Help Park Services Preserve National Treasures

The National Park Service in the United States and the National Park services in many other countries are facing enormous challenges that threaten the animal and plant life in the parks they protect. While the good news is that more and more people are enjoying these national treasures, the increase in human activity in and around the parks is causing significant damage to the ecology of these natural sites. In some US western National Parks, for example, more than a dozen mammalian species have disappeared due to human impact, according to the National Park Service.

The responsibility to properly maintain the parks and protect the animals and environment within them is often overwhelming for park personnel. In the United States alone, approximately 83 million acres are under the control of the United States National Park Service, and this includes 394 National Park sites. Worldwide, there are more than 1,200 National Parks. With so many millions of acres to care for and limited financial resources to meet their goals, the need for volunteers to help preserve these parks is critical and ongoing. The National Park Foundation is a nonprofit organization that works to raise funds to connect Americans to their national parks and guarantee the future of the parks for future generations. The National Park Foundation programs fund conservation and restoration efforts, preserve history, and foster youth engagement in the national parks.

Volunteers are needed to perform important maintenance and surveying tasks, such as restoring trails, planting trees, documenting wild animal migrations, protecting threatened plant species, assisting visitors, and repairing park structures. When volunteers perform these and other tasks for National Park services, they allow park rangers and other park personnel more opportunities to protect and preserve the natural and cultural heritage of our National Parks.

Approximately 137,000 people contributed 5.2 million volunteer hours to the United States National Park Service in 2005 and saved the organization more than $91 million. The benefits to the environment were priceless.

On your next vacation, you could be a part of the global effort to preserve National Parks. Here's how:

• The American Hiking Society offers hundreds of National Park volunteer vacations across the United States, with opportunities to help construct or rebuild trails, preserve natural resources, and build shelters. Trips range from easy to strenuous and last from one to two weeks.
• The United States National Park Service has a Volunteers-In-Parks program that offers opportunities of varying time periods. The activities available depend on the needs of each National Park, and may include trail maintenance, weed and invasive species control, archaeology site monitoring, assisting visitors, or documenting animal and plant species.
• Join the Southern African National Parks Internship, which provides trainees with an intensive 2-week training course in Kruger National Park, after which you can help with conservation and environmental education initiatives in one of South Africa’s 20 National Parks. These are long-term programs: 3 to 6 months or longer.
• Be part of a wolf-moose research expedition in Isle Royale National Park. Volunteers take a week-long trek through the boreal forests of Isle Royale to search for moose bones and record other valuable data.
• British Trust for Conservation Volunteers sponsors conservation vacations in Britain and 23 countries around the world. You can build footpaths in an Icelandic National Park, construct natural fencing on a nature preserve in Estonia, or help conserve a National Park in Portugal. Stay one week or longer, depending on where you choose to volunteer.

National Parks belong to all of us. Your volunteer efforts can help make sure they stay that way.