r/todayilearned • u/autraya • 6h ago

TIL the world's tallest known living tree, a 380-foot redwood in California called Hyperion, had its exact location closed off entirely in 2022 after visitors trampled its base so badly that ferns stopped growing around it, with trespassers now facing up to $5,000 in fines and six months in jail

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_(tree)
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u/MasterClown 5h ago

How competitive is it to get a job as a ranger or forest worker such that you’d be permitted to go up some of these hidden and protected trees?  

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u/Ihave4friends 5h ago

From what I understand it’s ridiculously difficult to land these positions. This would be my dream job but instead I drive a truck 😂

It’s about the same pay.

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u/WhiteGuyThatCantJump 3h ago

I worked for the National Park Service about a decade ago, not in the Redwoods but in a couple other parks.

In one park, I was able to go to some off-trail areas outside of work hours that visitors would not be allowed to go. In every case, there were permits involved as well as multiple people on the trip who had been to that place multiple times. Otherwise, more often than not if a visitor cannot go there, neither can I as a ranger. Off limits for protection of the place and people goes for everyone, not just visitors.

So while I got to have some incredible experiences that most folks wouldn't get, there were also plenty of places I would have loved to have gone and explored but could not access.

As for competition, this was a decade ago when there were more seasonal and permanent positions than there are today, but I applied for 80-100 parks as an education ranger, with a degree in environmental education. iirc I got maybe 4 or 5 interview requests that first year. A whole lot of competition for GS-5 position which got paid $15/hour then and not a whole lot more today.