Category Archives: environmental volunteers

environmental volunteers, grey seals, Horsey Village, Robert Barossi

Volunteers Protecting Grey Seals

September 16, 2015 Rob Leave a comment

(Photo by Amanda Boyd, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

by Robert Barossi

As animals live their lives, migrating, feeding, breeding, etc., they come into frequent, if not constant, contact with us humans. And we are often the ones who have to protect the animals from ourselves. This story out of Horsey Village, in Norfolk County, England, demonstrates how environmental volunteers are working to protect a colony of grey seals along the Horsey coast. As the seals come ashore, up to 500 of them, according to the article, volunteers will work to keep onlookers from interfering with the seals. The volunteer effort, led by Friends of Horsey Seals, will also include educating the public about the seals and the dangers of disturbing their natural and necessary activity on the beach.

If you have enjoyed the stories on this blog, download my eBook – Being Where You Are: How Environmental Volunteers Impact Their Community and the Planet Every Day. Available at the following links.

bird monitoring, birds of prey, environmental volunteers, Robert Barossi, Uncategorized

Volunteers and Birds of Prey

September 12, 2015 Rob Leave a comment

(Photo by Robert Barossi)

by Robert Barossi

Two fantastic volunteers stories this morning, both detailing how volunteers are playing an essential role in monitoring and protecting birds of prey.

The first story comes from the east coast, where volunteers in Delaware are counting hawks. Over the fall months, volunteers will take place in a “Hawk Watch,” where they will spend time at monitoring stations, watching and recording the many hawks who fly by as they migrate south. The volunteers have, over the years, observed 18 different hawk species and have collected data which helps local experts “better understand the timing, movement and behavior of these birds as they pass over Delaware,” according to the article.

Three thousand miles away, on the west coast, volunteers in this second story are doing a similar kind of work for another important bird species. As this story from the San Fransisco area details, volunteers are an integral part in the ongoing recovery of the California condor. The volunteers take part in many tracking and monitoring activities related to these birds who have made a comeback but still need more of our help to continue thriving. That help will come largely from environmental volunteers and their efforts.

If you have enjoyed the stories on this site, download my eBook – Being Where You Are: How Environmental Volunteers Impact Their Community and the Planet Every Day. Available at the following links:

environmental volunteers, Robert Barossi, trail stewards, Uncategorized, wilderness volunteers

Volunteers in the Wilderness

September 9, 2015 Rob Leave a comment

(Photo by Robert Barossi)

by Robert Barossi

Environmental volunteers do their work in every kind of natural setting. Some are on boats out on the open seas. Others are in canoes on tiny lakes and ponds. Some are in wide open fields and meadows. While still others are deep in the heart of dense wilderness, like the volunteers who participated in this effort to clear trails in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. This enormous area of wilderness, 1.3 million acres of land, spans parts of Idaho and Montana, with roughly 1,800 miles of trails winding through it. Two different groups of volunteers were brought in for the trail work, one led by the American Hiking Society and the other by the Sierra Club, both hosted by the Selway-Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation. The article quotes the Foundation’s program director, Coby Gierke, who says, in part, “The issues that we face here are not that much different from other wilderness areas. After experiencing it for themselves, they [the volunteers] become great stewards and help tell this story nationally.” Hopefully, they will do just that and continue to do this kind of work in whatever wilderness surrounds them, no matter where they live.

If you enjoyed any of the stories on this blog, download my eBook – Being Where You Are: How Environmental Volunteers Impact Their Community and the Planet Every Day. Available at the following links:

citizen science, environmental volunteers, Robert Barossi, water monitoring

Volunteers in the Water

September 4, 2015 Rob 1 Comment

(Photo by Robert Barossi)

by Robert Barossi

Bodies of water all over the world are in need of regular monitoring to ensure the health of the natural ecosystem as well as the humans who live in the local watershed. In countless places, it’s environmental volunteers who do the monitoring. This story, out of Delaware, features a volunteer team who are a prime example of the kind of work these citizen scientists are doing. They offer a great example of not just the kind of work, but how it benefits both them and the organizations they volunteer for. Check out this link for more info on the University of Delaware’s Citizen Monitoring Program and all of the work being done by their dedicated volunteers.

If you have enjoyed the stories on this blog, download my eBook – Being Where You Are: How Environmental Volunteers Impact Their Community and the Planet Every Day. Available at the following links:

environmental volunteers, Newport, recycling, Robert Barossi

Volunteer Shell Game

August 31, 2015 Rob Leave a comment

(photo by Robert Barossi)

by Robert Barossi

There are a number of great things happening in this story out of Newport, Rhode Island (which happens to also be one of my favorite places). In that city by the sea, there’s an ongoing effort led by the Nature Conservancy to restore oyster beds in coastal ponds and estuaries. All by itself, that’s a fantastic thing, as it will go a long way towards improving and restoring those fragile and important ecosystems. Also great is that the effort involves a number of local businesses, restaurants who are donating oyster shells to the Conservancy. This group of restaurants is donating thousands of pounds of used oyster shells which the Conservancy, along with its volunteers, will return to the shoreline. It’s another exciting example of environmental organizations, volunteers and area businesses working together to preserve and protect the local natural habitat.

If you’ve enjoyed any of the stories on this blog, download my eBook – Being Where You Are: How Environmental Volunteers Impact Their Community and the Planet Every Day. Available at the following links:

environmental volunteers, invasive species, Michigan, Robert Barossi

Volunteers Keep the Invasives Out

August 7, 2015 Rob Leave a comment

(Photo by Robert Barossi)

by Robert Barossi

People have already started to say that “summer is almost over,” but I’m not ready to go there just yet. It’s still the middle of summer in my mind, the perfect time to be having summer adventures and vacations. One of the most popular activities during the summer is taking the boat out to the local lakes and rivers. When people take their boats far from home, to more distant bodies of water, this can become a serious problem. Invasive species can hitch a ride on those boats and travel with them to other lakes and rivers, finding new homes there. When they do, they can disrupt and even take over ecosystems, with potentially disastrous results. To prevent this from happening, many boat launches host volunteers who work to remove invasive species before the boats hit the water. This story out of Michigan is just one example of how volunteers are working to keep invasive species off the boats and out of the water. There are numerous programs like this, from the Clean Boats, Clean Waters program in Wisconsin to the GREAT Boaters Program in Rhode Island. All of these efforts, with volunteers at the forefront, go a long way towards reducing the potential for serious ecological problems caused by invasive species.

If you’ve enjoyed the stories on this blog, download my eBook – Being Where You Are: How Environmental Volunteers Impact Their Community and the Planet Every Day. Available at the following retailers:

environmental volunteers, park rangers, Robert Barossi

Volunteers Working with Rangers

July 31, 2015 Rob Leave a comment

by Robert Barossi

I found out this morning that today is World Ranger Day. Along with environmental volunteers, Park Rangers are on the front lines of conservation efforts around the world. Rangers do a wide variety of jobs, including many tasks which are directly related to environmental protection and preservation. They are often, if not always, the ones who train and lead the volunteers who work alongside them.

There are numerous examples of volunteers and rangers working together. Here are just a few of them that popped up this morning: In Wyoming, both volunteers and rangers work to keep people using the parks safe. In Tennessee, volunteers are working alongside rangers to remove invasive species. The same kind of work is happening in Great Britain. A volunteer in this story from North Carolina notes that the volunteers support and assist the rangers by doing “necessary work that the park rangers don’t have time to accomplish.” And on the Delaware River, rangers and volunteers worked side-by-side to clean up the river during a large annual cleanup event.

If you’ve enjoyed the stories on this blog, download my eBook – Being Where You Are: How Environmental Volunteers Impact Their Community and the Planet Every Day. Available at the following links –

environmental volunteers, Robert Barossi, tral maintenance

Summertime Volunteer Trail Work

July 29, 2015 Rob 1 Comment

(Photo by Robert Barossi)

by Robert Barossi

Summer is prime time for environmental organizations and agencies to work on maintaining wilderness trails. Warmer and drier weather gives them a chance to improve existing trails for walking, hiking and biking, and to build new ones. It’s often volunteers who do most, if not all, of this work. Today, a few stories of volunteer trail work:

Truckee Trails Foundation is hosting work days where volunteers are getting out and working on a number of local trails in the Lake Tahoe area.

In Boise, the Idaho Trails Association is leading crews of volunteers into the forest to clear trails of fallen trees and other debris.

And in western Pennsylvania, a number of different organization are involved in the maintenance of hundreds of miles of trails, with the help of many dedicated volunteers who put in thousands of hours of work. “If it wasn’t for volunteers, there wouldn’t be a trail system,” says Chris Ziegler, president of the Butler-Freeport Community Trail Council, who is quoted in the article. “Every time a tree is down, it’s a volunteer that goes out and takes care of it.”

That is no doubt true of all of these trail systems and thousands more like them all over the world.

Australia, Cayman Islands, citizen science, coral reefs, environmental volunteers, Florida

Volunteering for Coral Reefs

July 17, 2015 Rob Leave a comment

(Photo by Robert Barossi)

by Robert Barossi

There are some mixed and unconfirmed reports this morning about a possible oil spill in the Great Barrier Reef. Hopefully, it won’t turn out to be a major spill that’s devastating to the Reef. Coral reefs are just one of the many types of fragile ecosystems that need so much protection and preservation, especially in our overdeveloped and continuously developing, and changing, world. So, this morning, a few stories about how some people are volunteering to help out reefs in their area. In Australia, a group called UniDive has won the 2015 Healthy Waterways award for their work as citizen scientists. In over 500 dives, the divers collected large amounts of invaluable data on the local reefs and their diverse ecosystems. In the Caymans, a filmmaker has volunteered his time to make a documentary film about a threatened local reef. The film may go a long way toward educating people about a reef in the area where a cruise ship berthing facility is proposed. And in Florida, wounded and disabled veterans are helping to restore coral along the coast. The veterans are working with the organization Diveheart and Nova Southeastern University to rehabilitate and restore coral heavily damaged by many factors, including pollution and boats.

If you’ve enjoyed the stories on this blog, download my eBook – Being Where You Are: How Environmental Volunteers Impact Their Community and the Planet Every Day

bird watching, Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area, environmental volunteers, Missouri, Robert Barossi

Volunteer Bird Watching

July 13, 2015 Rob Leave a comment

Image courtesy of James Barker at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

by Robert Barossi

Sitting at my computer, looking out the window behind my desk, I couldn’t help but notice a robin bouncing around on the grass in my backyard. I watched him for a few moments as he puttered around and then took off, flying to a nearby tree at the edge of the woods. I decided that must be a sign that it’s time to post a bird-related volunteer story. This one, out of Missouri, was one of the first that I came across and one that I instantly liked. I liked it because it’s got some great photos of both birds and environmental volunteers working hard while enjoying something their passionate about: bird watching. The husband and wife team, Brad and Suzanne Wright, are Boone’s Lick Master Naturalists as volunteers for the Missouri Department of Conservation and are shown in the story doing some bird counting at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area.

If you’ve enjoyed the stories on this blog, download my eBook – Being Where You Are: How Environmental Volunteers Impact Their Community and the Planet Every Day

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Telling the Stories of Environmental Volunteers