It's Not All About Michael

Tonight, we went out to dinner because my husband is wonderful and I was really, really tired. Darcy fell asleep in the car on the drive home and so we were free to enjoy our evening starting at 7:35! Unheard of. And this story makes today's post NOT all about Michael, as he requested when I asked him to provide me some links for the rest of the post.

Which is all about Michael and some of the amazing things he does in his job. 

Michael looks great in a park service uniform. Those of you who haven't seen him wearing the badge are missing out, but you can get a small taste of it in this post and this one (which also gives you a sense of the wonders of a desert flower display). Michael is an interpretive park ranger, so he's the kind of ranger who teaches you something and touches your heart in a program around the campfire, not the kind of ranger who pulls you over for speeding in the park. Just want to make that clear.

(And apologies to our friends who are or love law enforcement rangers: I'm not trying to say that one kind of ranger is better than the other or anything like that. Just clarifying.)

However, he has a particular specialty these days, as the park media specialist. So he tweets and Facebooks for the park, makes the park newspaper great, creates site bulletins, picnic table signs about feeding animals, and almost any other thing that could count as media. I'm pretty proud of the work he does and I thought I'd share some of it during NaBloPoMo.

First, if you want to know what's going on in Redwood National and State Parks on a day-to-day basis, you can follow him on Twitter or "like" the official Facebook page. The parks also have a YouTube channel where the "Redwood Ranger Minute" series (produced by Michael) is housed (they're video podcasts and can also be found on iTunes). He also maintains much of the park website and is working on an update now. As you can imagine, taking care of the social media for five combined parks every day can be tiring. But Michael still does more!

Recently, the interpretive staff at Redwood have been taking turns writing the "Hey Ranger" column in our local paper, the Del Norte Triplicate (formerly known as the Daily Triplicate, but now it's down to three days a week, so not very daily). Michael wrote this one and helps edit and organize the others. 

He's a busy and productive man-in-uniform, despite what many Republican members of Congress want you to think about government employees. I haven't even mentioned the roadside signs, posters, event flyers, and who knows what else gets designed and produced on the giant pair of computer monitors in Michael's office. He's a all-around good guy and I just thought I'd share some of the stuff he does and doesn't talk about much. I hope you enjoy the vicarious tour of Redwood National and State Parks while admiring my man.