Ontario Stewardship Ranger Video

Narrator: Is a greener environment important to you? What about protecting wildlife or improving the quality of the air and water where you live? Do you want to work for the Ministry of Natural Resources? You can make a difference this summer! Since 1999 young people just like you have worked as Ontario Stewardship Rangers. They work with local conservation groups on environmental projects to improve natural spaces in their communities.

If you are turning 17 years old this year and like working in the outdoors, this might just be the job you've been looking for.

The Ontario Stewardship Ranger Program is an 8-week summer job opportunity that aims to provide community-based experience, personal development, skills and training for youth who want to expand their commitment to natural resource stewardship. Rangers earn minimum wage and work on co-ed teams of four Rangers and one Team Lead.

Ontario Stewardship Ranger Program. Making a Difference!

Rangers must be turning 17 in their eligible year.

You get paid to do this!

Rob Stavinga (Team Lead): They're working in their own communities, so, students are hired to work in their local areas on projects that are in their neighbourhoods or local to their regions. My crew is made up of all students from Durham region and they're working on projects that are only 2 or 3 kilometers from their front door.

Rob Stavinga - Team Lead

Ashley Boland (Team Lead): A typical day would be meeting early in the morning with your crew and your crew leader, working on a conservation program within your area. That goes for anywhere in the water, on land, with different organizations and conservation authorities. Its really hard to mention a typical day because every day is different.

Boy Ranger: I thought the job sounded great! I definitely wanted to be outside this summer.

Boy Ranger: I'd like to pursue this as a future career.

Boy Ranger: Today we are doing stream rehabilitation. Tomorrow we might be doing some construction work, so every day is a different thing and that's what I like about this program, the variety of things.

Girl Ranger: If you're not a quitter, this would be a great, great place for you.

Boy Ranger: Working with some other kids my age this summer, I thought that would be neat!

Girl Ranger: It never gets boring. We do something different every day. We're working with different people, different crews.

Girl Ranger: Everybody here is so nice. It's just such a fun, relaxed environment

Girl Ranger: The job description described so many things that I like doing. What better job to do than stuff that you like doing?

Narrator: As an Ontario Stewardship Ranger you will report to your work location every day from home. You will work on a variety of very cool projects that could include stream and wetland restoration.

William Guy (Project Partner): These guys do just a wonderful job. They keep the creeks clean and I don't know if you've seen what's on the trails there, the shopping carts, the barrels. A lot of things thrown in the creeks, dumped in the creeks and they pretty much clean them up for us. I don't know who else would do it if these guys didn't.

Rob Stavinga (Team Lead): The students are working right in their hometown in a park that's just blocks from their house. They take a lot of pride in the work that they are doing because they've been through that park before they worked there and they've seen what its like and when they're done, ya know, they stand back and look at it and say “this is the work that we did this summer” and they're getting an opportunity to see that progression.

Girl Ranger: Today we're building bird boxes for children. Just a great way to get kids involved

Mellissa Pessendawatch (Team Lead): When we get together as a crew, we go through a morning briefing of what we're doing, the activities of that day. We also go through maybe any possible safety hazards that we might encounter, equipment that is needed to bring out of storage because we don't keep all of our equipment in the truck. From there we will drive to our worksite, so in the truck they will work on our modules or they will play they're personal CD's and will sing songs. We get to the worksite, I introduce them to our client, the person who we're working for that day. He will explain the project and give them about a half-hour briefing as an education component to the work that we're doing that day.

Mellissa Pessendawatch - Team Lead

Narrator: Safety comes first. In fact the first week is dedicated to training in a number of areas such as health and safety, WHMIS, emergency first aid, WDHP, which is, workplace discrimination and harassment prevention, and safe tool handling.

Ashley Boland (Team Lead): I received extensive training, as far as health and safety training, and WDHP. It was really the first aid training. Totally covered for!

Girl Ranger: We took our canoeing course. We were trained in fields that, if we were using it, we knew how to use it right

Narrator: All projects are supervised and participants are provided with the proper safety equipment before work commences.

Gain Marketable Skills!

Ashley Wilson - Project Coordinator

Jennifer Card (Stewardship Coordinator): I would say take advantage of this opportunity if you are interested at all in the outdoors, and pursuing a career in resource management. This is an excellent opportunity to be introduced to that.

Narrator: You will learn about time management, team building and environmental leadership. Other learning events and training could include electro-fishing, camping trips, canoe safety courses, a tour of a wind farm or a fish hatchery.

Check our website - Ontario.ca/mnryouthprograms

Ashley Boland (Team Lead):We are funded by one specific company, the city of Brampton . They've sponsored us for the entire summer, so our crew is totally sponsored by them. We owe them a good half of our summer work-wise. We've gotten great feedback from the community as well. They see that the Ministry is helping out and that the youth are really involved in what's going on today with our natural resources

Jennifer Card (Stewardship Coordinator): We do try and get a variety of different projects that are community-based, and visible, and very much appreciated by the community and our partners.

Terry Sprague (Project Partner): I was looking for volunteers to help me out, do some rehabilitation work. It allowed us to get the job done very quickly when time was of the essence. We needed people in there who knew what they were doing and were sympathetic to our cause

Fred Werner (Project Partner): I find that the Stewardship Rangers have been very, very helpful in a lot of projects around this area. Not only some of the things we've done in the local municipal parks, but also in this plantation. We're very grateful for it, and the county is too.

Ron Deshane - Project Partner

Chris Hinsperger (Partner): The Stewardship Rangers are here today to do some work. As part of doing work on the property they will be going underground with one of our tourguides to learn about the geology of the area, and what's really cool about this program is a mix of education with work and I truly believe that young people are the foundations of our society and if they can be taught to work and play in balance, then they will be better citizens of the planet earth.

Narrator: You can apply to the Ontario Stewardship Ranger Program if you are an Ontario resident and enrolled in school.

Will be 17 years old between January 1 st and December 31 st of the year you wish to work as a ranger.

Do not turn 18 at any point during the calendar year you wish to work as a ranger.

Are in good physical condition.

Ontario Stewardship Rangers

Rob Stavinga (Team Lead): Not only are they getting good at their jobs, they are getting physically stronger, and they actually take quite a bit of pride in that because they can remember the first days on the job because it was a tough slog going through a whole day in the hot sun and working outside. But now they come to work and at the end of the day, they are so proud of the fact that they can tough it out for a full day. They feel good at the end of the day, they're not tired and the next day they're ready to go back to work.

Rob Stavinga - Crew Lead

Narrator: This is so much more than just a summer job. It's a chance to leave your mark on the environment. You can play an important role in protecting Ontario 's Natural Heritage for future generations. Build lasting friendships. Discover your own backyard like you never have before.

Ashley Boland (Team Lead): I'd say that it's an incredible summer! It's unique. It's extremely diverse. It looks phenomenal on a resume, and it's fun!

Ashley Boland - Crew Lead

Boy Ranger: I'll definitely recommend this program to others. It's a great experience, and for me, as a personal experience, I really think that its better than working in an office all day

Boy Ranger: I'd definitely recommend this program to others. Its such a good learning experience for in-school and stuff that you'll need to learn later on in life. Its great.

Girl Ranger: At the beginning I didn't really want to get dirty, but then, its like, fine

Boy Ranger: Knowledge is power, and we really need to change a lot of the environment, so I think if someone educates the young people, the next generation, that will help improve the earth..

For other employment opportunities for youth, please visit ontario.ca/mnryouthprograms

Paid for by the Government of Ontario