Editor's note:
This is part of an ongoing series about people in Akron and Summit County with interesting jobs. Know someone who fits the bill? Email Culture & Arts reporter Brittany Moseley at brittany@signalakron.org.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park ranger Josh Bates stood on a picnic table doing what many would view as an impossible task: commanding the attention of a large group of hungry seventh graders.
It was a late morning in early October, and the students from Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy had spent several hours in the southern area of the park removing invasive plants.
Bates, a park ranger at CVNP, is a natural with kids. He spent a few minutes chatting with the group about what they did that day. Afterward, an adult chaperone profusely thanked Bates for the experience.
“These are good kids. They are really, really good kids,” Bates said as the group made their way to their buses.
In March, Bates will celebrate 25 years as a park ranger, all of them spent at CVNP. He specializes in service learning, coordinating volunteer projects for groups like the one from Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy. He also leads some public programs as well, such as winter lantern hikes.
For all his ease with kids, Bates is the first to admit that it wasn’t always that way. In his early years at the park, Bates interned at the Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education Center.
“When I first started working at our environmental education center, middle schoolers scared me to death,” he said, only slightly joking.
But as with any job, the more Bates worked with kids, the easier it became. He soon found his groove.
“I fell in love with the idea that I could still educate informally in a park setting and didn’t really return back to the idea of going and becoming a classroom teacher,” he said.
Part of what makes Bates so good at his job is his intuitiveness. Take, for example, the project with Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy. Bates noticed that kids would mess with the plants around them when on service learning projects. So he figured he could get them to remove invasive plants.
“I think there’s power in trusting a young person to use a tool and that we expect them to be serious about what they’re doing, and so they have fun,” Bates said.
Growing up in Kirkland, Washington, Bates loved the outdoors. He has fond memories of visiting Fort Vancouver National Historic Site with his grandma.
He ended up as an intern at the environmental education center after a friend who worked there convinced him to come to Ohio. Back then, the idea of having a job that combined the outdoors and teaching was a new concept to Bates. But once he found it, he was hooked. He stayed on for a second-year internship and then became a staffer at the education center. Around 2010, he was promoted to his current role in the volunteer office, where he helped launch the park’s youth volunteer program.
Being able to spearhead new projects and being a part of a growing park is what’s kept Bates at CVNP. Compared to the Great Smoky Mountains, Yosemite and Yellowstone, Cuyahoga Valley, at 50 years old, is the younger sibling. Bates has been a part of the park for half of its existence.
“I’ve enjoyed being on the front side of being able to create things and to leave a legacy,” he said. “This was a pretty good place before I got here, but I think when I’m done, I can walk away with a clear conscience saying that we’ve done some great stuff here.”
About halfway through a discussion about out-of-state visitors to the park, a couple approached Bates. They were on bikes and wanted to know how to get to Lock 39. After setting them on the right path, Bates asked where they’re from. Buffalo, said the man. It’s their second time at the park. After hiking on their first visit in the summer, they decided to bring their bikes this time.
“One of our favorite places,” the man said, as the two started on their journey.
That put an even bigger smile on Bates’ face.
“To hear that excites me,” he said, “that we’re doing the work, that people recognize that we’re here.”
For Bates, parks are deeply personal. He understands how much people love their national parks. It’s his job to build on that love, whether he’s working with volunteers, leading school kids on a hike or giving directions to out-of-town visitors.
“I get to sit out here with great people on a sunny day, accomplish some stuff,” Bates said. “I mean, this is pretty cool stuff, so I’m grateful.”
He continued, “If you would have had 18-year-old Josh or seventh-grade-year-old Josh and said, ‘Yeah, this is what you get to do,’ I’d of been like, ‘Oh you’re crazy talking!’ But I’m so glad that I’m where I’m at.”