Volunteer opportunities for conservation
Volunteering is a fun and rewarding way to meet new people, visit beautiful places and give back to your community. Whether you want to get outside and enjoy a hands-on experience at your local preserve or offer your time in a skills-based capacity, there are many ways you can donate your time to support your local land trust.
Spring is a beautiful time to be outdoors and land trusts across the country are offering a variety of work projects, including:
preparing soil and spreading plastic coverings for future plantings at the Camp Polk Meadow Preserve with the accredited Deschutes Land Trust in Oregon;
cleaning two stretches of highway with the accredited American Chestnut Land Trust in Maryland;
removing non-native woody brush in the prairies and woodlands while collecting and planting seeds with the accredited Natural Land Institute in Illinois;
removing invasive Garlic Mustard plants at Meltzer Woods Preserve with the accredited Central Indiana Land Trust; and
joining a self-guided cleanup hike with the accredited Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
And that's just a small sampling of the many opportunities available from land trusts!
Your unique skills may also be invaluable to a land trust! As nonprofit organizations, land trusts rely on all kinds of ongoing volunteer support, including for photography and video, pro-bono legal advice, event leadership, committee membership and easement monitoring. Look for a volunteer page on your local land trust's website to explore their current volunteer opportunities. (Not seeing a volunteer page when you look? Don't be deterred! Send the land trust a note explaining your background and see if there might be a use for your skills.)
You can learn more about all the ways you can get involved with land trusts this April in our Earth Month directory.