Christopher Carmago

As a burn boss at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, Christopher Carmago leads one of the largest prescribed fire programs in the state park system.

The mission of the Florida Park Service is: "to provide resource-based recreation while preserving, interpreting, and restoring natural and cultural resources." What role do you play in this mission?

I am a park services specialist and burn boss at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. As the burn boss, I coordinate and lead all prescribed fire activities at Kissimmee Prairie, which is the second-largest state park in Florida with one of the largest burn programs in the Florida Park Service.

How does your heritage influence your experience in the outdoors?

My mother is Cuban, and my father is Colombian. They both moved to the United States in the '60s and assimilated to  life in the US. They met in Miami in the '80s and that's where I was born. My father took my brother and I camping when we were younger, and I believe it was these trips that planted the seed for what became my career. Outside of the handful of camping trips with my dad, I had absolutely zero interest in the outdoors growing up.

I was a city boy from Miami who attended Belen Jesuit, a mostly Latino prep school, and was expected to become something respectable like a lawyer or a businessman. In fact, there was a time I was prone to anxiety attacks from the thought of bugs on me, and my family likes to remind me of that when they ponder how I grew into a park ranger. It was completely by chance that while I was attending the University of Central Florida, I took a job at the university's arboretum and fell in love with ... the Real Florida!

Any advice for Latinx who are interested in a career in conservation or recreation?

Ignore the sideways glances you get from your tios and tias when you tell them you want to go into conservation. Ignore their questions about why you didn't go into computers. Your abuela may not understand why you didn't use your intelligence to become a doctor or a lawyer, but she will see that conservation makes you happy and that will make her happy. Do it because you love it.