VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

​Thank you for your interest in volunteering your time to help us out!  It's because of folks like you that we're able to take good care of this special place.  Our main volunteer opportunities are oriented toward Land Stewardship, but we are a small staff and could likely use your help with any skills you have to offer!  If nothing here fits your skillset, feel free to reach out to us with other ideas.

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We have two primary ways to get involved:​

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Trail Stewardship

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We're a proud partner of Burlington Wildways, and you can join us on our trails by becoming a Trail Steward through their website. Trail Stewards help care for our trails while out on the walks they already love to take.  Some examples of this include: reporting issues through an app, picking up trash, keeping paths clear, and talking to other visitors about best practices.  There are many spots around the city where you can volunteer.  All it takes is a half hour online training and an in person orientation!  Sign up and get started at the link below:

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Become a Rock Point Trail Steward

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Weekly Land Stewardship

Every Wednesday afternoon - sign up here

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Want to get your hands dirty with us?  Join other volunteers any Wednesday for weekly projects around the property.  2-4pm is our Winter 2022-2023 time, and this will shift to 3-5pm as the days get longer.  Let us know you plan to come by signing up here!  If this time doesn't ever work for you, or you just want to work more independently, reach out and we'll help you get involved. 

 

 

Below are examples of the kind of work that we need help with:

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Meadow Restoration – All season

Purpose – habitat diversity

Description – We have several meadow areas around the property that are in various stages of re-foresting.  We value the biodiversity that these meadows support, so we’re working to restore them to an easily maintainable state.  This means removing invasive species and some young trees and shrubs, so the area is mowable on a biennial basis.

Tasks – Cutting trees and shrubs with power tools, moving debris into piles

 

"Invasive" Plant Removal

Purpose – protecting native biodiversity, putting these plants to good use when possible

Description – Like many natural areas, Rock Point has many non-native invasive species established here.  These species can rapidly outcompete native ones with certain advantages they bring, and they don't have the checks on their populations that native ones have developed over thousands of years of co-evolution.  Over time, this can dramatically reduce biodiversity and the health of the ecosystem.  Though complete eradication of an invasive species is often unrealistic, making their introduction more gradual is possible by removing and stressing individual plants.

Tasks – cutting plants and digging up roots, often at strategic times of year; processing plants into food, medicine, or other uses when possible

 

Trail Stewardship – All season

Purpose – care for the two miles of public trails at Rock Point and the surrounding ecosystems

Description – Rock Point Trail Stewards help us take care of the trail system by reporting issues through an app, performing basic maintenance, and talking to other visitors

Tasks – walking the trails regularly, reporting issues through an app, sweeping stone steps, clipping plants that are growing into the trail, covering up social trails, informing visitors who aren’t following guidelines

 

Gardens and Homesteading Projects

Purpose – grow and preserve food for ourselves and our community, and create educational opportunities

Description – There are many garden and homesteading projects around the property that provide opportunities for volunteers to learn new skills and to take leadership roles.

Existing Tasks – mulching, weeding, planting, pruning fruit trees, bee keeping, maple sugaring, harvesting and preserving

Potential future projects – building fences, building a goat pen, building a composting toilet, creating new garden beds

 

Other Opportunities

• Educators!  We are working to develop more educational programming in 2023 and would love to discuss ideas with you

• Chuck, our groundskeeper, has a never-ending list of important tasks and fun project ideas

• If there’s nothing here that interests you, but you’d still like to get involved, let us know!  We usually have more going on than is listed here, but they may be smaller projects or require different skills

• If you have a new idea not listed here, let us know!

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Join our Volunteer Contact List

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​If you're not looking to participate in day-to-day projects, but would like to be kept in the loop about bigger volunteer pushes, let us know by e-mail below!

rockpointcenter@diovermont.org

 

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