A Trip to the - Yosemite Online

PARK PROFILE
HARRY RAMIREZ
What do you enjoy most about your current job I like
talking to people before they enter the wilderness about
wilderness ethics. I really appreciate my NPS and YA
coworkers, too.
LAUREL REMATORE
How did your cooperative student intern experience
prepare you for your current job It helped me become
familiar with the park and the wonderful people who
work here. I also learned many valuable skills and now
feel that a park service career is within my reach.
Name: Harry Ramirez
Job Title: Backcountry Ranger
Hometown: Calexico, California
Education: Currently a biological science major at
UC Merced; will graduate in May 2008
Total number of years working in Yosemite:
Two seasons
Describe your first visit to Yosemite. Through campus
recreation at UC Merced I visited Yosemite for the first
time in August 2005. On the first day I found myself
pulling bull thistle from Sentinel Meadow and marveling
at the scenic views the Valley floor had to offer. I thought
Yosemite was a very large and unfamiliar place were I
could easily get lost. I remember hiking up the famous
John Muir Trail (not knowing it was the JMT) and
thinking, “I’m really out of shape.”
What was your first job in Yosemite During the
summer of 2006, I was a YA cooperative student intern
in Wawona. I developed and led weekly ecology programs
in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, created and
conducted a weekly natural history program on mountain
lions, and provided informational resources to
park visitors.
What do you do now I have arguably the neatest job in
the park. I work in the Yosemite Valley Wilderness Center
issuing wilderness permits; when I’m not doing that, I’m
patrolling Yosemite’s wilderness. I protect the park.
What do you think is the most important thing we
(the Yosemite community) can do to encourage today’s
culturally diverse population to become stewards of
this place Get people here. Once people see the park,
Yosemite very discreetly speaks for itself.
What is your favorite place in Yosemite I love the
northern part of the park because it’s very quiet and
rugged.
What is your favorite Yosemite book Hiking Yosemite
by Suzanne Swedo.
What is your favorite non-Yosemite book The Dark
Tower series by Stephen King. The Dark Tower books
have a western horror and fantasy touch to them, which
I enjoy.
Who is your favorite historical figure Abraham
Lincoln, because in 1864 he signed the bill presented by
Congress that placed Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa
Grove under the protection of the state of California.
What do you think YA’s most important role is
Education! If the public is informed of the resources
available and how conservation is central to the park idea,
America’s national parks will remain at the fingertips of
all visitors for generations to come. America’s great idea
must be conserved.
What else do you want to tell our readers that I
haven’t asked Yosemite belongs to us all, yet we know
that it must remain a wilderness. The untrammeled
nature of Yosemite is what makes it so special.
YOSEMITE ASSOCIATION, SUMMER 2007
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