A former Vancouver park ranger is shedding light on the reality of the public-facing profession, calling it a stark contrast from what she believed it would be.
Amanda Gray, who works in the film industry, joined the park rangers in June as a temporary hire during the Hollywood strikes, believing it would be focused on public education, tourism, wildlife and ecology.
She said she had some experience working in security and thought she might be suitable for the role.
Gray said she received a week of intensive training on Vancouver’s parks and beaches, use of relevant bylaws and equipment, self-defense, and how to approach people who are unhoused and living in tents.
In the end, however, the latter took up between 75 and 95 per cent of her time.
“I was really scared in the beginning,” she told Global News. “Some of the parks were just more terrifying to me than others. Oppenheimer Park is like — you’re sort of surrounded by people and it’s sort of impossible to watch your back.”
Gray said she was among the first of the recruits hired at the time to get a bullet proof vest, so she was quickly assigned to the “vulnerable populations group.” In the summer, that meant “tents all day long, every day, five days a week.”
Gray said she thought her superiors would see her passion for helping people find the places they need to go and eventually reassign her. When she realized she wasn’t bound for a park ranger station, she decided to make the best of it.
“I thought, ‘Well, no, I came here to challenge myself and there’s there’s a lot to learn here, and I’m just going to face it and do it,'” she recalled. “Just trusting myself that I had the capability, trusting that I was going to be safe.”
The city’s Park Control Bylaw prohibits sheltering in Vancouver parks during daylight hours without express permission from the park board’s general manager.
Gray said she worked with experienced rangers who did that enforcement job “very well” with kindness and compassion, but it didn’t always allay her safety concerns. Top of mind was last year’s fatal stabbing of RCMP Const. Shaelyn Yang, who had accompanied a park ranger to tell a man he couldn’t tent in a local park, she added.
“I’m doing tent approaches all day long. I don’t know what’s in the tent. I don’t know what’s going to come at me. I don’t know what kind of mood they’re in. I don’t know if they have a big dog,” Gray described.
“I felt threatened and I felt unsafe, and lots of times I just had to breathe.”
Gray said she was burned out by her second month, not from the tasks, but the pace with which she had to carry them out.
A source with knowledge of the issues, who requested anonymity to protect their job, told Global News that Gray is not alone. The source said 13 park rangers have stepped down this year — six of whom had more than two years of experience, and seven who had less than six months.
There are currently 39 rangers in the program.
Since September, two have been hospitalized from injuries sustained on the job. One was hit over the head with a bottle and the other dislocated their shoulder.
On the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation’s website, the responsibilities of a park ranger are listed as “providing visitor information and wayfinding,” “educating the public about parks regulations,” “enforcing Park Board by-laws,” “supporting permitted events and filming,” and working with first responders on “issues found in parks.”
The list goes on to include “dealing with homelessness as it impacts parks and connecting individuals with support services,” and “responding to park concerns reported through 3-1-1 and Van311 services.”
Gray said she felt led to believe her role there would contain more variety than it did in the end, based on that description and others.
“I found a quote online that said something about being a park ranger is a lot of variety — one week you might be protecting turtles, turtle babies, and then the next week you’re handing out water to the homeless,” she told Global News.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s inspiring. It would be challenging and interesting … I would be very interested in learning about that.'”
Gray’s contract ended in November. While she was offered an extension, she declined.
She said she would consider working as a park ranger again if assigned to tasks that are better suited to her skill set.
“I’m a very friendly person. You know, I’m not a person who — I don’t want to be mean to anybody. It’s it’s just not my nature,” she explained.
She also said new park rangers did not receive adequate training when it comes to referring unhoused folks to social services. In some cases, she said those living in the tents helped her out in that regard.
Gray said she thinks the online job description needs to change in the interests of transparency.
“It’s very much geared towards this fantasy idea of the job being, you know, very ecological. It needs to specify that you will deal with the homeless every day,” she said.
Gray recommended that someone with mental health expertise accompany rangers who are entering encampments, to make assessments if needed and support the interactions as well.
“This person can maybe get them some medication that will help them a lot further than, ‘Hey, pack down your tent today,’ ‘Hey, pack down your tent today,'” she said.
“Drilling them with the same thing doesn’t actually really shift or alter the situation at all.”
Global News has requested comment the Vancouver Park of Parks and Recreation for a story to be published Wednesday, addressing Gray’s concerns. City Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung will be interviewed as well.
Mayor Ken Sim was not available.
Sim is spearheading the dissolution of the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, and hopes that requested amendments to the Vancouver Charter will bring the board — its powers and authority — under the control of mayor and council.
Elected members of the park board have vigorously opposed the idea.
Of allegations from some unhoused people that park rangers are removing them from the only place they feel safe — their tents — and stealing their belongings, Gray said the bylaw prohibits people having more in a park than they can take out from the park when required to move.
The stories she heard from those experiencing homelessness have brought her to tears and will stick with her permanently, she added.
“They will collect a lot of things and their encampment gets bigger and bigger and bigger,” Gray explained.
Sometimes, rangers will leave items in place in a park for while on the chance that when they return, someone will have taken it, she added, but often, things are abandoned in place. That’s when they have to clear things out.
“We do take it away, and sometimes people are upset — ‘I had things in there.’ Yeah, but you weren’t there, and if it’s important to you, you need to take it.”
At the end of the day, Gray said she believes everyone is doing their best to handle a very complex set of challenges that include the housing crisis, mental health and addictions, and more.