Little Traverse Conservancy
Volunteer
You Make the Difference
Our volunteers look for meaning and purpose through action. They offer their energy on cold days, expertise on challenging engineering projects, and a positive attitude when the bugs bite.
Their efforts allow us to conserve and restore landscapes and maintain miles of trails for the community to enjoy. They are the heartbeat of our mission. Your support as a volunteer will leave a lasting impact on our landscape and our community.
Ways You Can Help
Great for families, Citizen Science efforts enable us to learn what is on the land and what we are protecting. Whether you have special skills in birding, plant or wildlife identification, carpentry, or want to learn a new skill, you can get involved on your own time, in your way. Volunteer opportunities include:
- Vernal Pool Monitoring
- Forest Health Surveying
- American Kestrel Nest Box Monitoring
- Bird or Bat Surveying
- Native Seed Collecting
Or you can host a work party or BioBlitz at a preserve you love and want to take care of. Bring us your passion, ideas, family, and friends, and we can put you to work!
Be our eyes on the ground and feet on the trail. These volunteers commit to a long-term role to care for a particular nature preserve or working forest reserve. They often visit the property throughout the year, clearing trails and walking off track along remote boundary lines.
They clean up trash along roadsides, maintain logo signs, and repair anything on the ground that needs TLC. They report back to us twice a year and let us know when a property needs staff attention. We are currently looking to fill this volunteer position at several preserves throughout our service area.
Already a Land Steward? Tell us what you saw out there.
Our Thursday volunteer group helps with fieldwork at our properties, from trail clearing and building boardwalks to invasive plant removal. This group really will do anything. Join us if you want to meet new people and laugh a lot!
Each October, the Independence Hunt is organized by Operation Injured Soldiers. This weekend is an opportunity for veterans and those with disabilities to participate in a guided hunting experience on private land (including Little Traverse Conservancy properties).
With your help, these men and women can have access to the outdoors that they love — and need — and will also provide a deer-camp experience where these hunters can relax, socialize, and recharge. We are looking for experienced hunters to guide a disabled veteran on a Little Traverse Conservancy nature preserve.
If you would like to help in another way, we are looking for donations to help fund travel expenses and deer processing fees for these hunters. Your tax-deductible gift will allow these handi-capable hunters to get outdoors and do something they dearly love and have selflessly earned.
Occasionally we host work days to build trails, boardwalks, parking areas or similar work. We will add you to our email list to be notified as these arise.
Want to help out in the education department or lead a community field trip? Can you help distribute our publications and maps? Or do you have a particular skill you’d like to share? We’d love to hear more. Give us a call or click on the Volunteer button above, and we will contact you.
Want to help your neighborhood and your community look a little nicer? Join us by adopting a nature preserve roadside. It can be a great way to involve the family and teach them about taking care of their community. Add it to your daily walk and contribute to our mission without taking much time from your day.
July 6 – 10, 2021
In a time when climate change is a concern and the natural world is changing around us, people are working together worldwide to help protect biodiversity. You can join Little Traverse Conservancy in our effort to learn more about what lives on and in our protected properties by participating in a week-long BioBlitz.
We value documenting what creatures live on and use our lands through iNaturalist, an online, crowd-sourced species identification system. Some of our preserves and reserves have very few iNaturalist observations, so we challenge you to explore those lands and help us build more biodiversity observations. Prizes will be awarded for most flora or fauna species on iNaturalist at the end of the week.
1. Pick a property to explore. Go to Little Traverse Conservancy’s iNaturalist page to see the projects for all of our properties. iNaturalist. Click ‘View More’ under ‘Leaderboard’ to scroll towards the bottom and pick a property with only a few observations.
2. Visit the property at your convenience during the week of July 6th – 10th to look for plants, fungi, insects, birds, and more to document with a photograph.
3. Take high-quality photos, the more in focus and up close, the better. If you can get some from different angles, even better.
4. Upload your photos directly using the iNaturalist app or upload them back home from your camera to the website. You don’t need to know what you saw; the community will help you out. Helpful Tutorials.
5. Repeat at a different preserve and help others identify their observations on iNaturalist.
6. Species totals will be tallied one week after the close of the event (7/17).
7. Lastly, make sure to click the “Join” button in the upper right-hand corner of Little Traverse Conservancy’s iNaturalist page to stay connected!
Volunteer Stories
Our volunteers tell their stories and why they value nature, wildlife, and protecting northern Michigan.
