My name is Miles Brown and I am a National Park Ranger. Originally from Laurens, South Carolina, I graduated from Laurens High School in 2010 before attending Lander University where I studied Environmental Science during my freshman year. Knowing I wanted to pursue a career as a Wildlife Biologist, I then transferred to Clemson University where I graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology; that’s when my life got exciting.

My first, and possibly most memorable wildlife research job, was working as a tree climber for a Clemson Ph.D. student studying bald eagles in Michigan. Every day we trudged through the dense Michigan forest to known bald eagle nests where I would strap on a climbing harness and spurs on my boots and climb 80-120 feet up pine and aspen trees and into the eagles’ nests. Once in the nest, I would lower the juvenile eagles in a bag on a rope to the biologist on the ground where she would take blood and feather samples studying pollutant levels in their bodies. I would then return the eagle to the nest before repelling to the ground.

Following Michigan, I worked for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources studying the black bear population in the mountain region of our state. Following this assignment, I took my dream westward and worked at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Over the course of my year at the Grand Canyon, I backpacked over 300 miles into remote areas of the canyon studying endangered owls and bats. I also rafted the Colorado River through the canyon as we tranquilized bighorn sheep and equipped them with GPS tracking collars. On top of the canyon, we studied elk and bison as well as California condors.

After my time at the canyon, I went on to work with greater sage grouse (prairie chickens) in Wyoming before spending another year in California working with fishers, a large member of the weasel family, outside of Yosemite National Park. For this position, we trapped fishers and equipped them with radiofrequency collars, and one day a week I flew over the forest in a 2 passenger airplane tracking their location.

I left California to see just how far I could get from Laurens and spent 4 months assisting with forest restoration research on the Big Island of Hawaii, living in Volcanoes National Park which is known for its active volcano. I then stepped away from wildlife research and spent the summer of 2017 on a wildfire fighting crew based in Idaho. On this crew, we spent 5 months battling 14 wildfires in Utah, Nevada, and Idaho.

Fighting some of our nation’s worst wildfires piqued my interest in emergency services/disaster relief so the following summer I decided to work at Arches National Park in Utah where I assisted heavily with search and rescue efforts. I then left Arches and studied to become an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and attended the National Park Service Law Enforcement Academy in North Carolina before returning to Arches as a Law Enforcement National Park Ranger. As a Park Ranger, I worked primarily as a police officer but also had a major role in over 20 search and rescue incidents in the park. My roles in these rescues now ranged from being a medical responder hiking into an injured patient to serving as Incident Commander directing the entire rescue mission, managing up to 20 rescue personnel. The National Park Service is one of few agencies where you can get paid to assist with search and rescue as outside of parks this is a volunteer service.

I then left Arches to spend the winter working snowmobile patrol for the US Forest Service near Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming before spending summer 2020 as a Law Enforcement National Park Ranger at Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland. I have just returned home to South Carolina for a short break before I begin working as a National Park Ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.

“There is no adventure in the absence of danger”

Ranger on