Park superintendents have a range of responsibilities, from managing staff to ensuring safety and cleanliness. They may need an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in management or gain on-the-job experience. Advanced degrees in wildlife or recreation management can also help.
Depending on the size of a park system and its supervisory authority, a park superintendent may have a wide or narrow range of responsibilities. To become a park superintendent, many earn an associate’s degree or even a bachelor’s degree in management, while others try to stand out by accumulating on-the-job experience. Perhaps a combination of education and experience is the best approach to getting the park superintendent job you want.
Many park superintendents have a mix of roles that combine the skills of manager, activities director, maintenance supervisor, and public relations manager. This person holding this position supervises all park staff, from maintenance crews to lookouts employed by the supervisory authority. Those who become park superintendents must be prepared to organize schedules, organize individual responsibilities, and conduct regular performance reviews.
In some cases, such as state or federal park superintendents, a system of parks in a given region will need to be managed. This includes ensuring that safety and cleanliness are observed, as well as the integrity of each park’s natural resources. At this level, a small group of rangers will be under a park supervisor in the system hierarchy, each responsible for a different park or section of a park. One park superintendent may have to supervise multiple rangers and parks over a wide geographic area. Others oversee just one park, like Yosemite National Forest, with dozens of park rangers and maintenance workers.
Becoming a park superintendent at a more local level, such as for a city or county government, entails similar duties. Parks in the system, however, are more likely to be geographically concentrated. A city park supervisor will oversee maintenance and staffing at parks within city boundaries. The same goes for a county parks superintendent, who may have a similar number of parks to oversee but spread across the county.
Obtaining an advanced degree in wildlife management, recreation management, or even public administration will help one’s chances of becoming a park superintendent. Others, however, advance through the ranks of a particular park system until the wear and tear and hard work pays off. No matter how you become a park superintendent, you’ll need to have the means to manage and train workers with a variety of skills. One day you might teach a young worker how to operate a backhoe or a lawnmower, then hire and train a community pool manager. The next day, you could corral volunteers for a cultural performance and then meet construction workers working on a new park renovation.
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