{"id":6149,"date":"2011-01-10T09:04:02","date_gmt":"2011-01-10T09:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/?p=6149"},"modified":"2011-01-10T09:04:02","modified_gmt":"2011-01-10T09:04:02","slug":"why-do-park-rangers-dress-in-mock-military-costumes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/why-do-park-rangers-dress-in-mock-military-costumes\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do park rangers dress in mock-military costumes?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/park_ranger_Shenandoah-National-Park1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/park_ranger_Shenandoah-National-Park1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"park_ranger_Shenandoah-National-Park\" width=\"775\" height=\"515\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-6151\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/park_ranger_Shenandoah-National-Park1.jpg 775w, https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/park_ranger_Shenandoah-National-Park1-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/park_ranger_Shenandoah-National-Park1-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/park_ranger_Shenandoah-National-Park1-624x415.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 775px) 100vw, 775px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Etymology provides the answer. &#8216;Ranger&#8217; derives from the Middle French <em>ranger <\/em> &#8216;to arrange (soldiers) in ranks&#8230; to put oneself in rank or order&#8217;. Ranger came into English meaning &#8216;a forester, a gamekeeper, a keeper of a royal park (also as an honorary title). Now esp.: a warden of a national or state park or forest&#8217;. But do we want national and natural parks to be run by soldiers and, if so, who are they fighting? Wild animals? Visitors? I would prefer natural landscapes to be regarded as Sacred Space and tended by either holy men, like the druid (above right) or the good shepherd (above left). There should be a total ban on folksy signage and I do not like the connection with the hunting and pleasure parks of feudal barons. National parks should be national sanctuaries, preferably with no bitmac, motor vehicles or tourist &#8216;facilities&#8217;. This will not be an easy change to effect but a start can be made by employing staff dressed like hermits to protect the sacredness of natural areas (using &#8216;sacred&#8217; in its pre-Christian sense of &#8216;set apart&#8217;).<br \/>\nImage of Shenandoah-National-Park courtesy <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/people\/dcbill\/\">Bill Spruce<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Etymology provides the answer. &#8216;Ranger&#8217; derives from the Middle French ranger &#8216;to arrange (soldiers) in ranks&#8230; to put oneself in rank or order&#8217;. Ranger came into English meaning &#8216;a forester, a gamekeeper, a keeper of a royal park (also as an honorary title). Now esp.: a warden of a national or state park or forest&#8217;. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6149"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}