Forest Park has growing needs, and in this ever-changing world, it requires FPC and our community to be creative and flexible in how we manage our stewardship programs. This year, we’re responding by creating new leadership opportunities for our volunteers.
In the last year, FPC managed to meet our stewardship goals, keeping track of the trails and maintaining their health through the brushing and raking seasons, but we only met these goals because our volunteer leaders stepped up, contributing nearly 1,000 hours of independent labor, working alone or in small groups to help with this process.
We’re moving into the spring stewardship season, where we’ll look to host nearly 600 participants in the coming months. That is just the beginning of a year with more than 150 work parties and volunteer experiences. That means FPC needs crew leaders now, more than ever, to help us manage events, train new volunteers, and ensure our work in the forest is safe and successful!
Here’s where you come in! We’re building out a series of trainings to give our volunteers more experience and expertise!. If you, your friends, or your family are interested in small-scale stewardship, we’ll be training volunteers to help us maintain the trail network as Independent Volunteers, tasked with managing small sections of trail and helping FPC keep tabs on the health of the forest.
However, maybe you’re more of a person who enjoys managing others, directing daily crew work on a project in the forest, and loves volunteer activities. If that’s the case, we need you to join one of our upcoming crew leader trainings!
As for those of you interested in developing specific trail management skills, you can come and learn about some of the trails work we do in our Trails Crew Leader workshop. Learn about the ways we work with rocks, dirt, tread, drains, and everything in between!
It’s not just that we need you to make Forest Park a more vibrant and safe place for everyone. It’s that Forest Park is a public resource and treasure, and we want everyone to feel comfortable taking the lead in stewarding it into the future! Visit our volunteer site or check out our events calendar to find and sign up for our training and volunteer opportunities!