2016 Annual Activity and Expense Report

Department of the Interior

National Park Service

Volunteers In Parks

Annual Activity and Expense Report

Mount Rainier National Park

Report Date: Nov 22, 2016

Fiscal Year: 2016 

   

Volunteer Coordinator and Park Information 

Total Volunteers: 2,154

Alpha Code: MORA

VIP Coordinator: Kevin Bacher

VIP Coordinator Phone: 360-569-2211

Coordinator Email: kevin_bacher@nps.gov 

   

Volunteer hours by category: 

 

Administration:  850.50

Campground Host:  2,761.50

Cultural Resource Management:  4,878.75

General Management:  369.00

Interpretation:  11,868.00

Maintenance:  26,834.80

Natural Resource Management:  11,740.20

Protection/Operations/Law Enforcement:  8,672.20

Training:  1,676.50

   

[Total hours: 69,651.45]

Hours no longer counted as volunteers:

Student Conservation Association Interns: 8,674
Geoscientist-in-Parks Interns: 3,652.5

[Total volunteer and intern hours: 81,978]

 

Volunteer Program Highlight

  

Mount Rainier had a banner year for volunteers, with more volunteer and intern hours than any year except 2007 and more volunteer numbers than we've ever recorded. Highlights this year include:

• A trial Service-Learning program with Girl Scouts was very successful within our Education and Keep Wildlife Wild programs.
• The Japan Volunteers-in-Parks Association, based in Tokyo, added 704 international volunteer hours.
• Three SCA Community Crews, totaling 30 youth, contributed 2,400 hours.
• Our ongoing partnership with the Washington Trails Association brought 6,615 hours of trail maintenance by 476 people. This accounted for about a quarter of the 25,142 total hours reported in Trail Maintenance, by far our largest volunteer program.
• 29 Community Groups were active in the park, including several local schools, business groups, and Tourism Cares, which brought 100 volunteers to the park at one time for an enormous volunteer work day.
• National Trails Day and National Public Lands Day continue to be some of our most popular drop-in volunteer days.
• 11 SCA interns contributed 8,674 hours and 7 Geologist-in-Park interns contributed 3,653 hours (neither are included in "volunteer" totals).
• Citizen Science volunteers contributed 3,574 hours, surveying amphibians, butterflies, wildflowers, and wilderness hikers.
• Meadow Rovers set records with 7,877 hours by 186 people patrolling subalpine trails.

Training

  

How many people at the park require VIP Program Management Training: 18

   

Optional Information Regarding Housing VIPs and Campground Hosts

  

Number of Campground Hosts: 11

Number of VIPs housed in Permanent Structures: 30

Number of VIPs housed in Trailers: 0

   

Trailer Pads for Volunteers: 8

   

Other Information

  

Number of SCAs: 41

SCA Hours: 11,074

Number of Artists in Parks: 1

Artist in Parks Hours: 200

Number of International VIPs: 15

International VIPS Hours: 704

Number of Volunteer Senior Ranger Corps: 0

Volunteer Senior Ranger Corps Hours: 0

Number of Boy Scouts: 0

Boy Scout Hours: 0

Number of Girls Scouts: 11

Girl Scout Hours: 110

Number of Wounded Warriors: 0

Wounded Warriors Hours: 0

2015 Annual Activity and Expense Report

Department of the Interior

National Park Service

Volunteers In Parks

Annual Activity and Expense Report

Mount Rainier National Park

Report Date: Nov 13, 2015

Fiscal Year: 2015

Volunteer Coordinator and Park Information
Total Volunteers: 1,767
Alpha Code: MORA
VIP Coordinator: Kevin Bacher
VIP Coordinator Phone: 360-569-2211
Coordinator Email: kevin_bacher@nps.gov

Volunteer hours by category:
Administration: 129.00
Campground Host: 2,331.00
Cultural Resource Management: 6,694.00
General Management: 0.00
Interpretation: 12,760.00
Maintenance: 16,238.00
Natural Resource Management: 14,061.00
Protection/Operations/Law Enforcement: 8,388.00
Training: 1,966.00

TOTAL: 62,367
SCA Hours after 6/1/2015: 3,171
GRAND TOTAL (comparable to previous years): 65,538

Program costs by category:
Housing: $ 14,081.00
Meals: $ 6,353.00
Recognition/Award: $ 0.00
Supplies: $ 1,819.00
Training: $ 0.00
Transportation: $ 2,924.00
Uniforms: $ 4,131.00

Volunteer Program Highlight
Although the record low snowpack on the mountain this past winter had many negative qualities, the volunteer program saw a boost in volunteer hours in the extended summer season. Partnerships in the park continue to be one of the largest contributors to the volunteer program. In mid-August, the Longmire Stewardship Campground was filled to capacity with 137 people from REI locations across the state engaging in three days of stewardship and education. The trails program hosted an additional 30 individuals from REI on separate occasions. The Washington Trails Association coordinated 100 more volunteers than last year, totaling almost 5,000 hours. Improvements continue in the Longmire Stewardship Campground, while Citizen Science programs, including the Cascades Butterfly Survey, MeadoWatch, and amphibian surveys, continue to be some of the most popular for volunteers. The Meadow Rover program had its most popular year to date, bringing in more volunteers and hours than any year to date. Looking toward the next 100 years of the National Park Service, the volunteer program has engaged youth through the Student Conservation Association’s Community Crews, The Washington Trails Association’s Youth Volunteer Vacations, and the Washington Conservation Corps. In addition to the numbers reported here, six individual SCA interns contributed 3,171 hours of service after June 1, 2015.

Training
How many people at the park require VIP Program Mgmt Training: 20

Optional Information Regarding Housing VIPS and Campground Hosts
Number of Campground Hosts: 11
Number of VIPs housed in Permanent Structures: 41
Number of VIPs housed in Trailers: 10

Trailer Pads for Volunteers: 12

Other Information
Number of SCAs: 35
SCA Hours: 6779
Number of Artists in Parks: 0
Artist in Parks Hours: 0
Number of International VIPs: 4
International VIPS Hours: 240
Number of Volunteer Senior Ranger Corps: 0
Volunteer Senior Ranger Corps Hours: 0
Number of Boy Scouts: 38
Boy Scout Hours: 208
Number of Girl Scouts: 11
Girl Scout Hours: 66

Volunteering: The Heart of America

I was recently sent a link to a blog post from the University of Southern California's School of Social work, which has created what they call an "infographic" detailing a lot of interesting facts about contemporary volunteers: where they live, why they volunteer, and more. Check it out on their website!

A couple of interesting highlights:

• 64.5 million people over the age of 16 volunteer every year in the United States. (We have quite a few under that age who help at Mount Rainier, too!)
• Their contributions work out to almost 50 hours per person, and even at minimum wage, they save agencies and non-profits more than $23 billion every year. (We know from our own experience that volunteers, in fact, often contribute far more than minimum wage-quality work, helping with park management plans, conducting science, leading mountain rescues, and designing trail bridges, for example. Independent Sector estimates the actual average value of volunteer time, based on replacement wages and benefits, at $22.55/hr, which brings volunteer contributions up to a whopping $72 billion.)
• The Northwest has one of the top concentrations of volunteers in the country. Washington state ranks 9th with 34.4% of its citizens volunteering.
• Top benefits of volunteering include an increased sense of physical well-being, self-esteem, decreased risk of depression, and a sense of purpose.

Gabriela Acosta, Community Manager for the USC program, says "we can only hope that viewers will see the infographic and be inspired to volunteer and give back to their communities."

Declining numbers, but a rising road

It's nice when the news is always positive and the numbers are always rising, but in the real world that doesn't always happen.

That's the short version of an e-mail interview I did last week with Jeff Mayor at The News Tribune, talking about our volunteer statistics for Fiscal Year 2014, the results of which were published in Sunday's paper. Our number of volunteers and our number of volunteer hours are both down over the previous two years, and as a government agency we report those numbers transparently. I proposed some possible reasons for the declines -- budget cuts limiting supervisory capacity, a waning sense of urgency as the 2006 floods recede into history -- and more answers will likely come from a deeper dive into the statistics when I get a chance to do so later this winter. It's hard to put a positive spin on smaller numbers, and to do so would be disingenuous.

Still, I'm not by nature a pessimist. I see great and positive things happening with our volunteer program, and great potential for its future. A 5% decline in our number of volunteers still means we maintained 95%, and those individuals had a tremendously positive impact and, by and large, extremely positive experiences. I could list specific examples at length. Our MeadoWatch and other Citizen Science programs have exploded in popularity. Hundreds of volunteers continue to help maintain our trails, with the help of partners like Washington Trails Association. The Student Conservation Association brought teams of youth volunteers to the park for their 20th year, and received a Director's Award for their partnership. Our Emergency Roadside Assistance ("Raven") program saved innumerable vacations by retrieving keys locked in cars and pumping up flat tires. Starbucks and Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts (oh my!) spread out across the landscape to do good works. And on and on.

I'm really excited about next summer's volunteer program. We've learned, over the past few years of thinner budgets, where the weak links are in our park programs and how to shore them up. We're making progress toward finding funding sources, and strategically applying what we have, to be as effective as possible with our efforts. Volunteers remain key to our success. Quoting Jeff Mayor quoting me: "As budgets have grown leaner, volunteers are an increasingly vital part of our operation," Bacher said. "They’ve always been invaluable as partners with us in protecting the park and serving its visitors, and now more than ever."

So, no, I'm not discouraged. Onward and upward!

- Kevin Bacher
Volunteer Program Manager

2014 Annual Activity and Expense Report

Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Volunteers In Parks
Annual Activity and Expense Report
Mount Rainier National Park
Report Date: Nov 13, 2014
Fiscal Year: 2014
Volunteer Coordinator and Park Information
Total Volunteers: 1,693
Alpha Code: MORA
VIP Coordinator: Kevin Bacher
VIP Coordinator Phone: 360-569-2211
Coordinator Email: kevin_bacher@nps.gov
Volunteer hours by category:
Administration: 344.00
Campground Host: 2,872.00
Cultural Resource Management: 2,846.00
General Management: 0.00
Interpretation: 14,505.00
Maintenance: 12,628.00
Natural Resource Management: 9,683.00
Protection/Operations/Law Enforcement: 13,031.00
Training: 1,427.00
[Total: 57,336.00]
Program costs by category:
Housing: $ 13,759.00
Meals: $ 9,820.00
Recognition/Award: $ 0.00
Supplies: $ 3,585.00
Training: $ 0.00
Transportation: $ 5,237.00
Uniforms: $ 1,274.00
Volunteer Program Highlight
Our program thrives with the help of community partnerships. The Washington Trails Association coordinated 375 volunteers who put in 4,794 hours of work on trails. 38 SCA interns, including 30 members of 3 community crews from Seattle and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, contributed 5,236 hours. 18 interns hired through the Geologic Society of America, the Teacher-Ranger-Teacher program, and local universities added another 7,372 hours. Many of these partnerships take the form of crew leaders: hired, for example, to recruit, train, and lead community members in citizen science, trail maintenance, meadow patrol, or glacier research. Two of these partners received major awards this year: the Japan Volunteers-in-Parks Association, awarded the PWR Hartzog Award for 20 years of partnership, and the Seattle office of the Student Conservation Association, which received the NPS Director's Award for 20 years bringing youth volunteers to the park. Citizen Science continues to be a growing area of interest. Our amphibian and butterfly survey programs continue to flourish, and participation in the MeadoWatch program has exploded. Even casual visitors are now able to participate in a Cascade Carnivore Survey, or submit geotagged photos for analysis by the MeadoWatch program. These programs succeed through partnerships with North Cascades NP and the University of Washington. Funding for our program this year included grants from Washington's National Park Fund and the National Park Foundation.
Training
How many people at the park require VIP Program Mgmt Training: 20
Optional Information Regarding Housing VIPS and Campground Hosts
Number of Campground Hosts: 8
Number of VIPs housed in Permanent Structures: 35
Number of VIPs housed in Trailers: 11
Trailer Pads for Volunteers: 12
Other Information
Number of SCAs: 38
SCA Hours: 5236
Number of Artists in Parks: 0
Artist in Parks Hours: 0
Number of International VIPs: 0
International VIPS Hours: 0
Number of Volunteer Senior Ranger Corps: 0
Volunteer Senior Ranger Corps Hours: 0
Number of Boy Scouts: 53
Boy Scout Hours: 1605
Number of Girl Scouts: 16
Girl Scout Hours: 113

2013 Volunteer Activity and Expense Report

Here, at last, is this year's Annual Activity and Expense Report for the volunteer program. As always, I will follow this soon with an analysis of where changes occurred between last year and this year, and why. From the outset, though, two things jump out: first, our total number of volunteer hours is down dramatically (from 74,615 last year to 62,736 this year); and second, our total number of volunteers remained almost steady (1,804 last year, 1,784 this year). A quick look at the numbers reveals that most of the changes are reflective of fewer full-time volunteer and intern positions. We had fewer full-time volunteers in the Paradise Visitor Center and Climber Information Center; fewer Emergency Roadside Assistance ("Raven") volunteers; fewer Historic Architecture positions; and so forth. Even if just a few positions are lost in each division, they carry with them thousands of hours of volunteer time. We lost a few thousand hours of volunteer time at the Ohanapecosh Visitor Center alone.

Most of these positions seem to have been lost for the same reasons that our numbers of paid staff have declined: volunteers are inexpensive but not free, incurring either housing, per diem, and vehicle costs, or commitments to the Student Conservation Association and other partners, and with reduced budgets, we've had reduced capacity. It is also likely that under Sequestration whole programs have shrunk, volunteers and all.

The silver lining is that, clearly, individual interest in volunteering has NOT declined. While we've had fewer full-time volunteers parkwide, our number of itinerant volunteers has remained roughly the same, in spite of the shrinkage of some programs. As revegetation opportunities have declined, citizen science opportunities have increased, for example, and our total number of volunteers this year is the second-highest ever, just slightly behind last year's number.

I will work on bringing these statistics and conclusions into sharper focus over the next few weeks, and will report further when I have more information. For now, here are the raw data!

Department of the Interior National Park Service Volunteers In Parks Annual Activity and Expense Report Mount Rainier National Park Report Date: Nov 21, 2013 Fiscal Year: 2013 Volunteer Coordinator and Park Information Total Volunteers: 1,784 Alpha Code: MORA VIP Coordinator: Kevin Bacher VIP Coordinator Phone: 360-569-2211 Coordinator Email: kevin_bacher@nps.gov Volunteer hours by category: Administration: 441.00 Campground Host: 2,088.00 Cultural Resource Management: 7,832.00 General Management: 152.00 Interpretation: 12,922.50 Maintenance: 1,578.25 Natural Resource Management: 9,650.75 Protection/Operations/Law Enforcement: 27,481.75 Training: 590.00 [Total: 62,736.25] Program costs by category: Housing: $ 7,116.00 Meals: $ 2,237.00 Recognition/Award: $ 0.00 Supplies: $ 32,807.00 Training: $ 0.00 Transportation: $ 2,602.00 Uniforms: $ 4,372.00 [Note: Does not include spending on task agreements, including SCA.] Volunteer Program Highlight Mount Rainier's volunteer program suffered significantly under Sequestration in two ways: with less funding available, fewer long-term volunteer positions were filled (with accompanying per diem, housing, and vehicle costs); and several thousand hours of time were lost that had been associated with the now-closed Ohanapecosh Visitor Center. Still, the total number of volunteers remained close to previous years, indicating that while the park was less able to support full-time residential positions, interest in volunteering remained undiminished. In fact, volunteer opportunities continued to diversify, with now three different programs related to Citizen Science, for example. Another highlight of the year was the expansion of our partnership with the Student Conservation Association, through a Youth Partnerships Program and National Park Foundation grant, which included work with three Community Crews, two National Park Academy Interns, and one traditional intern, providing a "ladder" of youth volunteer experiences. Half of the Community Crew members were recruited from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, expanding our outreach to the military community. Finally, Mount Rainier bids fond farewell to the Japan Volunteer in Parks Association (J-VIPA), "retiring" from Mount Rainier after 20 years and 23,040 hours of service. Their contributions to Mount Rainier National Park will benefit us long into the future, and we wish them well with their new volunteer efforts closer to home in Japan. Training How many people at the park require VIP Program Mgmt Training: 15 Optional Information Regarding Housing VIPS and Campground Hosts Number of Campground Hosts: 8 Number of VIPs housed in Permanent Structures: 59 Number of VIPs housed in Trailers: 0 Trailer Pads for Volunteers: 6 Other Information Number of SCAs: 38 SCA Hours: 7175.5 Number of Artists in Parks: 0 Artist in Parks Hours: 0 Number of International VIPs: 24 International VIPS Hours: 384 Number of Volunteer Senior Ranger Corps: 0 Volunteer Senior Ranger Corps Hours: 0 Number of Boy Scouts: 66 Boy Scout Hours: 433 Number of Girl Scouts: 0 Girl Scout Hours: 0

Volunteers contribute more than $1.6 million worth of work to Mount Rainier

From The News Tribune:

Volunteers contribute work "equal to the amount of time 150 seasonal employees would work during a typical summer. 'There’s no way we could afford to pay for that many people,' Bacher said. 'That (volunteer effort) is so important in these times when we are being asked to do more with less.'"

Click through to read the whole article.

Thoughts on this year's volunteer statistics

• Number of volunteers have increased from 1,728 to 1,804.
• Total volunteer hours increased from 74,504 hours to 74,615 (worth $1.6 million!).
• In most cases, volunteer hours increased. The one major exception was that we had a huge number of hours (11,148) logged by Washington Conservation Corps last year and a much smaller number (1,200) this year. Take out WCC and the remaining hours increased dramatically, from 63,356 to 73,415.

Some highlights:

• Archeology: Up from 3,348 to 5,654 due to increased participation by Central Washington University Field School.
• Campground Maintenance: Up from 203 to 1,139 due to increased numbers of volunteers working on the Longmire Campground.
• Citizen Science: Up from 383 to 947, with participation in both amphibian surveys and butterfly surveys. Wildlife survey volunteer numbers were also up.
• Climbing Rangers: Up from 1,436 to 3,622.
• Curatorial Assistants: Up from 3,325 to 4,253.
• Emergency Roadside Assistance: Up from 685 to 1,323.
• Interpretation: Up from 4,568 to 7,718.
• "Maintenance Response": Down from 828 to 0, due to the retirement of Clyde and Lois Ambacher. (We'd still love to find someone new to fill this position!)
• Meadow Rovers: Up from 6,622 to 7,595.
• Revegetation: Down from 2,391 to 1,463.
• Search and Rescue: Up from 1,254 to 2,301.
• Trails: Down from 22,393 to 13,136, mostly due to reduced hours by WCC.
• Transportation Studies: Down from 3,416 to 0 due to completion of this one-year project.

 Our partnerships remain vital:

• 5,112 hours were contributed by Student Conservation Association (down from 8,203 last year due to 4 fewer individual SCA interns and one fewer community crew).
• Washington Trails Association contributed 5,339 hours and 388 volunteers (down from 448 volunteers last year).
• The Geologists-in-Parks (and Geoscience Teachers in Parks) program contributed 5,270 hours and 11 people.
• The Teacher-Ranger-Teacher program contributed 1,634 hours and 10 people.
• The Mount Rainier National Park Associates turned in 977 hours.
• Evergreen State College contributed 1,600 hours, including 3 full-time volunteers and 28 class members.
• Boy Scouts contributed a total of 1,989 hours and 151 people.
• All told, we have 38 active community groups that we work with in addition to our individual volunteers.

Annual Activity and Expense Report

Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Volunteers In Parks

Annual Activity and Expense Report
Mount Rainier National Park
Report Date: Nov 2, 2012
Fiscal Year: 2012

______________________________________________________________________________
Volunteer Coordinator and Park Information
______________________________________________________________________________

Total Volunteers: 1,804
Alpha Code: MORA
VIP Coordinator: Kevin Bacher
VIP Coordinator Phone: 360-569-2211
Coordinator Email: kevin_bacher@nps.gov

______________________________________________________________________________
Volunteer hours by category:
______________________________________________________________________________

Administration: 254.50
Campground Host: 2,189.50
Cultural Resource Management: 9,963.00
General Management: 65.00
Interpretation: 19,300.00
Maintenance: 2,845.00
Natural Resource Management: 10,149.00
Protection/Operations/Law Enforcement: 29,032.00
Training: 817.00

[Total hours: 74,615.00]

______________________________________________________________________________
Program costs by category:
______________________________________________________________________________

Housing: $ 10,565.00
Meals: $ 3,184.00
Recognition/Award: $ 250.00
Supplies: $ 8,072.00
Training: $ 0.00
Transportation: $ 1,515.00
Uniforms: $ 5,644.00

[Total costs: $ 29,230.00]

______________________________________________________________________________
Volunteer Program Highlight
______________________________________________________________________________

With the exception of one program that had an unusually high number of hours last year, volunteer participation increased in almost every category in 2012. Most notably, participation in our Meadow Rover program grew significantly with the help of volunteer Meadow Rover managers. Large numbers of volunteers participated in numerous SARs during the summer. Our partnerships with the Washington Trails Association and others continued to be robust. Boy Scout participation increased. We hosted 11 Geologist-in-Parks or Geoscience-Teachers-in-Parks; 10 Teacher-Ranger-Teachers; and 12 international volunteers. We worked with 7 SCA interns and two 10-person crews, as well as 3 interns from Evergreen State College.

______________________________________________________________________________
Training
______________________________________________________________________________

How many people at the park require VIP Program Management Training: 20

______________________________________________________________________________
Optional Information Regarding Housing VIPs and Campground Hosts
______________________________________________________________________________

Number of Campground Hosts: 8
Number of VIPs housed in Permanent Structures: 43
Number of VIPs housed in Trailers: 0
Trailer Pads for Volunteers: 5

______________________________________________________________________________
Other Information
______________________________________________________________________________

Number of SCAs: 27
SCA Hours: 5,112
Number of Artists in Parks: 0
Artist in Parks Hours: 0
Number of International VIPs: 11
International VIPS Hours: 1,160
Number of Volunteer Senior Ranger Corps: 0
Volunteer Senior Ranger Corps Hours: 0
Number of Boy Scouts: 151
Boy Scout Hours: 1,989
Number of Girls Scouts: 0
Girl Scout Hours: 0
Number of Wounded Warriors: 0
Wounded Warriors Hours: 0

Volunteers In America

Who are our volunteers? According to Volunteering in America, the rate of volunteerism tends to be higher when participants are teenagers rather than in early adulthood. Volunteer participation is lowest in the 20-24 year age group. It picks up again from that point and swells to its peak with participants from 35-44 years of age. Later in life, fewer people serve as volunteers, but they tend to contribute more hours each year per individual.

Volunteers meet crucial needs in a variety of fields. Millions devoted their time to youth mentoring, tutoring and teaching. Others donated their time and efforts to fund-raising, food service and physical labor.

In 2010, volunteers contributed 8.1 billion hours in the United States, a value estimated to be close to $173 billion! As budget challenges increase, the time contributed by volunteers takes on a greater importance in many organizations. Over 60 percent of the people who volunteered in 2009 returned to volunteer again in 2010.

Research shows that strategies aimed at enriching the volunteer experience all influenced whether volunteers returned to their jobs the following year. Those organizations which recognized their volunteers, trained them, offered them opportunities to advance professionally and matched their volunteers' skills to the tasks at hand had higher numbers of returning volunteers.

Washington ranks 11th among the states for its rate of volunteerism with 1.7 million people contributing 218.9 million hours of service in 2010. That's 42.2 hours per resident! Aren't you proud to be one of them?

Annual Activity and Expense Report

Here, at last, are the statistics for this year's volunteer program. Total volunteers are 1,728, and volunteer hours are 74,504. This is 514 more hours than last year, and 288 fewer volunteers. Based on estimates of volunteer value from Independent Sector, our volunteer contribute roughly $1.6 million worth of service to Mount Rainier National Park.

The largest reductions in our numbers of volunteers were in the revegetation program, which had more than 300 fewer volunteers, and our WTA partnership, which lagged behind last year's record numbers by about 80 people (but still contributed 448). The reveg numbers were down due to a few large school groups not returning this year. Not sure if this is because these schools are taking fewer field trips in general, or because our Sunrise reveg site is much less convenient than the one at Paradise had been -- I suspect more of the latter than the former.

The reductions were partially made up for by increases in other areas, including archeology, Meadow Rovers, Citizen Science, and Boy Scouts. More analysis to come!

Meanwhile, here are the details:


Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Volunteers In Parks

Annual Activity and Expense Report

Mount Rainier National Park

Report Date: Oct 31, 2011

Fiscal Year: 2011

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Volunteer Coordinator and Park Information
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Total Volunteers: 1,728
Alpha Code: MORA
VIP Coordinator: Kevin Bacher
VIP Coordinator Phone: 360-569-2211
Coordinator Email: kevin_bacher@nps.gov

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Volunteer hours by category:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Administration: 43.00
Campground Host: 2,549.00
Cultural Resource Management: 6,817.00
General Management: 3,936.00
Interpretation: 13,682.00
Maintenance: 2,246.00
Natural Resource Management: 9,163.00
Protection/Operations/Law Enforcement: 35,395.00
Training: 673.00

[Total hours: 74,504.00] [Last year: 73,990]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Program costs by category:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Housing: $ 4,691.00
Meals: $ 1,210.00
Recognition/Award: $ 422.00
Supplies: $ 12,085.00
Training: $ 375.00
Transportation: $ 2,377.00
Uniforms: $ 4,585.00

[Total costs: $ 25,745.00]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Volunteer Program Highlight
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Our program continues to grow, with new projects taking the place of completed ones. The Glacier Basin Trail was rebuilt after 3 years of work. Our partnership with the Washington Trails Association brought in 448 people, many of whom are now regular volunteers. A hundred Boy Scouts worked on 3 days of projects in August. Scout participation was up in general, with troops helping with trails, revegetation, and citizen science. Park programs worked with youth interns from SCA, the Geologic Society, and The Evergreen State College to complete a transportation study, a historic architecture study, stream surveys, and a parkwide safety review. Thirty members of SCA's Community Program in Seattle helped with trail projects. Central Washington University contributed 2560 hours of archeology. This was also an opportunity for citizen science, as park visitors were invited to help on the dig site. Other citizen science volunteers surveyed amphibians and butterflies and led activities for Keep Wildlife Wild day. Our Meadow Rover program turned in record hours thanks to 2 full-time coordinators, despite a late spring meltout. Overall, volunteer hours were up, but volunteer numbers were down. The largest single reason was a reduction of more than 300 participants in our revegetation program, due to the completion of an easily accessible project at Paradise that had previously brought in large numbers of school volunteers. The new work site, at Sunrise, is much more remote.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Training
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

How many people at the park require VIP Program Management Training: 12

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Optional Information Regarding Housing VIPs and Campground Hosts
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of Campground Hosts: 5
Number of VIPs housed in Permanent Structures: 57
Number of VIPs housed in Trailers: 7
Trailer Pads for Volunteers: 5

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of SCAs: 41
SCA Hours: 8,203
Number of Artists in Parks: 0
Artist in Parks Hours: 0
Number of International VIPs: 9
International VIPS Hours: 720
Number of Volunteer Senior Ranger Corps: 0
Volunteer Senior Ranger Corps Hours: 0
Number of Boy Scouts: 168
Boy Scout Hours: 1,173
Number of Girls Scouts: 10
Girl Scout Hours: 30
Number of Wounded Warriors: 0
Wounded Warriors Hours: 0

Mark your calendars: National Public Lands Day and Glacier Basin Trail rededication on 9/24!

WTA volunteers

It's time again for Mount Rainier National Park's biggest volunteer event of the year! Mark your calendars now and plan to join us on Saturday, September 24 for a combination event. First, we'll be rededicating the Glacier Basin Trail, which volunteers and park partners have helped rebuild over the past three summers following its destruction in the November 2006 flood. Then, we'll disperse for a variety of volunteer projects, including more trail maintenance and a major revegetation effort at Sunrise. Finally, anyone who's interested will re-gather at the White River Campground for snacks and a more informal celebration and sharing of stories about the Glacier Basin Trail reconstruction.

SCA's Conservation Leadership Corps

2011 statistics aren't in yet, but from 2008 through 2010, volunteers and youth organizations like the Washington Conservation Corps and Student Conservation Association contributed 49,497 hours of time on the Glacier Basin Trail, an effort worth almost $1.06 million based on current figures from Independent Sector. The work has been done by National Park Service trail crews, partner groups, community groups, and hundreds of individuals who have worked on the project through the Washington Trails Association. WTA volunteers alone contributed about 15,000 hours of service over the three year period. The Student Conservation Association has fielded more than 8,000 hours of trail teams, national crews, and members of their Community Programs, made up of high school students mostly from the Seattle area.

NPCA's registration booth

Other key partners on the project have included Alpine Ascents International; Boy Scout Troops 224 and 436, as well as the Pacific Harbors Council and the T'kope Kwiswis Lodge 502 in Seattle; EarthCorps; the Mount Rainier National Park Associates; the Northwest Youth Corps; REI Adventures; and soldiers from the U.S.S. Henry M. Jackson. About 500 volunteers worked on the project each year (with a lot of overlap from year to year).

All volunteers who contributed to the Glacier Basin Trail reconstruction are invited to return for the rededication, and stay for National Public Lands Day!

Revegetation volunteers at Sunrise

The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) will be returning again this year to help coordinate National Public Lands Day. Volunteers can choose from several projects. The National Park Service and WTA will both be leading trail maintenance projects on sections of the Wonderland Trail departing from White River Campground. Meanwhile, at Sunrise, Mount Rainier's restoration team will lead volunteers in replanting the old Sunrise Campground with native plants. For either project, volunteers should bring a lunch, snacks, water, layered clothing that you can get dirty in, sunglasses, and sunscreen. Bring your own gloves if you have a pair that works well for you. All ages are welcome! Other projects may be added between now and September 24th as well.

Registration for National Public Lands Day will be hosted by NPCA at the Amphitheater in White River Campground. Volunteers may choose to stay overnight for free in the campground the night before September 24th and/or the night after. Please RSVP with your intentions (see details below). WTA will be working on the Wonderland Trail again on Sunday, September 25th.

Event Details

WHAT: National Public Lands Day and Glacier Basin Trail Rededication


WHEN: Saturday, September 24, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
8:00 a.m. Event Registration
9:00 a.m. Glacier Basin trail dedication
10:00 a.m. Trail and meadow restoration
3:30 p.m. Informal gathering and celebration
WHERE: All events take place at, or depart from, White River Campground at Mount Rainier National Park. Click here for a map and directions. Stevens Canyon Road will be closed to the public that day due to road construction. Please enter the park via Highway 410 or 123.

RSVP: If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Mariely Lemagne at NPCA at mlemagne@npca.org. If you plan to camp overnight, please RSVP with those plans to Kevin Bacher at Mount Rainier National Park at Kevin_Bacher@nps.gov. If you wish to join a WTA work crew on Saturday or Sunday, please also register online at http://www.wta.org/volunteer/trail-work-parties.

OTHER INFO: Entry to all national park units will be free on National Public Lands Day! Volunteers who register at White River Campground will receive a coupon for free entrance to Mount Rainier National Park on a future date of your choosing. Please bring work gloves and dress appropriately for the weather and activity. Suncreen, hats, and raincoats are recommended. You will also want to bring your lunch and a water bottle to stay hydrated.

We hope you will join us for the Glacier Basin Trail rededication and National Public Lands Day!

2,016 volunteers!

I've just completed our annual volunteer report for fiscal year 2010 (October 2009 through September 2010), and am pleased to report that, once again, our numbers are up overall over last year. This year we had a total of 2,016 volunteers, up from 1,865 last year. That includes 1,491 people who participated as part of 51 organized groups, and another 525 who participated as individuals, up from 1,406 and 459, respectively, last year. Total hours: 73,990, up from 72,231 last year, a number unprecedented in the history of Mount Rainier National Park except for 2007, the year after the big flood.

Groups contributed a total of 29,546 hours of time, while individuals contributed 44,444. How great a number is that?!

We're excited about the growth of new programs at the park, including citizen science, emergency roadside assistance, and living history. We're also very grateful for the help we've received from numerous community partners, including Washington Trails Association, Student Conservation Association, Mount Rainier National Park Associates, the Tacoma Mountaineers, Evergreen State College, the Boy Scouts of America, and many, many others.

Of course, every little bit adds up, and the success of our program has as much to do with those dedicated individuals who came up half a dozen times to rove the trails at Paradise, or who were only able to squeeze one visit into their busy schedules but contributed half a dozen hours to our grand total. Whatever you contributed, you can claim part of the success of Mount Rainier National Park as your own, and that's a very good thing!

By the way, the non-partisan Independent Sector currently values an hour of volunteer time at $20.85 (the equivalent of a typical employee including benefits), so that 73,990 hours is worth $1.54 million. That's something to be very proud of!

WTA Volunteers forge ahead at Glacier Basin

"Although much of the Glacier Basin Trail reroute at Mount Rainier National Park has been completed, it won’t be until next season that the work is finally done."

Thus begins a nice article in the News Tribune yesterday, which properly attributes much of the work that has been done on this major flood recovery project to volunteers who have worked in partnership with the National Park Service and the Washington Trails Association.

WTA's efforts have been a major asset at Mount Rainier over the past three years, especially on the Glacier Basin project. Our records show 496 WTA volunteers in the park this summer, who contributed 5,292 hours of service, not counting travel time. Both of those are record numbers: even in 2007, the year following our big flood, WTA's work totalled a mere 4,971 hours; and last year, the previous record year for volunteer participation, only 336 volunteers participated.

We're still compiling the final numbers for our program this year, but there's no question that WTA will be responsible for a large percentage of our total volunteer hours, and an even larger percentage of our total numbers.

WTA's efforts are made possible, of course, by hundreds of individual volunteers; but they are also supported by major grants from Boeing Corporation, which has committed $60,000 to WTA in 2010. Their support is also invaluable! (Individual donations are also welcome.)

We look forward to continuing these productive partnerships at least through 2010, so keep an eye on the WTA website next spring to find more opportunities to participate. There are few things more rewarding that building a trail that will be used for generations to come!

Final tally: 223 volunteers on National Public Lands Day!

The numbers just keep pouring in! I finally have a complete tally of every event happening in the park on National Public Lands Day:

Longmire
16 - Longmire Campground Restoration

Paradise
8 - Bench Lake Trail
10 - Fourth Crossing Trail
151 - Paradise Planting

Glacier Basin
19 - Washington Trails Association
13 - Boy Scouts "Order of the Arrow"
6 - Other Boy Scouts

Grand total: 223 volunteers!! So far as I know, that's our biggest volunteer day ever. (Feel free to correct me if you know of anything bigger!)

Meanwhile, we've had MEAD Alternative High School [corrected] from Spokane, and Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School from Salem, Oregon, here planting this week, in spite of the cool, damp weather; and REI is coming in tomorrow. Saturday is another open planting day, so come on up and let's keep the momentum going!

Here's the report from Peter Dewell, WTA's volunteer crew leader at Glacier Basin:

"Well, we had some great National Park Rangers and crew to assist WTA in doing our work today. The loyal volunteers were Angela, Judy, Emma, Carol, Jim, Ed, Sue, Carl, Mike, Pete S, Elaine, Eric, Jim, Jane, Carla and Adam, along with great crew leaders, Micki, Lynn and Louise. Heck, with all this help and the National Park folks, who could lose. Well, we did not lose. First, there was the great work of removing stumps and roots just above a large rise in the trail - using rigging and muscle power, where Louise was involved. This area will need lots of work, but the hard work has been done. Next, a new switchback, with rock replacing duff and organic soil and proper insloping and outsloping, with protection of the turn - no trail cutters allowed here, with Lynn involved. Next up the trail was trail finishing and an upslope rock wall to hold the hill from slipping on the trail, with Micki involved. Finally, there were two rock projects uphill, with many rocks raising the trail to grade, in several places, plus a small rock retainer - to avoid (hopefully winter/spring runoff) and then a 20 foot long rock rock wall to support the new trail, just short of the current end, with lots of rock and mineral soil fill. These volunteers did great work and the National Park personnel provided great support and muscle power as well. Great job, well done. Thanks for coming out, and come out again, Pete Dewell."

Volunteering in America

I've been browsing the latest data on a website called "Volunteering in America," which tracks trends in volunteerism around the country. It has some fascinating facts about volunteers in Washington and, more specifically, in Seattle, one of 50 large cities surveyed around the country.

Along with a lot of other details, here are a few interesting facts:

• Washington State has 1.7 million volunteers who contribute more than 240 million hours of service per year (48.5 hours per resident), worth an estimated $4.7 billion dollars.


• This places Washington 4th within the 50 states in the average number of volunteer hours per citizen. We are exceeded only by Utah, Idaho, and Alaska, and Oregon is close behind in 5th place.


• Volunteer retention in Washington from one year to the next is 71.6%, the 8th highest rate ni the nation.


• Washington is 12th overall in the percentage of its citizens who volunteer. However, in the Young Adult age group (ages 16-24), we rank 3rd, behind Utah and (by a hair) Minnesota. Our rate is 45% higher than the national average.


• Our standing is even better in the Teenage age group (ages 16-19), where we're tied with North Dakota and Vermont for first place. Our 42.3% volunteer rate exceeds the national average by 56%.


• The rate in Seattle is 46.9 hours per person, making it 3rd among the 50 large cities surveyed in terms of volunteer hours and 4th in terms of the percentage of citizens who volunteer.


• The total number of volunteer hours contributed has, however, declined for four years running, from more than 150 million hours total in 2004 to less than 110 million in 2007. Interestingly, the percentage of people who volunteer has only slipped slightly (and less than the national average), suggesting that similar numbers are volunteering, but for shorter periods of time.


• This is mirrored by the Washington state totals. The rate of volunteerism actually went up from 2006 to 2007, bucking the national trend, but total hours volunteered decreased significantly.

It will be very interesting to see how these numbers evolve over time. Will our high rate of youth volunteerism eventually lead to higher rates of adult volunteerism? How will the current financial crises affect rates of volunteerism?

Fascinating stuff.

SCA Mount Rainier Recovery Corps 2008 Fact Sheet

Here's another document that provides some excellent "behind the scenes" information about the highly successful volunteer year we just completed. I've mentioned some of these statistics before, but this time they're accompanied by a lengthy and informative "key," written by Mount Rainier Recovery Initiative program manager Jill Baum. I think you'll find it interesting reading:

SCA Mount Rainier Recovery Corps 2008 Fact Sheet
10/14/08 final draft (stats through 9/28)

Volunteer projects: 107
Volunteers: 657
Volunteer hours (project start to project end): 3,871
Corps hours (includes corps training and Embedded Member service): 7,104
Public training workshop hours: 2,126
Total MRR hours: 13,101

Start date: 5/19/08
End date: 9/29/08
Corps members: 10 (5 Team, 5 Embedded)
Additional interns in basecamp: 3 (plus many guests)
On-site staff: 3 (PD, Coordinator, Cook) (plus periodic assistant cooks)
Wall tents: 12
Park housing units: 3
Kitchen trailers: 1
Vehicles: 5

Snow shoveling person days: 105
Meadow roving person days: 521
Frontcountry campgrounds opened: 4 (Longmire, Cougar Rock, Ohana, White River)
Campsites cleared/maintained: 266
Backcountry campsites constructed: 1 (Pyramid Creek)
Historic shelters rehabbed: 1 (Indian Bar)
Sherpa projects: 9 @ 6600 lbs.
Hours logged by remote soundscape sensors: 646
Soundscape sites logged: 33
Amphibians counted: 1486
Archaeology sites tested: 1/ 4 days/ 5 miles
Weed eradication person days: 130
Exotic plants eradicated: 17,951
Dump truck loads gravel hauled: 8
Seed species collected: 11
Seedlings + salvaged material planted: ~6,000 + 600 sq. ft.
Feet of trails brushed/raked: 75,500
Feet of trail tread repaired: 790
Check steps constructed: 36
Rock steps constructed: 30
Bridges constructed: 5 @ 80 ft.
Retaining walls constructed: 8 @ 118 ft.
Square feet of flood debris cleared for bridge footing: 150
Park signs installed: 22
Youth directly engaged in service: 160
Organizations directly engaged in service: 17

The story behind the stats…

Volunteer projects: This total is limited to projects coordinated by the Corps but includes the numerous trainings we offered this year (see below). Projects ranged from an hour or two to 5 days in length. Most were one-day projects that generally ran from 9:00 – 4:00.

Volunteers: Our volunteers came as individuals, families or with groups. The number of volunteers on any given day ranged from 1 to 102, with an average of about 4 - 8 serving on a particular project.

Volunteer hours: This number is comparable to 2007 (13,344 hours).

Corps hours: Corps time was spent leading volunteers, completing response team projects and assisting in a myriad of ways while embedded within park departments. This total also includes initial and ongoing corps training hours.

Public training workshop hours: Training opportunities were open to volunteers, partners and NPS staff – all of whom took advantage of them. They included Meadow Roving, Advanced Meadow Roving, Soundscape Monitoring, Wilderness First Aid (x2), Wilderness First Responder and Crosscut Saw Certification. Multi-day trainings included meals and camping in the Longmire Campground. All costs were underwritten by our grant from Boeing – thank you!

Total MRR hours: This number is also comparable to 2007, despite the smaller corps. This is due in part to the fact that the entire group served for the same timeframe whereas last year’s program incorporated multiple start and end dates.

Start date: Who could have predicted that we would have had snow on the ground in Longmire well into June, and throughout much of the park well into August? This made for a challenging start to the program, including the need to base operations out of the Lions Club facility in Ashford for the first week and a half. We also spent most of our National Trails Day projects shoveling snow!

End date: The program came in like a lion and left like a lamb, with unseasonably warm temperatures much of the final week and stunning mountain views most of the time. We even managed to dry out the wall tents in time to store them for the winter.

Corps members: Our corps members came from a wide variety of backgrounds, but all were selected based on their desire and ability to lead others, flexibility, maturity and initiative. They were matched early on to team or embedded positions based on their experience and interests. This created a somewhat disjointed group, but with common underlying expectations and a strong base structure in place. 9 of the 10 successfully completed the program, with one unfortunately choosing to leave a few weeks early.

Additional interns in campground: Due to anticipated housing shortages, initially most park SCA interns were slated to take up residence with the corps in our Longmire basecamp. In the end only 3 actually did – and they were wonderful to have around, despite being on different schedules and supervised by park staff rather than SCA (although they very much viewed the corps staff as additional supervisor – as did a fair number of other SCA interns, for that matter).

On-site staff: Continuing from last year and remaining in the park over the winter, the Program Director was joined by a new Field Coordinator in early May and by a Kitchen Coordinator a week later. An Assistant Cook joined the staff for the first month of shared orientation and training with the Native Plant and Corps Trails teams. The same person returned to assist with our large WFA public training weekend in July. We were extremely thankful to have been able to bring on a last-minute replacement cook for the WFR training week in early September, as well.

Wall tents: We added 3 more tents and platforms this year in anticipation of housing additional interns. While the housing crisis abated, we did use the tents for trainers and guests and are leaving behind a fully-functional basecamp for the park to use in the future.

Park housing units: We again relied heavily on the Community Building for warmth and meeting space, as well as the limited but functional capacity of the downstairs apartment kitchen. We mostly used the upstairs apartment for additional kitchen storage and for visiting instructor housing. The Program Director lived across the river in a small house but continued to eat most meals with the corps and to spend a significant amount of time in the Community Building, especially during trainings.

Kitchen trailer: Due to the initial poor weather and periodic large training groups, the kitchen trailer was primarily used as pack out and storage space rather than as the primary basecamp kitchen. Nonetheless, it is a significant asset and has been restocked with equipment to serve a dozen or so folks when it emerges from winter hibernation.

Vehicles: Given that corps members headed in half a dozen directions on most days, 5 vehicles served us quite well. We often used the 12-passenger van to move bigger groups of people but relied especially on our trucks, whose beds proved to be invaluable for hauling gear and materials.

Snow shoveling person days: (See “Start Date” above) This number was calculated by dividing by 8 (a typical “day”) the total number of hours spent shoveling snow. Volunteers were instrumental in opening the campgrounds and Sunrise, where snow drifts exceeded 10 feet and many pathways were completely buried.

Meadow roving person days: Two of our five embedded members served as Meadow Rover coordinators, one at Paradise and the other at Sunrise. While they had very different experiences, they each served to help focus the Rover program and train many new Rovers. The entire corps helped rove on the Independence Day and Labor Day weekends, although poor weather brought unexpectedly low numbers of visitors each holiday.

Frontcountry campgrounds opened: This year’s “opening” projects consisted of clearing snow and debris at Ohanapecosh, shoveling out Cougar Rock on National Trails Day, and working on flood restoration at White River. Restoration work also continued in the Longmire Campground, where two dozen “new” campsites were opened for volunteer use. We were also thrilled to have brand new showers constructed in a renovated comfort station – thanks, Maintenance!

Campsites cleared/maintained: (See “Frontcountry Campgrounds” above)

Backcountry campsites constructed: We spent one day helping the backcountry rangers relocate Pyramid Camp (for which a NPLD group sherpaed up the new toilet parts last year!).

Historic shelters rehabbed: Once again, the corps thoroughly enjoyed working with the backcountry carpenters – especially in this stunning location in early fall. They installed a drainage system and rebuilt the floor of this historic shelter.

Sherpa projects: Volunteers again proved invaluable as an efficient way to move materials where they were required on projects. This summers’ hauling projects included cement for bridge footings, planks for new bridge decking, shingles for a backcountry cabin and soundscape equipment – including three, 40 pound batteries that were carried out to sites at the beginning of the season and back to Longmire at the end.

Hours logged by remote soundscape sensors: The mission of the remote soundscape sensors (see “Sherpa” above) was to record ambient sound at remote locations. Program glitches and freezing weather affected the ability of the equipment to some extent, but significant baseline data successfully has been added to this new program.

Soundscape sites logged: This project was a great way to increase the “citizen science” component of the volunteer program. Following an information and training session, volunteers were equipped to visit the pre-selected soundscape sites, sit for an hour while recording their sound observations, then continue on hiking or head back out.

Amphibians counted: Our member embedded with Natural and Cultural Resources assisted with a variety of projects including several amphibian surveys. Not surprisingly, the backcountry lakes proved to be much more bountiful than those near roads. These volunteers also got to spend the night in several backcountry cabins.

Archaeology sites tested: A corps member and one of our basecamp interns spent a week assisting with the archaeological survey of the Carbon River road area, for which post-flood plans are being considered. They enjoyed the change of pace and learning an entirely new skill set.

Weed eradication person days: Removing exotic plants continues to be an excellent way to involve volunteers at Rainier, particularly large groups or those with somewhat limited time, since often the thickest areas are near roadsides or heavily impacted zones.

Exotic plants eradicated: The primary targeted species included Oxeye Daisy, Bull Thistle and Foxglove.

Dump truck loads gravel hauled: The ground seemed to be saturated everywhere this year, especially up in the Paradise area, where we also helped to fill several new bridge approaches and a turnpike.

Seed species collected: Berries! Volunteers helped to collect native plant species, including Huckleberry, Salmonberry and (yikes!) Devils Club. These will be dried and propagated in the greenhouse or spread as needed near where they were collected.

Seedlings planted: Park staff and volunteers worked furiously to rehab the Paradise construction sites, including landscaping the new visitor center in time for its opening on October 10th. Plantings included both seedlings grown in the greenhouse and plants salvaged from the area before construction began.

Feet of trails brushed/raked: Much of this work was accomplished by the Forest Service Discovery Teams, comprised of local teens from the Randle area.

Feet of trail tread repaired: Unlike last year’s major emphasis on trail reroutes and therefore tread construction, this year’s projects were a bit more specific and sometimes included follow-up repair to new sections after they had ‘seasoned’ for a year.

Check steps constructed: Many of these were on the Kautz Creek Trail, where we worked hard to repair and preserve the tread.

Rock steps constructed: Nearly all of these were on the Kautz Creek Trail, leading in both directions from the new footbridge that crosses what remains of the old river channel. Working with rock is an art that we tried to pass on to many volunteers this year. The results of their labor can be enjoyed for decades to come (or at least until the next time Kautz Creek changes its course).

Bridges constructed: Bridge projects seemed to be an endless need this summer, from new footlogs to replacement 3-stringer bridges. We worked on a couple that required hefty hikes into the backcountry and more time than anticipated to finish, but the corps perservered.

Retaining Walls constructed: Along with polish-up tread work, it became evident that retaining walls also were needed in several key locations (Stevens Canyon, Kautz Creek, Trail of Shadows). These varied greatly in size and material.

Square feet of flood debris cleared for bridge footing: This is a fancy way of saying we dug a giant hole down to bedrock to allow the park trail crew to anchor a new bridge footing near Paradise River Camp... By some miracle, the corps members and volunteers on this project enjoyed it thoroughly!

Park interpretive signs installed: Many of these signs required several people to lift them… We also did some sleuthing to figure out what went where, but the corps labeled them and left clear instructions and maps for whomever takes this on next.

Youth directly engaged in service: A goal for this summer was to actively engage youth in park stewardship, which we did with resounding success. Many of the youth counted in this total were here for multiple weeks while others came with groups that asked to add a service component to their summer visit.

Organizations directly engaged in service: Once again, we were sometimes inundated with groups. They included corporate groups, youth groups, Scout groups, recreational groups and special groups like the Japanese Volunteers in the Parks program. We felt honored to get to know so many diverse and dedicated volunteers.

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!

Annual Activity and Expense Report

Annual Activity and Expense Report
Mount Rainier National Park
Report Date: Oct 30, 2008
Fiscal Year: 2008

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Volunteer Coordinator and Park Information

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Total Volunteers: 1,837 (up from 1,724 in FY07)
Alpha Code: MORA
VIP Coordinator: Kevin Bacher
VIP Coordinator Phone: 360-569-2211
Coordinator Email: kevin_bacher@nps.gov

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Volunteer hours by category:

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Administration: 1,298.00
Campground Host: 1,242.00
Cultural Resource Management: 4,531.00
General Management: 327.00
Interpretation: 20,117.00
Maintenance: 2,193.00
Natural Resource Management: 13,140.00
Protection/Operations/Law Enforcement: 24,721.00
Training: 2,561.00
Total: 70,130 (down from 84,038 in FY07)

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Program costs by category:

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Housing: $ 3,175.00
Meals: $ 4,992.00
Recognition/Award: $ 389.00
Supplies: $ 8,334.00
Training: $ 0.00
Transportation: $ 2,154.00
Uniforms: $ 2,860.00

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Volunteer Program Highlight

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This year marked the second year of our Flood Recovery Initiative following the floods of November 2006, including the second and final year of a major partnership with the Student Conservation Association to recruit and lead volunteer work projects with the help of (this year) a 10-person Conservation Corps. The Corps was supported, in part, by $5,000 in regional Special Project Funding. While we didn't record as many volunteer hours as last year, we actually worked with more individuals than ever, a testimony to the success of our outreach efforts in recruiting new volunteers, especially youth. SCA also helped with fundraising, securing, among others, a $93,000 grant from Boeing Corporation to fund youth volunteers, volunteer training, and partnerships with the National Parks Conservation Association and Washington Trails Association. These partnerships were honored with a Cooperative Conservation Award from DOI in April, and the volunteer program received a George B. Hartzog Jr. Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service in May. Superintendent Uberuaga received a Federal Land Manager's Award for his support of the volunteer program in July. Overall, volunteer participation increased in almost every aspect of park operations, as park supervisors and program managers embraced the idea of partnering with volunteers in stewardship of Mount Rainier National Park.

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Training

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How many people at the park require VIP Program Mgmt Training: 8

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Optional Information Regarding Housing VIPS and Campground Hosts

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Number of Campground Hosts: 3
Number of VIPs housed in Permanent Structures: 38
Number of VIPs housed in Trailers: 0

Trailer Pads for Volunteers: 4

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Other Information

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Number of SCAs: 30
SCA Hours: 17585
Number of Artists in Parks: 0
Artist in Parks Hours: 0
Number of International VIPs: 13
International VIPS Hours: 852
Number of Volunteer Senior Ranger Corps: 0
Volunteer Senior Ranger Corps Hours: 0

Further updates on National Public Lands Day

Here's another recap of our accomplishments on National Public Lands Day, from Project Manager Jill Baum. Thanks again to everyone who helped!

Mount Rainier Recovery National Public Lands Day 2008 Projects

Longmire Campground Restoration

• 27 volunteers, morning only, including Boy Scout Troop 516, plus one Recovery Corps staff member, one Recovery Corps crew leader, and one volunteer crew leader
• Description: Restoration work in the historic Longmire Campground continues as we carefully reopen sites which will become a future base for volunteer camping. Work will involve debris removal, pathway delineation, brush clearing, raking, structure restoration and general clean-up.
• Accomplishments: Picked up debris, raked wood chips, winterized picnic tables.

Glacier View Road Clean-up

• 25 volunteers, including Conservation Leadership Corps (afternoon only), plus one Recovery Corps crew leader
• Description: Join us as we assist the Forest Service in cleaning up Road 59 next to Copper Creek. The litter and trash accumulated, and we need your help to clean up this well-used retreat.
• Accomplishments: Collected approximately 50 bags of trash, 10 bags of recycling, 3 kitchen sinks along ~3 miles of road and a dozen campsites; demolished and removed 1 camper.

Kautz Bridge Finish

• 4 volunteers plus two Recovery Corps crew leaders
• Description: Let’s finish this bridge! This bridge construction project is near completion but is in need of a final push to get the decking on and rehab the immediate area. Roundtrip hiking distance is approximately 6 miles, including some steep uphill sections.
• Accomplishments: Installed kick rails, finished decking, built approaches, rehabilitated work areas.

Paradise Planting

• 27 volunteers plus NPS staff and two Recovery Corps crew leaders
• Description: The new JVC is ready to open! Now we need to replant native species in the impacted construction and new landscaping areas. We will be planting thousands of seedlings and salvaged plants.
• Accomplishments: Planted ~2500 native seedlings.

Mile 9 Restoration

• 6 volunteers plus NPS reveg crew leaders
• Description: After the floods from last fall, we need to replant native species in the impacted areas in order to help control erosion and stabilize the banks. We will be planting Willow stakes, seeding bare areas and salvaging plants.
• Accomplishments: Planted ~600 plants and seeded new road edge.

Snow Lake and Pinnacle Peak Trails Brushing

• 6 volunteers plus NPS trails staff and two Recovery Corps crew leaders
• Description: Enjoy the scenery of the Paradise area from Reflection Lake area. Trails are in need of brush cutting and drainage clearing, so join our crew as we reestablish the trail corridor in these locations.
• Accomplishments: Cleared .2 miles of Snow Lake Trail (thick brush) and 1.2 miles of Pinnacle Peak Trail (to saddle).

Longmire-Cougar Rock WT Reroute

• 4 volunteers plus NPS trails staff and two Recovery Corps crew leaders
• Description: A 2000’ section of the Wonderland Trail washed out in the flood, and a huge assortment of park staff, volunteer organizations, and public volunteers have put in a massive effort to build a new section of Wonderland Trail over the past two seasons. The end is in sight on this massive project, and we need your help with the last stretch of tread construction, including finish up work on a new bridge.
• Accomplishments: Hauled 10 wheelbarrow loads of fill, groomed 200’ of tread, rehabbed bridge work site, finished approaches and decking.

Total public volunteers: 102 (42 youth!)
Total volunteer hours (not including leaders): 509