation biology and has worked with conservation organizations in Africa. Her undergrad is in Wildlife Conservation and after that she served in the Peace Corps on wildlife protection projects which lead to further work and eventually a PhD in the conservation field. (right now DD wants to be her when she grows up)

Another works for the Nature Conservancy doing training, among other things, and spends a lot of time hiking in the parks as part of her job

Someone else works for the National Parks in a marketing role so it's not outdoors all the time but she does get to spend a lot of time visiting parks

I also show her articles I read about anyone doing an interesting outdoors/animal job. I'm still surprised at the wide range of jobs that you rarely hear about and try to help my kids get an idea of all the different things they could do.

This is great! I've got it bookmarked and will work on all your leads.

And 8:31 btw we are moving to the west coast next year for a little while, so any more info anyone has about stuff out there would be great.

My son loves nature and police, so I encourage him to consider Park Police.

http://www.nps.gov/aboutus/jobsforstudents.htm

And there is a group for kids, but I can't remember the name. Maybe something like Junior or Senior Navigators? Or Campfire? Also, Google local Search & Rescue organizations; there may be volunteer opportunities.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks, PPs, and will check again to see if anyone adds something here.

22:15, nothing's wrong with being a park ranger! I'm just trying to figure out what's out there--I overheard the guide saying something like, "well, (occupation, maybe S&R) works with the park rangers and then takes over if there's (whatever they were talking about, probably a lost hiker)."

And I realized that if I knew about the different jobs, and how they interact, I could talk to my DD about them.

Is there anything (along the lines of boy scouts, or even an adult-type groups that allows kids) that I could get her into right now?

I had her in girl scouts, but it was very different than boy scouts. Great stuff, on how to run a business (which happens behind-the-scenes; all we see is them selling cookies) but my kid is sort of the perfect fit for the boy scouts in the whole camping, get your wilderness-skill-badge type of way.

I don't know anything around here (I'm sure there is stuff but I didn't grow up here and my kids are too young yet). But have you thought about wilderness camps during the summer, if they are in your budget? Or if she is old enough, she could go as a counselor rather than a camper, which avoids the money issue? There are many, many out there. I worked for several years at this one in Vermont and adored it: http://www.keewaydin.org/songadeewin-for-girls/about-songa/ Very outdoorsy focus; every camper does a long-distance hiking trip and a long-distance canoe trip. All girls but did not have the catty vibe that some girls-only camps do (and no competition for boys, either, since the boys camp is across the lake). Many of my fellow campers went into outdoors-related fields. Mostly out West. (I became a lawyer. But that wasn't the camp's fault. )

OP here. Thanks, PPs, and will check again to see if anyone adds something here.

22:15, nothing's wrong with being a park ranger! I'm just trying to figure out what's out there--I overheard the guide saying something like, "well, (occupation, maybe S&R) works with the park rangers and then takes over if there's (whatever they were talking about, probably a lost hiker)."

And I realized that if I knew about the different jobs, and how they interact, I could talk to my DD about them.

Is there anything (along the lines of boy scouts, or even an adult-type groups that allows kids) that I could get her into right now?

I had her in girl scouts, but it was very different than boy scouts. Great stuff, on how to run a business (which happens behind-the-scenes; all we see is them selling cookies) but my kid is sort of the perfect fit for the boy scouts in the whole camping, get your wilderness-skill-badge type of way.

What's wrong with being a park ranger ? I have college classmate who is a superintendent of a national park in Hawaii and has been at parks all over the country. She seems to have a pretty cool life.

National Park Service has summer programs for high school and college students too. A friend worked in Acadia one summer and spent another in Yosemite. I'd love it for my girls. Also, look at NOLS programs.

My brother got a degree in land Use. During the summers he worked for the division if wildlife, lived in a cabin and worked outdoors all day.

Environmental consulting? I think there's a lot of field work, surveying, on site, that sort of thing.

Not really a career path but something to consider for early career (~college age) experience might be Americorp's National Civilian Conservation Corps, and FEMA Corps:
http://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/americorps/americorps-nccc
http://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/americorps/fema-corps

I was very involved in Scouts through high school and college and had a number of friends that participated in these programs -- a lot of overlap in the types of activities that are emphasized. They all had good experiences, though very different. One ended up going into at-risk Youth work (think outdoor bootcamp style), one is in disaster preparedness in mostly an office-based setting (though deploys but still in a managerial role). Others have somewhat unrelated day jobs but deep interests (and skills) in outdoor hobbies -- trekking, trail maintenance, etc.

I have a DD who loves the outdoors, animals/nature, and is also very athletic (if you see a tween in a tree, it's her). In fact, she's a little more free-range than I'd like because she loves the physical so much I turn my back and she's gone off on the bike/skateboard/etc for a spin.

She's repeatedly mentioned she would like to be a park ranger. We went zip lining a few weeks ago and she got in a conversation with the guide about search and rescue work. I wasn't really focusing on that because I was busy trying to keep from freaking out. But I think I absorbed just enough to realize that there are lots of jobs out there that would involve the outdoors, physical work and excitement. I really don't know what they are or how to classify them.

So off the top of my head I've thought of EMT, and is there a paid (career) search and rescue type job? And maybe someone here is knowledgable in some of the military jobs that might fit? Or guys who've been through the boy scouts?

I fully acknowledge I don't know what I'm talking about here, so looking for anyone's thoughts, experiences, or ways to search on google.