Engaging with volunteers is an important way for the Natural Areas Department to achieve its mission and connect with the community. This spring volunteers Natural Areas Department staff trained 96 new long-term volunteers and worked with 68 one-day volunteers who planted over 1,400 native trees and shrubs.
Volunteer Naturalist Assistant trainees enthusiastically participated in a three-day training to learn to educate the community about natural areas. Nature in the City volunteers learned to garden in native plant gardens to maintain Nature in the City sites and monitor for birds and butterflies on urban natural areas to help inform management decisions.
At Coyote Ridge Natural Area, in partnership with the FC Volunteer program, volunteers helped plant 800 mountain mahogany plugs in the foothills ecosystem. At Bobcat Ridge Natural Area, volunteers helped clear a drainage filled with cottonwood branches in fire recovery efforts.
At the newly acquired and closed-to-the-public Kestrel Fields Natural Area, volunteers planted 600 native trees and shrubs over three days. One volunteer shared, “The event at Kestrel Fields was a real pleasure. It was well-organized, well-managed onsite, and well-supported- with holes pre-dug and a plethora of details anticipated before the event began. I especially appreciated the City employees who were there. They were all extremely friendly, energetic and professional. They were also great with kids. I had a grandson and two granddaughters there, and the city employees were great with them, too.”
This summer volunteers will continue to help with programs, trail work, community science, restoration, and much more. Thank you volunteers!
