Staff Spotlight, Mark Adams
Park Ranger, Mark Adams
Tomoka State Park
Nature has always been a place where people have gone to find solace, stress relief and to reconnect with what is important. Since childhood I have enjoyed taking groups of friends into natural areas so they could experience the healing elixir of time spent outdoors. Today, as a Park Ranger at Tomoka State Park it is my great honor to be able to maintain a place where thousands of people every month can reconnect not only with nature, but with the cultural history of Timucuan Indigenous people and early Florida History.
Besides wonderful recreational opportunities like camping, hiking, and kayaking, Florida’s State Parks provide a window in the past, both culturally and naturally. Working for State Parks means that no two days are alike. Whether leading an interpretive hike about our unique history, helping manage forests or just clearing away excess brush around campsites, I find immense satisfaction in knowing that my day-to-day work activities support a philosophy of conservation that will provide the same opportunities for generations to come. When I see visitors enter the park, and children's eye light up with the excitement of our wild spaces, I know I am in the right profession.