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About Working at Foothills Nature Preserve
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I spent the spring semester working at Foothills and Pearson-Arastradero Nature Preserves for my class internship. I was fortunate enough to already work for the City of Palo Alto at the start of the spring semester, so I used my current role as an Assistant Park Ranger for my internship position. For the entire semester I worked an opening shift from 6:30AM-3:00PM on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Foothills is managed by the City of Palo Alto's Open Space Department and within the 1400 acres of land, there are over 15 miles of hiking trails, a campground, a lake, and picnicking areas. Pearson-Arastradero Preserve is 622 acres and has just over 8 miles of multi-use trails. Both preserves open at 8:00AM year round but the closing time varies throughout the year so it's a good idea to double check when the gates lock if you're planning an evening visit. Foothills requires a $6 park entry fee every single day and dogs are not allowed on weekends or holidays; Pearson-Arastradero is always free entry and dogs are also allowed everyday.
Foothills is managed by the City of Palo Alto's Open Space Department and within the 1400 acres of land, there are over 15 miles of hiking trails, a campground, a lake, and picnicking areas. Pearson-Arastradero Preserve is 622 acres and has just over 8 miles of multi-use trails. Both preserves open at 8:00AM year round but the closing time varies throughout the year so it's a good idea to double check when the gates lock if you're planning an evening visit. Foothills requires a $6 park entry fee every single day and dogs are not allowed on weekends or holidays; Pearson-Arastradero is always free entry and dogs are also allowed everyday.
Keeping the lights on at the Interpretive Center.
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My patrol truck parked at Vista Hill on a beautiful day.
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Talking with a fellow ranger during a multi-agency Search & Rescue training.
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I perform a multitude of tasks as a Park Ranger so each day I get to pursue new endeavors. There are five main duties that make up the Park Ranger position for Palo Alto Open Space: medical aid, law enforcement, fire suppression, interpretation, and maintenance. We do maintenance projects ranging from weed whipping to bridge building so we get practice with a wide variety of tools and equipment. We keep medical supplies in our patrol trucks so we are always prepared if someone needs aid of any sort or if we are dispatched to assist with an accident outside the preserve. Most of the law enforcement situations we encounter are people not following our dog regulations or cars parked in areas they shouldn't be. We rarely receive calls about fires but in the rare circumstance that we do, our patrol trucks are fitted with pumpers and we carry fire PPE with us.
The full time staff work 4 days a week so half of them are scheduled from Sunday to Wednesday and the other half come in from Wednesday to Saturday. Since everyone comes in on Wednesdays, and I also work on Wednesdays as a part time employee, we plan to do our largest projects on that day of the week. The rest of the week, smaller projects get completed and planning takes place if a priority task is found.
One of my projects this spring was to plan the campground preparation to make sure we were ready to open on the first day of May. After assessing all that needed to be done, I planned workdays at the campground on Wednesdays with a list of the top priorities that we needed to take care of. Some of the things we needed to address included: weed whipping around benches and water spouts, flailing the paths to the camp sites, limbing up trees to increase visibility for patrolling, chipping brush, repairing broken water lines, and ordering portopotties. After we finished everything, the campground looked great and we had people signed up to camp on the opening day.
Another highlight from this season would be leading our Nature Detectives interpretive program for a group of 8 year olds. We pre-planned a hike through Foothills, going through multiple ecosystems of the preserve. We placed flags near various interesting flora and fauna to then allow the detectives a chance to figure out what they were looking at. The group hiked over 3 miles and we ended up back at the Foothills Interpretive Center where I brought out our gopher snake, Slinky, and they got a chance to see a live snake up close.
On top of the fun projects I got to work on this year, it was also great getting to build more of skills needed for law enforcement and medical aid. All of the law enforcement situations I have been in thus far have been very minor but it is still a good environment to build confidence and gain knowledge of local rules and regulations. I have been on a variety of medical calls since I started working for Palo Alto and each time I respond to a call, it goes slightly smoother and I feel a little more confident. Having gone through Wilderness First Responder at West Valley College and then doing a refresher course sponsored by Palo Alto was the best choice to build a base of medical skills.
The full time staff work 4 days a week so half of them are scheduled from Sunday to Wednesday and the other half come in from Wednesday to Saturday. Since everyone comes in on Wednesdays, and I also work on Wednesdays as a part time employee, we plan to do our largest projects on that day of the week. The rest of the week, smaller projects get completed and planning takes place if a priority task is found.
One of my projects this spring was to plan the campground preparation to make sure we were ready to open on the first day of May. After assessing all that needed to be done, I planned workdays at the campground on Wednesdays with a list of the top priorities that we needed to take care of. Some of the things we needed to address included: weed whipping around benches and water spouts, flailing the paths to the camp sites, limbing up trees to increase visibility for patrolling, chipping brush, repairing broken water lines, and ordering portopotties. After we finished everything, the campground looked great and we had people signed up to camp on the opening day.
Another highlight from this season would be leading our Nature Detectives interpretive program for a group of 8 year olds. We pre-planned a hike through Foothills, going through multiple ecosystems of the preserve. We placed flags near various interesting flora and fauna to then allow the detectives a chance to figure out what they were looking at. The group hiked over 3 miles and we ended up back at the Foothills Interpretive Center where I brought out our gopher snake, Slinky, and they got a chance to see a live snake up close.
On top of the fun projects I got to work on this year, it was also great getting to build more of skills needed for law enforcement and medical aid. All of the law enforcement situations I have been in thus far have been very minor but it is still a good environment to build confidence and gain knowledge of local rules and regulations. I have been on a variety of medical calls since I started working for Palo Alto and each time I respond to a call, it goes slightly smoother and I feel a little more confident. Having gone through Wilderness First Responder at West Valley College and then doing a refresher course sponsored by Palo Alto was the best choice to build a base of medical skills.
