MRNPA Re-Vegetation Work Party - This Saturday (Sept. 10th)!

Greetings,

The Mount Rainier National Park Associates annual meadow revegetation work party will take place at Sunrise this coming Saturday, September 10th. If plan on attending this work party and have not already contacted me, please contact MRNPA as soon as possible to let me that you are coming and the number of volunteers that you are bringing with you.

An update: My wife Jane and I were at Sunrise today. The sky was cloud free and the temperature was in the high 70s. The forecast is for this coming Saturday is for more of the same. So be sure to bring a sun hat, sunscreen, and plenty of fluids to drink.

Also noted: the wildflowers were putting on an amazing show of color for this late in the year. I don't think I have ever before seen so many flowers blooming at Sunrise.

John Titland
Volunteer Coordinator
Mount Rainier National Park Associates

MRNPA Work Party - September 10th

Received from Mount Rainier National Park Associates. To learn more about MRNPA or to sign up for this event, please visit their website.

Greetings Alpine Gardeners and Trail Work Volunteers,

The annual Mount Rainier National Park Associates alpine gardening work party will be Saturday, September 10th. That is the Saturday following the Labor Day weekend. We will again be planting wildflower seedlings near Sunrise, working to convert a historic campground area back into alpine meadows.

On the morning of September 10th, we will meet in the Sunrise parking lot between 8:30 and 9:00 AM. As you arrive at Sunrise, Jane and I will be parked on the far left (south) side of the parking lot. Please check in with us as soon as you arrive. We need to get a count and the names of all our volunteers. There may be volunteers from other organizations milling about, so look for us at the green-gray Subaru Outback Wagon surrounded by people who look like they know what is going on,

Be prepared for almost any fall weather. In the past we have experienced everything from warm and sunny days to a driving blizzard. In addition to your sun hat, sunscreen, and your rain gear, bring a lunch, plenty of fluids to drink, gardening gloves, and a hand digging tool you like. If you have no gardening tools, the park can provide small hand tools. You will be working on your hands and knees to do the planting, so you may want to bring a pad for your knees too. The work site is about a mile from the parking lot so plan on carrying everything you need to and from the work site.

We normally work until at least 3 PM.

There is no charge for volunteers to enter the Park. When you enter at the White River Entrance, tell the gate attendant that you will be doing volunteer work on the meadow restoration project at Sunrise.

If you would like to camp for free at the White River Campground the evening prior to or the evening of the work party (or both evenings) contact Will Arneson at Will_Arnesen@nps.gov soon. For free camping, he must make the arrangements well in advance of the scheduled date.

If you plan to join MRNPA on Saturday, Sept 10th, for this alpine gardening work party, please reply to this email confirming that you are coming and indicating the number of volunteers that you will bringing with you.

John Titland
Volunteer Coordinator
Mount Rainier National Park Associates


If you would like to volunteer to do planting at Mount Rainier but September 10th is not a convenient date, please consult the Mount Rainier website, http://www.nps.gov/mora/home.htm. Wildflower planting will be going on for several days.

MRNPA Exotic Plant Removal Work Party - July 9th

The next Mount Rainier National Park Associates work party will be Saturday, July 9th. The group will be working with Will Arneson's Ecological Restoration crew doing exotic plant removal (weeding). The project is to work along the Westside Road removing non-native plants that are invading the areas adjacent to roadway. The work area will be along the 3.5 miles of the Westside Road, from the Nisqually Road junction to the end at the Fish Creek parking lot.

To participate there is no need to know much about native plants. Will and his crew will teach you which plants to remove, and they will be able to identify for you all the native plants in the area. The Westside Road is not heavily traveled, so vehicle traffic will not be a problem. There will be no heavy tools (like shovels and pulaskis) to carry and work with. Because the group will be working along the road, you will not need to carry your pack. Packs will be transported to the lunch site.

Things you should bring are work gloves, a small digging tool like a hand trowel or your favorite gardening tool, your lunch, plenty of fluids to drink, and a full set of rain gear. Considering how this year has progressed so far, a warm jacket would be good to include. If you have a reflective safety vest, bring that too. All participants will be required to wear safety vests because we will be working along a road that is open to vehicle traffic.

Everyone will meet at 8:30 AM at the junction of the Westside Road and the Nisqually Road. (That is about a mile just inside the Nisqually Entrance to the park). Be ready to go to work by about 9:00 AM and expect to finish about 3:00 PM. Tell the ranger as you enter the park that you will be working on a volunteer project and you will be admitted to the park for free.

If you would like to camp for free in the park before or after (or both) participating in this work party, camping is available at the Longmire VIP campground. To camp for free you will need to make camping reservations by contacting Will Arneson at Will_Arnesen@nps.gov or by phone at 360-569-6762.

If you plan to attend this work party please fill out a Mount Rainier National Park Associates volunteer form indicating that you are coming and include the number of volunteers you expect to accompany you. An estimate for the number of volunteers so that the Park can be sure to have enough tools for everyone.

For more information visit www.mrnpa.org or contact John Titland (MRNPA's Volunteer Coordinator) at volunteer@mrnpa.org.

MRNPA Exotic Plant Removal Party Happening July 9th

The next Mount Rainier National Park Associates work party will be Saturday, July 9th.

They will be working with Will Arneson's Ecological Restoration crew doing exotic plant removal (weeding). The project is to work along the Westside Road removing non-native plants that are invading the areas adjacent to roadway. The work area will be along the 3.5 miles of the Westside Road, from the Nisqually Road junction to the end at the Fish Creek parking lot.

To participate there is no need to know much about native plants. Will and his crew will teach you which plants to remove, and they will be able to identify for you all the native plants in the area. The Westside Road is not heavily traveled, so vehicle traffic will not be a problem. There will be no heavy tools (like shovels and pulaskis) to carry and work with. Because we will working along the road, you will not need to carry your pack. We will get the packs transported to the lunch site.

Things you should bring are work gloves, a small digging tool like a hand trowel or your favorite gardening tool, your lunch, plenty of fluids to drink, and a full set of rain gear. Considering how this year has progressed so far, a warm jacket would be good to include. If you have a reflective safety vest, bring that too. We will be required to wear safety vests because we will be working along a road that is open to vehicle traffic.

Everyone will meet at 8:30 AM at the junction of the Westside Road and the Nisqually Road. (That is about a mile just inside the Nisqually Entrance to the park). Be ready to go to work by about 9:00 AM and expect to finish about 3:00 PM. Tell the ranger as you enter the park that you will be working on a volunteer project and you will be admitted to the park for free.

If you plan to attend the this work party, please complete a volunteer form at http://mrnpa.org/workprojectdetails.php or email John Titland (MRNPA's Volunteer Coordinator) at volunteer@mount-rainier.org.

If you would like to camp for free in the park before or after (or both) participating in this work party, camping is available at the Longmire VIP campground. To camp for free you will need to make camping reservations by contacting Will Arneson at Will_Arnesen@nps.gov or by phone at 360-569-6762.

John Titland
Volunteer Coordinator
Mount Rainier National Park Associates

Will Arnesen and Josh Drown receive 2010 NCR Co-Employee of the Year Award

Please help us in congratulating Will and Josh in receiving 2010 Natural and Cultural Resources Co-Employee of the Year Award who extend their thanks to all the volunteers that contribute their valuable time and efforts to their programs.
Will Arnesen is being recognized as the Natural and Cultural Resource (NCR) Division Co-Employee of the Year for 2010. Will directs the park’s field restoration operation and takes great pride in all aspects of the vegetation restoration program. He is a very accomplished at coordinating invasive non-native plant treatments by both the crew and the EPMT, native plant salvage and maintenance, and planting of both salvage and greenhouse produced native plant materials. In October 2009 he coordinated the completion of planting approximately 100,000 greenhouse plants and 5,000 contractor grown shrubs at Paradise, and this year will plant approximately 120,000 plants at Paradise and Sunrise. He is very dedicated to protecting the ecosystems of the park and maintenance of the salvage and greenhouse plantings through scheduling regular watering by the crew after initial planting. He has proven to be an excellent supervisor of a crew that is composed of personnel from various sources including seasonal hires, student hires, SCA’s, YCC’s and Japanese VIP’s. He also incorporates the efforts of various volunteer groups on weekends and specials events, including training for the ongoing efforts of volunteer meadow rovers. On National Public Lands Day he coordinated the efforts of over 150 volunteers in that one day. Since the previous restoration lead went on extended detail, Will has assumed leadership of the vegetation restoration crew without missing a beat. He purchases supplies and materials needed to support the operation, and documents those purchases to support management of the numerous accounts that fund the operation, including Paradise restoration, Sunrise restoration and several Federal Highways projects. Will also routinely presents vegetation of the park and restoration program information to both internal and external groups, such as seasonal interpreters and Elderhostel.

Josh Drown is being recognized as the Natural and Cultural Resource (NCR) Division Co-Employee of the Year for 2010. Josh manages the park’s horticultural operation and takes great pride in the production of native plants for the vegetation restoration program. He is a very accomplished at coordinating seed collection and cleaning, stratification and propagation, care of containerized plants and subsequent transplanting. In October 2009 he completed production and delivery of approximately 100,000 greenhouse plants to the Paradise restoration site, and this year is in process of production of another 120,000 plants: 80,000 plants for Paradise and 40,000 plants for Sunrise. He is very dedicated to the nurturing of the seedlings and plants by tending to the watering and climate control of the greenhouse. He will come in on weekends or holidays before seasonal staff have come on duty or when they are otherwise unavailable to provide plant care and facility maintenance. Since the retirement of the previous horticulturist, Josh has assumed management of the greenhouse without missing a beat. He purchases supplies and materials needed to support the operation and maintain the facilities, and documents those purchases to support management of the numerous accounts that fund the operation, including Paradise restoration, Sunrise restoration and several Federal Highways projects. Josh routinely assists other staff in the operation of the park’s air quality monitoring station at Tahoma Woods, and directs the mowing of the meadows adjacent to the greenhouse to reduce the potential of invasive plants to contaminate the native plant materials used for restoration.

Will and Josh are hard-working employees and well respected by their staff, peers and all NCR personnel. Will and Josh are to be commended for their excellent technical skills and dedication to resource protection. Their work in the vegetation restoration program compliments each other and they are both very deserving of this award.

Thank you, planters!!

Sounds like last weekend was another successful one at Paradise for the planting crews. I got this note from Restoration Ecologist Will Arnesen:

Last weekend was once again very successful. Weather was pretty harsh but we had an awesome set of volunteers who weathered out the day until near 4:00 PM. The end result was alot of happy volunteers and about 10,000 plants put into the ground. It was a great day, in spite of the weather.

Our goal was to plant 130,000 plants in a single month, and with the help of hundreds of individual and group volunteers, we are now within reach of achieving that goal by the end of our regular park planting crew's season. It is a huge understatement to say that that would NOT have been possible without the help of our dedicated volunteers. THANK YOU!

And be sure to come back next summer to check out how natural the landscaping at the lower parking lot looks thanks to your efforts!

Make that 180+ volunteers... and 29,500 plants!

We're still gathering statistics from National Public Lands Day, which is a little more complicated than usual this year because we had projects in three different locations (Longmire, Paradise, and Glacier Basin), and I'm still waiting for final numbers from the crew leaders. But I spoke with Will Arnesen at Paradise yesterday and he confirmed that at that site alone, 151 people had signed in, and that those 151 volunteers had planted 29,500 plants! Those are amazing numbers, folks! We've never had a volunteer project in the history of this park, so far as we know, that has attracted so many people all at once.

And if there were any project that needed that much effort, it was (is) the planting project at Paradise! We have a total of 130,000 plants to put into the ground this fall before snow drives us out of Paradise. We're obviously not going to accomplish that in one weekend, but we're also not going to manage it with only our full-time park planting crew. Together, we can get it done!

We have Middle School students coming up this week, if the weather doesn't drive them away, and REI employees next weekend. Saturday October 3 is an open planting day for anyone who wants to help! Will even has tents coming this week that will allow his crew--and any intrepid volunteers--to keep planting even if it snows. (It'll be in-tents!) We'll hope for weather as nice as last weekend. But if the weather's poor, dress warmly, bring hot cocoa, wear gloves--but still come. The plants have to get into the ground!

Meanwhile, THANK YOU to all of you who participated on National Public Lands Day. We had at least 30 people on the Bench Lake and Fourth Crossing trails and in the Longmire Campground, and probably a few dozen over at Glacier Basin, so that's more than 200 of you parkwide. You guys are awesome!

Groups needed for native planting in September and October

One of our best opportunities for group volunteering at Mount Rainier National Park is now on the calendar!

This fall, construction crews will finish preparing the site of the former Jackson Visitor Center for restoration. Between mid-September and mid-October, we will be working on putting as many as possible of 140,000 plants into the ground to revegetate the former visitor center site before winter sets in. Volunteer assistance is essential!

The leader for this project is Will Arnesen, Mount Rainier's Restoration Ecologist, who can be contacted at 360-569-2211 ext. 3374 or Will_Arnesen@nps.gov. Or, write to the Volunteer Program Manager at Kevin_Bacher@nps.gov, or call the volunteer office at 360-569-2211 ext. 3385, to express your interest.

Available dates currently include three Saturdays and Sundays in September and October. Saturdays are best for our crews but if Sundays are better for you, we'll be here to help:

September 19
September 20
September 26
September 27
October 3
October 4

Will says "I can use all and any help. We have around 140,000 plants to put in the ground and the more hands the better. The site will be at the lower parking lot and will have easy access and lots of room for people."

For any date when a group has signed up, individual "drop-in" volunteers will be welcome to come and help as well. So far, REI Adventures has signed up for October 3rd, and September 26 is National Public Lands Day, so even if you're not part of an organized group yourself, put those dates on your calendar and plan to come up with your gloves, knee pads, sunscreen, and green thumb! We hope to see you there!

70,130!

I've just posted our Annual Activity and Expense Report for fiscal year 2008, which I finally completed yesterday after a couple of weeks submerged in data. THANK YOU to volunteer Sharon Wilhelm for helping me to sort out and enter about 700 records of volunteer hours into my database, along with hundreds of volunteer agreement forms!

The bottom line: our total number of volunteer hours for this year is 70,130, which is down from last year's 84,038 but still up significantly from the previous year's 43,844. Furthermore, our total number of volunteers is up--from 1,724 last year to 1,837 this year (it was only 924 in FY06). Very exciting! So, what's behind the changes? I've spent a lot of time yesterday and today going over the data. Here's some of the story behind the numbers:

Individual and Group Volunteers
First, a further breakdown of the total: Those 1,837 volunteers include 424 individuals and another 1,413 people who participated as part of organized groups. I try hard not to duplicate numbers. For instance, if John Doe volunteers individually as a Meadow Rover, but also works on a project sponsored by the Mount Rainier National Park Associates, I enter his hours individually and do not count him as a "new" volunteer through MRNPA. Obviously it's just not possible to cross-check every single name in every single case, so there are probably some people among the 1,413 who were double-counted. But every year I make an effort to avoid this, so the numbers should be close, and you should be able to make accurate comparisons from year to year. I also keep a list of the names of group members for which I have contact information, which further helps me to weed out duplicates.

The 424 individuals is about double what I had on my roles before the flood. This list contains everyone who actively participated as a volunteer in either FY07 or FY08. 281 were active in 2008, which is about 50% more active volunteers, with confirmed volunteer hours this year, than I had in my entire database in 2006. The other 143 names are people who were active "in the field" in 2007 but not in 2008 (but whom we hope will return in 2009!). Anyone who was inactive in both 2007 and 2008 has been removed from the roles and is not counted. [Added 3pm:] (Worth noting: Last year we had 1,412 group volunteers--almost exactly the same as this year--but only 312 individuals. That means that well over a hundred of this year's individual volunteers are brand new, and volunteering as individuals for the first time.)

I track groups in my database the same way: once they're inactive for two years running, they're removed from the list. I have 59 groups who participated either this year or last. However, I only count group members who were active this year in this year's total of 1,413 volunteers. Many of these groups have been featured on this blog over the past several months; they include employee associations, environmental groups, Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, schools, and other organizations. Champion among them this year was the Washington Trails Association, which was responsible for bringing 336 volunteers to Mount Rainier this year for a total of 3,648 hours of service on the ground (not counting travel and administrative time); and, of course, the Student Conservation Association's Mount Rainier Recovery Initiative, which accounted for 3,871 public volunteer hours and 657 volunteers on 107 different projects--plus another 2,126 hours of volunteer training sponsored by a grant from Boeing.

So, that explains this year's numbers and where they came from. Buy why were our volunteer hours down from last year? Put more positively, why were they still up so dramatically over 2006, despite the lack of urgency caused by the flood? Why were our number of volunteers up even though our total hours were down? Read on:

Where our numbers were down

• The largest drop in volunteer numbers was in the area of trail repair. Last year we recorded a whopping 36,058 hours of trail repair by 998 volunteers, all in response to the immense need caused by the floods of November 2006. This year we had fewer flood projects with less urgency, and did not work with as many outside volunteer groups like the Tacoma Urban League to get the work done. We had fewer Conservation Leadership Corps groups as well. Even WTA's total hours in the park were down from 2007, though they worked with more individuals. All told, this year's reported trail hours were 16,816, involving 658 people.
  
• Flood recovery hours were down in other areas as well. The Mount Rainier Recovery Corps was smaller this year and logged fewer hours in the field, though they more than made up for it with training hours (see below). Campground maintenance hours dropped from 1,547 to 538--there was just less work this year that needed to be done.
  
• Hours were down in the areas of frontcountry and wilderness patrol, mostly because we hired fewer Student Conservation Association volunteers this year. Total hours were down from 8,545 to 5,636.
  
• The hours reported by our greenhouse and exotic plant control programs were also down due to hiring fewer SCA interns. This not only eliminated the hours reported by the interns themselves, but also limited these programs' capacities for working with public volunteers. Greenhouse hours dropped from 1,446 to 346, and without an Exotic Plant Control team, those numbers dropped from 2,460 to 210. The numbers, however, were offset by large increases in the areas of revegetation and seed collection (see below).
  
• Campground Host hours dropped from 2,136 to 1,242. This was in large part due to the lack of full-time hosts at Ohanapecosh this year, caused by problems with hazard trees around the campground host site. We're pleased that this problem has now been corrected, and we are currently recruiting for campground hosts at both Cougar Rock and Ohanapecosh next summer.
  
• Our climbing program has relied on volunteers for years. Due to lack of funding, the program was much smaller this year, and their volunteer numbers reflected it. Climbing volunteer hours were down from 3,076 to 840.

Each of these programs is an area for growth in the coming year. There's no getting around the importance of having someone dedicated to recruiting and working with public volunteers in park programs. We'll be working hard on finding ways to make volunteer recruitment and supervision a priority in every part of the park's operation, and may be recruiting volunteers or interns to help with this process. Stay tuned.

Where our numbers were up

Despite losses in some programs, others made up for it, especially in numbers of volunteers:

• Nordic Patrol was back! The Washington Ski Touring Club was effectively banished throughout the winter of 2006-07 because park roads were closed by flood damage. They only logged 160 hours that winter. Last year they were back in force with 1,124 hours, and they're already polishing their skis for this winter.
  
• The park's curatorial program increased its volunteer hours from 1,157 to 4,773, with a large increase in their number of active volunteers. Curator Brooke Childrey has secured funding to continue her highly successful work with volunteers in 2009. Watch for volunteer position advertisements!
  
• The interpretation programs at Ohanapecosh, Paradise, and Sunrise all increased their numbers: from 612 to 1,389 at Ohanapecosh; from 1,797 to 2,551 at Paradise; and from 573 to 838 at Sunrise--all without increasing their number of full-time interns hired through the Student Conservation Association. Rangers at Paradise worked with volunteers and a professor on sabbatical from Ball State University to staff the information desk, provide interpretation on park shuttle buses, and conduct research. At Ohanapecosh, east district interpreter Julia Pinnix had volunteers doing everything from trail and campground patrol to sorting photographic slides. A "Jr. Ranger Ambassador" further increased our numbers while drafting a new Junior Ranger handbook.
  
• Meadow Rover numbers were also up dramatically yet again: from 3,329 to 4,666--notably, with about the same number of active participants. Many of these individuals were new to the program last year and have continued serving this year.
  
• Natural Resources Field Projects were some of our greatest successes this year, with an increase in participation from 1 person to 37 and a corresponding increase in volunteer hours from 110 to 3,144. Public volunteers and inters from Evergreen State College helped with soundscape monitoring, amphibian surveys, and other projects, and program manager Barbara Samora is already working on ideas to continue and expand these programs next year, with the help of partnerships and funding grants.
  
• The revegetation and seed collection programs both reported increased participation, with individuals at the helm--Sara Koenig and Will Arnesen--who were dedicated to working with volunteers. Reveg worked with 68 volunteers in 2007 who contributed 934 hours. This year, 280 volunteers contributed 3,200 hours. This includes an increase in the number of volunteer groups we worked with from 4 to 10. Seed collection participation was up from 259 hours by 25 people in 2007, to 514 hours by 72 people in 2008, including four groups.
  
• Geomorphologist Paul Kennard made excellent use of volunteer partnerships to increase volunteer participation in stream survey efforts from 100 hours by 2 people in 2007 to 1,840 hours by 9 people in 2008. These numbers included help from three interns: two from SCA and one from the Geological Society of America.
  
• The archeology program, under Greg Burtchard, increased its volunteer hours from 243 to 1,407, in large part by working very effectively with a class from PLU.
  
• Finally, let's not forget training! Through a grant from Boeing, SCA offered several valuable training courses this summer, including Wilderness First Aid, Wilderness First Responder, and Crosscut Saw certification. These courses were wildly popular and were attended by 71 people, who gained skills that will help them personally and will also make them more effective volunteers. Based on this year's experience, we'll try to continue offering high quality training in the future as "professional development" opportunities for our volunteers.

Next up: figuring out how to hold on to these gains in volunteer participation, and replicate them throughout our program. Our goal: to work in partnership with volunteers on an ongoing basis in stewardship of our national park!