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Rick DeLappe
"From a summer job at Yellowstone to nine years. "
As a kid, we used to spend vacations in the National Forests and from early on, I knew I wanted to be a Park or Forest Ranger.
I studied Botany in college and wanted to be a part of natural resource protection and conservation. I received a ten-week summer seasonal job in Yellowstone that turned into 9 years. My permanent status was a real turning point. Since then, I have worked for the National Park Service since 1989, including Rocky Mountain National Park, Haleakala National Park, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, and Zion National Park.
Today, I am the inter-agency Program Manager for Recreation.gov. We work collaboratively with 8 federal agencies to provide trip planning and reservation services for our nation's federal campgrounds, tickets, permits, and passes. With roughly 4,200 facilities and activities and over 113,000 individual reservable sites across the country, our website helps people find the information they need to create lasting memories. One of the most exciting days in my decades-long career with the National Park Service was the day I went to the Grand Prismatic Pool in a thermally insulated boat with the park geohydrologist!
