Salt Lake City’s urban park ranger program turns one year old this summer. When the program launched, the rangers were described as “nature geeks who are also the safe people” in the park.
In addition to being a source of information and education for park patrons, the rangers are a buffer between people experiencing homelessness and law enforcement.
“We're always looking for conversations,” said ranger Jack Raleigh. “When we're out patrolling, it's just if anyone looks like they're willing to talk, then I'm happy to talk to them.”
Raleigh was a wildlands firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service before entering the ranger program seven months ago. The job has turned out to be a bit different than what he expected.
“When you're out doing wildlands firefighting type work, you're kind of out in the middle of nowhere and it's like you don't have to interact with nearly as many people,” he said. “So it's been kind of getting used to talking to a lot of people and letting them express their concerns to you and listening.”
On an average day, urban rangers might do everything from teaching kids about wildlife and plants to making sure park rules are followed — like leash laws, for example. Doggie decorum is one of the focuses for Vanessa Rogan, the lead ranger in Salt Lake City’s Liberty Park.
“It's a way to help engage the community in proper manners of having a dog in green spaces and inspiring them to keep them on leash and bag their poop, et cetera,” Rogan said.
One of the original urban rangers hired last summer, Rogan was a ranger in Zion National Park before coming back home to Salt Lake City. The rangers are stationed at Liberty Park, Fairmont Park, Jordan Park, Pioneer Park and the Fisher Carriage House along the Jordan River. Teams of rangers also patrol the foothill trails.
A resource for Salt Lake City’s homeless
Most of the time the rangers answer questions from the public or make sure people keep their dogs on leashes. But there’s another important facet to the job.
“We also keep in touch with the unsheltered folks here,” she said. “Offering them resources and then trying to bridge the gap between other park users who might not be as familiar with the needs of unsheltered folks and just making sure all different users feel comfortable sharing the same space.”
Homelessness isn’t just a focus for Salt Lake City. A statewide effort is underway to re-examine chronic homelessness and mental health with a focus more on treatment and resources rather than the criminal justice system.
On a recent patrol loop around Liberty Park, Raleigh and Rogan approached a group who they say are regulars in the park. That group included William Johnson.
“You know, there's homeless people in parks everywhere,” he said. “We're not homeless all for the same reason.”
Johnson prefers to call his situation “homelessly-challenged” and spends his days in Liberty Park with his wife, Katie. The couple can’t sleep in the park after it closes, so most of the time they’re forced out into the surrounding neighborhoods where, according to him, interactions with law enforcement haven’t been great.
“[The urban rangers] don't cause nowhere near the grief that the police do,” he said. “I've never really seen anybody come to the park to have a bad time. So, you know, I'd say yay rangers.”
The rangers aren’t law enforcement and they can’t write tickets. Everything they ask park users to do is voluntary. But that doesn’t mean police are far away — rangers will call officers if a situation escalates.
“Fortunately, so far, we haven't had many incidents where we've needed to [call the police],” said Rogan. “I think our presence hopefully is helping people feel a little safer.”
Developing relationships
The rangers say one of their most important goals is building bridges with the city’s homeless population. The more people trust the rangers, the more people can access the services they need.
That includes things like bus passes for those who don’t have the means to travel to a doctor’s appointment or job interview on their own.
“There's a lot of these little barriers that exist for helping our unhoused community navigate the service system,” said ranger program director Nick Frederick. “Being able to alleviate those little minor inconveniences to make it so that people can get connected with what they need is sort of a big part of what we're trying to do.”
According to Frederick, the success of the program will be measured by how safe people feel in the city’s parks. He wants everyone to feel welcome — including people like William Johnson.
Statewide homelessness rose in the last year, according to the 2023 Utah Department of Workforce Services homelessness report. But some trends are headed in the right direction. Homeless recidivism is actually down in Salt Lake County.
The report largely credits housing and crisis response projects for that decline. Both are services the urban rangers help people connect with on a daily basis.
