Retirement usually brings a host of changes. But if you’re a state park ranger there’s often a pressing need once you take off the uniform for the last time: finding a new place to live.
For Table Rock State Park ranger and park naturalist Scott Stegenga, that necessity looms this November as he finishes a 35-year career working in what many would consider South Carolina’s most beautiful park.
He made a home and raised a family in park-provided housing, but what he and his wife will do upon his retirement is still something of an open question.
Putting down roots
The soft-spoken park naturalist got his love for the outdoors growing up on a Minnesota farm, and the roots of that love deepened over several summers working at a nature-education camp in the San Bernardino Mountains in California.
Stegenga moved to South Carolina and became a ranger at Table Rock State Park in 1989 in what he expected to be a stint of four or five years, but which instead stretched into decades.
With his background working with young people at the California camp, Stegenga took on the role of park naturalist where he has taught generations of children visiting the park about the animals, plants and geology at Table Rock.
Along the way, he raised three sons who inherited his love of the outdoors, thanks in no small part to growing up surrounded by the natural beauty of the park’s 3,000-plus acres.
Potentially saying goodbye to all that in moving away, perhaps to be near family in Minnesota or sons and their families in Georgia or Washington state, is bittersweet to contemplate, Stegenga said.
“There’s a lot of moving parts to my situation because I’m in park-provided housing,” he said. “It’s just kind of a whole new adventure … kind of scary and kind of exciting, and we’ll have to see what unfolds.”
A seasoned observer
By temperament a methodical man and keen observer of his environment, Stegenga has seen many slow seasons of change unfold in this idyllic corner of the Upstate. For one thing, technology has become as much a part of the fabric of the park as the mountains and valleys, plants and animals so many come to see.
Wi-Fi is now a feature in cabins built decades ago during the Great Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and yet many corners of the park remain impervious to cellular signals.
Over the years, Stegenga has seen the numbers of park visitors increase, spiking especially after the pandemic. People come from all over the U.S. and around the world with folks hailing from 12 different countries so far this year.
For more than 20 years, Stegenga has been keeping careful records of weather in the park as a weather observer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“I’ve always enjoyed weather, and I just like to keep records of things,” he said.
From years of observation, Stegenga said it seems like the number of big winter snow events have decreased and average temperatures seem to have increased. He also remembers when he first started that black bear sightings were relatively rare — perhaps a couple of sightings a year. Now, scarcely a week goes by without hikers or other visitors reporting a bear sighting.
While there are arguably more bears in the park than there used to be, it is indisputable there are far many more people coming to Table Rock and surrounding state parks every year.
Stegenga said that, on summer weekends during the past couple of years, it’s not been uncommon for Table Rock to pick up overflow crowds from Devils Fork and Jones Gap state parks.
“It’s a good problem to have, I guess, but we try to manage the impact,” he said.
As a naturalist who has educated people for decades about the park’s plants and animals, he said he understands the balance between preservation and protection of the park and allowing access so people can learn from and enjoy that natural beauty.
“I’m just real cautious about how we manage things in order to preserve and protect plants and animals (and) habitats, and sometimes that’s a tight line to walk,” he said.
As rewarding as this work has been, Stegenga said he’s ready to pass the baton to a new generation.
“I don’t want to have to limp away from here,” he said. “I want to leave while I can still do what I’m doing.”
Critter count
Among Table Rock State Park naturalist Scott Stegenga’s duties for nearly 35 years has been keeping tabs on certain wildlife species. He routinely monitors:
- 5 wood duck boxes
- 12 bluebird houses
- 6 bat houses
Table Rock State Park fast facts:
- Created in 1935 and one of 16 state parks built by the Civilian Conservation Corps
- Covers 3,083 acres in Pickens County
- 14 cabins available — nine of which were built by CCC
- 94 campsites
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