| Doug Blankinship, AL!VE Board Member and Volunteer and Partnership Coordinator for the Bureau of Land Management’s Eastern States Office "There are two things that interest me: the relationship of people to their land and the relationship of people to each other." Aldo Leopold Since the first settlements in New England, Pennsylvania, and Virginia were established, volunteerism has been an old tree living in the American soil. This spirit of community service spread on its own accord and has been re-asserted, often by necessity, through each subsequent generation. Today, our Nation is blessed with a diverse array of people eager to learn about and to volunteer for service opportunities. These people often volunteer as individuals or as members of a youth, service, fraternal, senior or special interest group They share a desire for service opportunities that arechallenging and satisfying, and for experiences in which their time, talents, and hard work make a difference. What drives many of them to volunteer service is their motivation to contribute their skills and to demonstrate some form of leadership within their volunteer roles. Volunteer service. For many, these words evoke images of people helping others in structured settings such as schools, hospitals, and private homes. For volunteers in natural resources, the image is very different. Natural resource volunteers sound like people who help the land and wildlife by working on trails, providing backcountry patrols, and educating visitors on land and wildlife stewardship. While this is true, there is much more to it than that. Volunteers in land and wildlife agencies and entities donate their time for many reasons. Primary among them is the desire to give something back to the land, the place that they love. They feel a strong connection to the land at a visceral level. This sense of place is intrinsic in why people volunteer to give their time, sweat, and energy to a piece of land and the wild inhabitants of that land. Many volunteer conservation efforts start with a passion for a place to a person or a community. They also make a place significant to a person or group of people. People with a sense of place for natural or recreation areas not only enjoy being in that place, but can experience happiness by bringing to mind the memories of that special place. This emotional attachment makes it meaningful and worthy of protection. A developed sense of place can also help to maintain a region’s cultural heritage and strengthen relationships between land managers and volunteer land stewards. The characteristics of a place will stand a better chance of being preserved if partners and managers recognize them, believe in them, and take an active role in maintaining them. Historic sites, wildlife, and landscapes could benefit greatly from these actions. The passion that sense of place evokes in many natural resources volunteers also serves conservation programs well. Satisfied volunteers recruit many new volunteers for these programs. New volunteers have a chance to develop their sense of place for the land and pass this enthusiasm on to others. Agency staff can see the devotion and work that volunteers perform on the land, in board meetings, and at community events. The end result is sustainable partnerships that work well for everyone. Volunteers may start with a passion for a place, but the reasons they stay are because they believe in the importance of conservation work, they feel valued by the organization, they like what they do, and they enjoy working outdoors. Natural resource volunteer programs that can provide these opportunities and values by understanding a sense of place will have long-term and satisfied community partners. Across the nation people of all ages and backgrounds are eager to learn about and care for the environment. They are interested in action that makes a difference and are willing to work as a part of a group to provide meaningful conservation and restoration service. Conservation is an idea with roots deep in America’s relationship to the land. The early identification of parks, wildlife refuges, and waterways as part of a civic trust carried with it the understanding that all citizens would help shoulder the responsibility for caring for those areas. Americans have entrusted agencies to manage and conserve public and private lands in the best interest of everyone. However, the complexity and challenge of managing public and private land and cultural resources in the United States greatly exceeds the resources and capabilities of governmental agencies. Today’s conservation professionals, entrusted to manage America’s public and private natural and cultural resources, struggle to complete management tasks under the burden of having insufficient staff and funds. These professionals share a mandate to provide quality service, to maintain safe surroundings, to conserve natural and cultural resources, and to offer enjoyable outdoor experiences for visitors. Even the most dedicated staff needs volunteer assistance to complete this ever-growing list of tasks. These land managers cannot do this important work alone. We must engage different people to partner together for our wilderness areas, sea-bound rivers, parks, forests and other public places. To be able to locate volunteer opportunities quickly visit: WWW. Volunteer.gov America’s Natural and Cultural Resources Volunteer Portal. I had the privilege to administer for a decade. The Federal Interagency Team on Volunteerism (FITV), the intergovernmental volunteer program leads for a dozen federal agencies in four Cabinet level departments that sponsor the portal which will be redeployed soon with a new look and feel and improvements. Published: 02/10/13 |