Pop singer Britney Spears sang a song entitled “Oops, I Did It Again.” Well, Sullivan County has done it again. The 25th Basic School for New York State Forest Rangers recently graduated a class of seventeen and another Sullivan County native is among them. I want to congratulate new Ranger Samantha Severing on joining their ranks.

The Forest Ranger Academy is no joke. It is an intense six-month program that is held at various locations including SUNY-Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) Wanakena and SUNY-ESF Huntington Wildlife Forest. Parts of it are held at the Newcomb Campus in the Adirondacks.

Some of the areas of focused training that the recruits receive include wild land firefighting, search and rescue, emergency vehicle operation, public land stewardship, rapid water rescue and environmental law enforcement. The Cooper Fitness Standard is used with a target of 40th percentile to be admitted and 70th percentile on completion. Wow, these folks are in amazing shape athletically.

Forest Rangers are part of the Division of Forest Protection. They protect more than 5 million acres of public land in New York State as well as the people that use that land. Their mission is to provide public safety and state land protection.  Forest Rangers are considered to be New York State Police Officers with full powers to enforce state laws.

With the new graduates, there will now be 161 Forest Rangers for the entire state of New York. There are just over 300 Environmental Conservation Officers in the state. As I’ve mentioned previously, that’s a very “thin green line.” These folks deserve our admiration, respect and cooperation at all times.

Let’s take a look at a few statistics from 2025. Forest Rangers performed 362 search and rescue missions. They fought 202 different wildfires on about 840 acres of land. They rejuvenated over 1,649 acres of land with 68 prescribed fires (controlled burning). They had a combined total of more than 1,100 tickets or arrests.

The New York State Forest Rangers have been around a long time, and were originally called Fire Wardens. They were first authorized by a law signed by Governor David B. Hill in 1885. They were a part of the Forest Commission, which later became the Department of Environmental Conservation. In 1891, Colonel William F. Fox, who was the first Superintendent of Forests, changed the name from Fire Warden to simply Ranger. The official title of Forest Ranger was created in 1912.

In viewing the current roster, I was happy to see that last year’s new Forest Ranger, Nicole Kocher, has been assigned to Region 3 Zone B (Sullivan). I think it makes a lot of sense when Rangers and EnCon Officers get assigned to areas that they are familiar with, even though they can be deployed anywhere in the state as needed.

Please join me in congratulating our new Forest Ranger Samantha Severing! What an amazing accomplishment.

Let’s all enjoy the outdoors!

John S. Van Etten is the current president of the Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs of Sullivan County, Inc.