New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Amanda Lefton welcomed 17 new graduates from the 25th Basic School for New York State Forest Rangers. <\/p>\n
As part of DEC\u2019s Division of Forest Protection, state forest rangers protect natural resources and public safety and stand ready to support out-of-state emergencies like wildfires and flooding. The graduation ceremony, held in Lake Placid, celebrated graduates from across New York State who followed extensive law enforcement and natural resources training in the classroom and in the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am thrilled to bring on 17 brave new forest rangers into the DEC family,\u201d Lefton said. \u201cOver the past six months, these forest rangers and their families made tremendous sacrifices to make this day possible. Their skills and dedication will carry them as they pursue this noble career protecting our resources and positively changing the trajectory of other people\u2019s lives. I wish them success as they begin this next chapter with DEC.\u201d\u202f\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
DEC Deputy Commissioner for Public Protection Melinda Seiden said, \u201cForest rangers patrol more than 5 million acres of land and do it all hours of the day and night to keep people safe. I am excited to add these 17 rangers to our ranks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the last six months, recruits endured strenuous training at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry campus in the hamlet of Wanakena and the Huntington Wildlife Forest in the town of Newcomb. The Division of Forest Protection trained the ranger recruits in a wide range of rescue techniques, including rope rescues, and led extensive training in wildfire suppression, prescribed burns, water rescues and wildlife protection, among other skills. The 17 graduates will join the state\u2019s forest ranger force for a total of 161 rangers statewide. \u00a0\u202f\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Upon graduation, DEC assigns recruits to patrol areas to join the ranks of forest rangers currently serving across the state.\u202fIn 2025, DEC forest rangers conducted 362 search and rescue missions, extinguished 202 wildfires covering nearly 840 acres, participated in 68 prescribed fires that\u202fserved to rejuvenate 1,649 acres of land and worked on cases that resulted in more than 1,100 tickets or arrests. \u00a0\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
List of graduates from DEC\u2019s 25th Basic School for Forest Rangers: \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joshua Betts \u2013 Highland, Ulster County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jack Caulfield \u2013 Massapequa, Nassau County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ian Dill \u2013 Morris, Otsego County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ethan Engel \u2013 Peru, Clinton County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tucker Griffin \u2013 Niskayuna, Schenectady County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Griffen Johnson \u2013 Rome, Oneida County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Isaac Knapp \u2013 Stanfordville, Dutchess County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ian Lupole \u2013 Kirkwood, Broome County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alison MacCue \u2013 Croghan, Lewis County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kaylynn Massa \u2013 Freehold, Greene County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brian McMahon \u2013 Spencerport, Monroe County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jacob Owen \u2013 Allegany, Cattaraugus County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jeremy Patnode \u2013 Chateaugay, Franklin County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mitchell Rigano \u2013 North Chili, Monroe County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nathan Ryan \u2013 East Greenbush, Rensselaer County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Timothy Sarno \u2013 Kinderhook, Columbia County\u00a0<\/p>\n
Samantha Severing \u2013 Livingston Manor, Sullivan County\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Amanda Lefton welcomed 17 new graduates from the 25th…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7183,9,11,10,49,51,50,63005],"class_list":["post-370926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-adirondack-almanack","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-nys-dec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}