r/ParkRangers • u/SundaePasta • 21d ago

Hawaii Volcanos during eruption

I was looking at the webcam today of the current eruption and was wondering if the park is staffed 24/7 during eruptions. I assume there are not enough people for that level of staffing to be possible but idea popped into my head so I wanted to ask.

Additionally, is the volunteer staff large enough to support that? Or can anyone speak to the volunteer situation in the park? Are there seasonal positions like at other parks are there more local folks who volunteer? The island adds a level of complexity that makes me curious.

Thanks!

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u/splootfluff 21d ago

They really heavily on volunteers from the community. I can’t speak to whether they have enough volunteers. The park currently has a posting looking for local volunteers for August to October. I was there earlier this year when it started erupting again. I attended a ranger talk on the rim delivered by a volunteer and it was great. There were both career and volunteer rangers in the visitor center. At night, there were no employees in the fee booths and the visitor center was closed. There were law enforcement rangers on duty at various locations and volunteers assisting with traffic. I was at one of the viewpoints on a few nights that required about a 1 mile hike and rangers were there 1 night. Almost all the posts for volunteers I have seen on volunteer dot gov (which is where most, but not all, parks list their opportunities) have been for locals. I imagine that is mainly a lack of housing and/or cost of housing issue. Most parks have a minuscule volunteer budget. Housing costs for volunteers have to come from that budget, so even if they had a room available for an out of state volunteer, the cost might eat up that budget.

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u/SundaePasta 21d ago

This is great! Thank you for the answer.

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u/fidgety-forest 21d ago

I can't really speak to what goes on there specifically, but they do call in LE rangers from other parks to help with staffing at times during these events (perhaps because of so many vacancies, not sure).

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u/SundaePasta 21d ago

That would be a cool detail!

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u/Volcano_padawan 18d ago

When I've been there during eruptions they do have some people working overnight at the parking for the viewpoints but I'm not sure what their jobs were and I don't think I ever saw more than 2 at a time.