Student Rangers

• Provide students with summer employment opportunities working for BC Parks and the Ministry of Environment and Parks
• Offer students a range of experiences and training that will develop knowledge and skills they can apply in future jobs
• Facilitate Indigenous student involvement in projects on culturally significant sites and traditional territories
• Provide young people with opportunities to do paid work relevant to their love of B.C.’s natural spaces
• Contribute to our goal of enhancing recreational opportunities while protecting natural ecosystems and Indigenous cultural sites

The application process has been updated for the 2026 season. The process includes an online questionnaire and requires you to submit your resume. You must also provide proof that you are enrolled at a school, college, or university.

Even if you have applied before, please carefully read the application instructions outlined here.

The online questionnaire no longer includes free-text fields for details of your skills and experience. Instead, your resume must verify the information provided via the questionnaire and outline how you meet the requirements for applicants.

Specifically, it must outline relevant employment, volunteer, and personal experience. Please provide details of duration, location, skills, certifications, and achievements. Include the names of supervisors or coordinators you worked with.

Resumes are reviewed for screening purposes, to verify questionnaire selections. For example, if you select ‘basic’ experience, your resume must provide details matching the questionnaire’s definition of this experience level.

As part of the process, you are asked to provide proof you are enrolled at a school, college, or university. You must provide proof of enrolment by emailing Parks.StudentRangers@gov.bc.ca before the application deadline.

You can apply to be a crew lead or a crew member. For definitions of these roles, see the student ranger crews section, below. Look in the current section for information on the skills and experience required or desirable for these roles.

Required skills and experience

To be a crew lead, you need experience leading a group of two or more people completing a project or task. To be a crew member, you need experience working in a group of this kind. Additionally, to become a crew lead or member, you must:

• Be enrolled in full-time studies at an accredited secondary or post-secondary institution within six months before the program’s start
• Be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or person granted refugee status in Canada
• Have a valid BC Class 5 Driver’s Licence (or provincial equivalent) and pass a criminal record check

If you are accepted onto the Student Ranger Program, you must also take part in Student Ranger training. Our Student Ranger training event is at the beginning of the work term.

Desirable skills and experience

Ideally, Student Rangers should have some knowledge of our four program areas: recreation, conservation, public outreach, and Indigenous relations. For more information on our program areas, see Student Ranger projects, below.

Desirable skills for a crew lead or member include: 

• The ability and willingness to perform physical work, daily
• Good time-management and organizational instincts
• Conflict resolution and team management skills
• Knowledge of outdoor safety procedures

Desirable experience for a crew lead or member includes time spent:

• Leading or working with a diverse team to perform project work
• Applying the ideas of people from different backgrounds
• Travelling or camping in remote areas
• Using field equipment and tools
• Hiking long distances

Further information is provided in the job postings for the crew lead and crew member positions. These can be found via the current BC Government job postings webpage.

Each Student Ranger is assigned to a crew. Each crew is assigned to a crew contact, who is a senior Park Ranger or area supervisor. The crew contact directly supervises the crew.

Each crew works alongside its crew contact, and other BC Parks staff, on regional projects. Crews have one crew lead and two crew members. In isolated areas, there may be just two crew members and no crew lead.

Hourly pay for crew leads and crew members is specified in the current BCGEU collective agreement. It can be found via the salary look-up tool. Crew leads are classified Park Assistant 9. Crew members are classified Youth Employment 1 or 2.

Crew locations

The 2026 crew locations are:

• Bella Coola
• Black Creek (Miracle Beach Park)
• Clearwater (Wells Gray Park)
• Fort St. John
• Kamloops
• Nelson
• North Vancouver
• Penticton
• Prince George
• Smithers
• Squamish
• Terrace
• Valemount (Mount Robson Park)
• Victoria (Goldstream Park)

For reference, you can find details about each of these locations in the 2025 location appendix included with the additional resources. The 2026 appendix will be shared with applicants who qualify for an interview, in late January 2026.

Crew training and development

The BC Parks Student Ranger Program helps young people engage with the land. The program aims to hire a minimum of 30 percent Indigenous youth each year. Creating opportunities for Indigenous youth is a high priority for the Ministry of Environment and Parks.

One objective of the program is to give young people skills and knowledge they can apply in future employment. During the season, Student Rangers can develop knowledge and skills related to:

• Conservation
• Park management
• Indigenous Relations
• Public outreach and education
• Trail building and maintenance
• Field safety protocols and procedures
• Invasive plant identification and removal

Our staff develop Student Ranger projects in four program areas: recreation, conservation, public outreach, and Indigenous Relations.

We cannot guarantee each crew will work on projects in every program area. Most projects Student Ranger crews work on are related to recreation or conservation.

The table below outlines the types of projects Student Rangers might work on in each program area.

Being a Student Ranger provides opportunities to work outside in summer, learn new skills, meet people, and do rewarding work. The job can be physically challenging at times but seeing the results of your crew’s work is very satisfying.

Crews are assigned a point of assembly (POA) office where they are based for the season. Depending on the crew and planned work, you may start the day at your POA, then travel to an assigned worksite.

Alternatively, you may stay overnight at a worksite for multiple nights at a time. Worksites within parks and protected areas can be up to a full-day’s drive from any POA. Therefore, staying overnight can be necessary to complete work.

We provide accommodation (tent or cabin), meal allowances, and camping gear when student rangers are camping overnight for work.

Crews’ schedules vary. Some crews will work weekdays, others on weekends. Shift lengths differ between crews. For more information on work schedules, see the location appendix in the additional resources section.

Before applying for the Student Ranger program, consider that schedules can change due to unforeseen circumstances. Being flexible to a variable schedule is an essential part of the Student Ranger Program experience.

• Location Appendix from 2025 [PDF]
• Canadian Parks Council
• Project Learning Tree

To find out more details on the BC Parks Student Ranger Program, contact the program coordinator at Parks.StudentRangers@gov.bc.ca.