31 July 2020

2020 Park Ranger Safety Survey Now Open - Suspense: 15 Sept 2020

I'm pleased to announce that the 2020 USACE Park Ranger Safety Survey is now open through 15 September 2020. All Park Rangers, Natural Resource Specialists, and Natural Resource Managers (who wear the NRM uniform) and who work under the NRM program are highly encouraged to participate in the annual USACE Park Ranger Safety Survey. The survey is important for collecting feedback from the park ranger community to identify critical trends concerning ranger and visitor safety and effective operation of the Visitor Assistance/Natural Resources Management (NRM) program.

The survey takes approximately 10 to 20 minutes to complete and is available at: https://cfapps.mvr.usace.army .mil/rangerapp/default.cfm

When you access the survey, select the email certificate when prompted. Even though it is CAC enabled, the survey is anonymous and no personally identifiable information is captured. Immediately following the survey are additional questions concerning the new uniform items and operations under the COVID 19/general public unrest environment. If, and only if, an employee does not have a CAC or access to a USACE computer, paper copies of the surveys are available on the main menu of the above link for employees. Individuals who complete the paper survey should mail or fax the document to their representative on the Park Ranger Community of Practice (CoP) Advisory Board. A list of the Advisory Board members is available at https://corpslakes.erdc.dren.mil/rangers/advisory.cfm?Option=Main

This survey is the product of the Park Ranger CoP Advisory Board whose goal is to establish a focus on employee, visitor, and resource safety and security at Corps projects. The Board conducted a very informative WebEx meeting on 15 July covering the results of last year's survey and highlighting program improvements in response to the surveys. A video of the meeting and the PowerPoint are available at https://corpslakes.erdc.dren.mil/employees/learning/exchange.cfm? Option=Webinar&Type=Past&CoP=nrm&Id=551&ICS=No

The Advisory Board is a grassroots organization consisting of 17 park rangers who directly represent field NRM staff. The Board recognized that the earlier NRM surveys in 1995 and 2010 provided valuable insight into the evolution of the role of the Corps Park Ranger and the NRM program, but that more timely data collected on an annual basis was required to diagnose trends and stay relevant in a rapidly changing environment. Your feedback is important. Results are being used to make recommendations and decisions within the program.

Program management POCs for this action are Morgan Barnes, Chair, Park Ranger CoP Advisory Board at 559-689-3255, morgan.j.barnes@usace.army.mil; Chelsea Tyler, vice-Chair, 641-828- 7522, chelsea.j.tyler@usace.army.mil; Scott Tichy, former Chair, 701-845-2970, scott.c.tichy@usace.army.mil; and Stephen Austin, Senior Policy Advisor for Park Ranger Activities at stephen.b.austin@usace.army.mil. If you have any questions, feel free to contact the above POCs your division representatives on the Park Ranger Board.

Thank you for your participation in this survey!
Jeff

Jeffrey F. Krause
Chief, Natural Resources Management

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