Terra Ludis: Play Ground | Meet Tracy Minton
Tracy Minton is the Park Superintendent at Elk Knob Park. A native of Hayes, North Carolina, He has been part of the NC Parks system for over 20 years. A lifelong outdoorsman, we asked Tracy to tell us what it's like working in NC State Parks.
"I heard somebody else say this and it eventually became true for me, “We get paid in sunsets,” I heard it a few times before I moved to Mount Jefferson, and they have a road that goes to the top of the mountain with two scenic overlooks that both provide a sunset view. So I would ride up there every night when I was closing the park, so I really was getting paid to watch sunsets.
Occasionally I do take people to the top of Snake Mountain and let them watch the sunset as part of my job, so I really do get paid with sunsets, and I’ve seen some of the prettiest scenery and sunsets in the nicest places you would ever be able to see. At State Parks, “We’re in the forever business.” That’s one of our old mottos and its true, if you will be doing work that is going to impact future generations you need to look at it that way.
I think most people view the job of a park ranger, and they think that we admire nature, we protect it, but we admire it while we protect it, and we do that, its just so many other things to that and we do it in so many different ways. I always think of a park ranger in this warm fuzzy picture of showing a kid a wildflower, and they’re up close together and the ranger has on the straw Smokey hat at they’re smelling and looking at the flower and learning what it’s called and its purpose in nature, and we do that which is awesome.
And there’s other ways that we protect it as well. One example is burning, controlled, ecological burns. Some wildflowers are dependent on fire and also some animals are dependent on fire, they need that fire as well because it creates habitats for wildlife as well. A lot people don’t think that they think that we are just there and that we are gonna show you what’s here, what we love, and that you’ll love it too, it’s not that we don’t want to do that, but we want to do that in other ways too."
Photo by Ashley Warren.
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