Preserve Stewards Needed
ORGANIZATION: Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy
Please visit the new page to apply.
ABOUT
Each and every time a piece of land is protected by the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, long term stewardship is involved. It’s an extremely important, ever-expanding and never-ending part of protecting treasured natural features across the five county region. GTRLC owns and maintains 45 Nature Preserves encompassing over 10,000 acres of protected land under our management and the number keeps growing! Because of the expansive nature of the preserves, staff cannot singlehandedly care for them. We need your help to clear trails, maintain signage, monitor plants and wildlife and be our eyes and ears on the ground!
RESPONSIBILITIES/DUTIES
Each Nature Preserve will require different specific tasks, but in general, Preserve Stewards will be required to:
- Visit their chosen Nature Preserve on a regular basis (every ~2 weeks)
- Submit monitoring report forms to document the condition of the Preserve
- Clear the trail corridor with saws and pruners (optional)
- Notify staff of any disturbances that require further attention
Where
Volunteer Preserve Stewards are needed across our entire five county service area on all of our Nature Preserves. Many volunteers choose one property they return to time and again, while others prefer to roam our service area visiting multiple preserves.
When
We believe that any time you choose to contribute to improving the health and condition of our Preserves or elsewhere is invaluable, and you may volunteer as much as your schedule allows. Preserve Stewardship allows you to volunteer when it works for your schedule, though we ask volunteers to visit their preserve once every ~2 weeks to trim vegetation on the trail and submit a Preserve condition report.
TRAINING
We will be hosting several training opportunities throughout the year to educate volunteers on how to properly monitor and care for our Nature Preserves.
Please reach out to Jon Throop at jthroop@gtrlc.org for training dates, or to be paired with a staff member or volunteer to provide 1 - 1 training.
If you’re excited to learn about and help us maintain our Nature Preserves, sign up to be a volunteer today!
More opportunities with Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy
No additional volunteer opportunities at this time.
About Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy
Location:
2846 3 Mile Rd N, Traverse City, MI 49686, US
Mission Statement
Protecting significant natural, scenic, and farm lands - and advancing stewardship -- now and for future generations.
Description
With the support of landowners, individual donors, foundations and volunteers and the partnership of local, state, and federal agencies, the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy has protected more than 44,000 acres of land and over 140 miles of shoreline along the region’s exceptional rivers, lakes and streams. Since 1991, the Conservancy has diligently carried out its mission to protect natural, scenic, and farm lands - and advance land stewardship - now and for future generations.
We focus our land conservation efforts to permanently protect critical watersheds, high-quality farmland, valuable forest land and ecologically significant dunes along Lake Michigan’s beautiful and endangered shore. This work protects water quality, safeguards critical wildlife habitat, helps ensure the future viability of farming in our region and protects the viewsheds that make our region so breathtaking.
To date, the Conservancy has protected and directly manages over 46,000 acres of natural land held open to the public throughout our five-county service area - a feat we cannot accomplish without our incredible volunteer colleagues.
CAUSE AREAS
WHEN
WHERE
3860 N Long Lake Road Suite DTraverse City, MI 49684
DATE POSTED
April 19, 2021
SKILLS
GOOD FOR
- People 55+
REQUIREMENTS
- Orientation or Training
- Each Nature Preserve will require different specific tasks, but in general, the ideal Preserve Steward is able to regularly visit our Nature Preserves (every ~2 weeks) and is physically capable to hike the trail systems and prune vegetation.