Range Technician

If you’ve ever sung that old campfire song, and wondered where exactly the deer and the antelope were playing, you can stop wondering. In this position, you get very well acquainted with the range.

A range, or rangeland, is a large, open, grassy area that is often used by Ranchers to graze their livestock. As a Range Technician, you keep an eye on this land. You do things like keep the land from being overrun with weeds, study the plants and soil in the area, and write grazing permits for local Farmers.

Government agencies do much of the hiring for this job. The Department of the Interior watches over large tracts of open land, and needs Range Technicians who can keep an eye on them all. Half of the time, you work in an office, and the other half, you work out in the field. While you’re in the office, you do things like grant grazing permits, maintain records, plan land assessments, and suggest possible updates to existing laws and regulations. When you go out in the field, you take an inventory of the area’s existing plants, help with weed control, hold meetings with local Ranchers to explain land usage, and generally keep an eye on the area. Some Range Technicians are even considered as assistants to Law Enforcement Officers, and are expected to help in this capacity when problems arise.

This job requires excellent communication skills, since you work a lot with the public. Not only do you explain land usage to locals, but you also hold educational programs, like workshops or short classes, on land preservation.