WASHINGTON — Rock Creek Park gave dogs a particularly excellent résumé line on Saturday: B.A.R.K. Ranger. The National Park Service’s Sept. 26 program at Picnic Grove #25/Equitation Field invited owners and their dogs to learn the park code, earn a badge, collect doggie giveaways and pose for a commemorative photo.
The title comes with a four-part job description that is pleasingly direct: Bag your pet’s waste, Always leash your pet, Respect wildlife and Know where you can go. The park’s official event listing described the free 10 a.m. program as an induction into the B.A.R.K. Ranger ranks, with a ranger on hand to distribute badges and welcome the new recruits.
It was part of Rock Creek Park Day, a Sept. 26–27 weekend of free programs celebrating the park’s 136th year. The park’s event guide grouped the B.A.R.K. session with ranger walks, hands-on activities and a Saturday-evening picnic concert at Peirce Mill. A dog with a badge may still need a human to manage the car keys, but the requirements for this particular promotion are admirably clear.
Briefly, from the weekend’s cheerful calendar
White Sands made room for moonlight and music. New Mexico’s White Sands National Park scheduled musician and storyteller Randy Granger for its Sept. 26 Full Moon Night Concert. The park’s official listing put the free performance at 6:30 p.m. and invited visitors to settle onto the surrounding dunes with chairs, blankets and coolers.
Minnesota’s wildlife festival welcomed one very specific errand. At Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge’s 31st annual Wildlife Festival on Sept. 26, visitors could bring a labeled half-cup water sample for nitrate testing alongside live-animal viewing, wildlife activities and photography tours. The full schedule is on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service event page.
Elsewhere on the network
- Hilarious.news: Canaveral’s Manatee Mania Makes a Calm Creek the Busiest Place on the Schedule
- Smile.news: A Denver-Area Refuge Day Opens a Warm Door to Wildlife
- WeirdNews.org: The Kentucky Meat Shower: What the 1876 Evidence Can—and Cannot—Explain
- FunnyNews.lol: The Biscuit Emergency (satire)
Sources: National Park Service; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Leave a Reply