Park Rangers

Earlier this month, the five-member lifeguard team from Sandy Point State Park won the annual state competition. It was the third time in the past five years that the Anne Arundel County park's lifeguard team won. Ranger Mike Travers, in his second year at Sandy Point, spoke to The Sun about the competition and about the tragedy that occurred at the park July 4. Obviously it's a fun event, but is there a sense of pride involved in being part...

AIMING TO RAISE public awareness about pet ownership, Downs Park will play host to a "Bark in the Park" from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 23. The idea for the program came from Stacey Bishop, a ranger - and unofficial animal ranger - at the county park. "I love animals; I have all of my life," Bishop said. Bishop thinks most people love animals. Unfortunately, some are not well informed about the animals they choose as pets. Cute puppies and cuddly kittens mature into dogs and cats with daily needs and behaviors that may sour the bond between human and pet. And many of the animals wind up in shelters, with few finding their way into new homes.

More than two dozen state investigators and rangers combed a square mile of wooded terrain in Patapsco Valley State Park for four hours yesterday, looking for clues in the injury of a state park police ranger found earlier in the day at the bottom of a cliff.Ranger Heather McLaughlin, a 29-year-old member of the park police for six years, was released from the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore at noon yesterday after suffering multiple lacerations and head injuries in an apparent 12-foot fall from the cliff, officials said.

Lytia Solomon had never met a park ranger or taken a family vacation to a national park. And growing up in Philadelphia as a "complete urban city girl," she never knew what a park ranger did. Yet the rising college sophomore with an interest in criminal justice discovered that such a career path could be right up her alley, thanks to a new initiative that's recruiting college students to help combat a looming shortage of National Park Service rangers....

No sooner had the morning ferryboat chugged out of the Fernandina Beach marina when somebody popped the question."All right, let's get this over with," said Jerry, a brash, middle-aged businessman on vacation from Atlanta. With a cold Busch beer in one hand and a bag of boiled peanuts in the other, he looked at the young woman in the Greyfield Inn uniform, offered a charming, crooked smile and asked, "Did you see any of them from the wedding?"Everybody on board the boat to Cumberland Island, Ga., all seven of us, knew exactly which wedding he was referring to. The one that starred John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette and, of course, Cumberland.

He won't eat a decent meal for three days. Or get much sleep. Or change clothes. And forget about bathing. We're not talking about the travel woes of some lowly presidential campaign aide. Rather, life gets reduced to those brutally basic essentials when park ranger Vincent Vaise goes on his annual Fort McHenry authenticity bender and refights the War of 1812. "Once a year I think it's good to get a reality check and go whole hog," he says, even if that entails, yes, smelling like one. When not guiding tours at the fort, Vaise, 34, slips into period costume and does double duty as head of the living-history program.

The hunters were stalking their prey on a wooded path in Patapsco Valley State Park south of Baltimore, peering closely into the underbrush. But they weren't looking for animals. The group of amateur naturalists was on a search-and-destroy mission for exotic plants that have invaded Maryland and are killing off native life. The problem of invasive species is drawing increased attention as globalization has brought more international trade, which has led to more seed-hopping from continent to continent.

ARLINGTON, Tex. -- There was a tornado watch in effect last night in the vicinity of Arlington Stadium, but it apparently will take more than the threat of a natural disaster to keep the Orioles from beating up regularly on the Texas Rangers.For whatever reason, this is one opponent the Orioles seem to dominate in good times and bad. They withstood the 90-degree nighttime temperature to parlay three home runs and another strong performance by right-hander Ben McDonald into a 5-1 victory.The head-to-head numbers are staggering.

Salary: $20,000 Age: 52 Time on the job: 19 months. How he got started: Alan Gephardt began his career working in therapeutic recreation at a nursing home. He later worked at the Baltimore County Department of Aging, managing senior centers among other responsibilities. After several years, he also began volunteering at the former Baltimore City Life Museums. He then went back to school, receiving a master's degree in history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. For the past 15 years, Gephardt has worked in the museum field creating programs and managing volunteers at historical sites such as the Phoenix Shot Tower and Mount Clare Museum House.

HARKERS ISLAND, N.C. -- As soon as the winds calm down, a barge will churn across the gray waters to Shackleford Banks, a remote island where a controversial cargo awaits a trip to civilization. For one recent week, 14 of the island's herd of 130 wild horses have been corralled in a large wire pen. Gale-force winds halted their departure from the rugged spit of sand at the southernmost tip of North Carolina's Outer Banks. But eventually a barge transported them to Harkers Island, where, for $600 apiece, they were sold to private owners lining up for a shaggy piece of North Carolina history.