Camping With Suzi » Volunteers Needed

Volunteers Needed

Every year dozens of volunteers contribute their time, knowledge, and muscles to our national forests.  They contribute hours upon hours of their personal time doing everything from wildlife surveys and manning fire lookouts to hosting campgrounds and doing general office work.  These people build and maintain trails, paint picnic, dig post poles, and so much more.

It is no different this year.  And in some ways, the need is more.  Our national forest are asking for your help.

Who can volunteer?

ndividuals or clubs, families or group of friends – there is a wide variety of projects that needs doing.  Like to hike?  There are trails to build and even more to maintain.  Belong to an equestrian club?  There are hitching facilities to install and manure bins to build.  Concerned over the limited access to recreation for the physically challenged?  There are projects waiting to be completed that will make our treasured national forests more available to all.

Most challenge volunteer position

There is one group of volunteers that may have the most challenging and most rewarding job.  It is their time, knowledge, and muscle that shapes the camping experience of future generations.  They are the volunteer campground host.

What do volunteer campground hosts?  Just about everything that needs to be done in a campground.  First and foremost however, a campground host makes forest visitors feel safe and  welcomed.  For many of us, a volunteer campground host is our closest contact with the Forest Service and Smokey Bear.  Besides welcoming campers, campground hosts provide information, do light maintenance, keep occupancy records, and inform the public of the Forest’s rules and regulation.  Often hosts are asked to pick up litter, clean toilets, and keep the campground looking nice, but this isn’t always the case.

One downside of the campground host position is the requirement to live in a remote location that, very often, has only basic facilities.  Imagine spending months camping out in a national forest surrounded by towering trees, snowcapped mountains, and untamed wildlife, with one star-studded night followed by a day under a sapphire blue sky followed by another and another and another.  Tough job but, like other volunteer position, important to the forest and the campers who come to enjoy Mother nature.

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