Volunteer
Keep Scenic Hudson parks safe and inviting for people and wildlife by volunteering with us.
Pitching in gives us an opportunity to spend some quality time in nature, meet other people who share our love for the outdoors, and learn more about the plants and animals that call these lands home. We offer a variety of ways that make it easy to participate. We also welcome groups in search of meaningful service projects.
Ways to Participate
Park Patrol
Be the “eyes and ears” of one of our parks, providing information to visitors and alerting us about trail conditions and potential hazards — everything from a downed tree to a broken kiosk to garbage in the parking lot. Also, join staff and other volunteers in tasks such as building trail bridges, replacing invasive plant species with native varieties, and managing invasive insects, including the spotted lantern fly.
Already a member of our Park Patrol? Submit your Property Inspection Report here.
Weekday Helper
Join our field staff as they undertake their regular work to keep our parks shipshape and ready for visitors. You’ll get to work one-on-one with our park experts and be able to sign up for specific projects that match your interests. A popular job is building and maintaining trails; tasks include clearing debris, lopping branches, cutting trails into a side of a slope (called bench cutting), drainage maintenance, and marking trails.
Volunteer Workdays Colleague
These major workdays — approximately six a year — bring together dozens of volunteers to make progress on a large-scale project. We’ve planted over 200 trees in one day, built pollinator gardens and fences, and completed major trail projects during these workdays. Other activities could include removing invasive species, trail maintenance, and cleanups. Held in Scenic Hudson parks, as well as in downtown Poughkeepsie and Newburgh, these workdays offer tasks for people of all ages and abilities — so bring the family or school group along. See our events page for upcoming 2024 dates.
Friends of the Foundry
Urban Farmhand
Group Service Project Participants
Are you a community organizer, teacher, or corporate employee looking for a volunteer outing or service project? Research shows that group volunteer projects engage employees and strengthen workplace culture. Plus, they’re fun. Get to know more about natural habitats in Scenic Hudson parks while helping to restore them. Volunteer workdays aim to teach participants about natural resources, park management, ecology, and environmental issues. Please fill out the form below and we will work to create a volunteer activity that best matches your group’s goals and preferences.
Community Science Assistant
Calling all science geeks! We’ve got a great in-house science team — but they need your help. Assist with data collection and monitoring of wildlife, pollinators, and plant populations around the Hudson Valley. Community science opportunities are seasonal and include eel monitoring, deer exclosure monitoring, pollinator surveys, bird surveys, plant surveys, invasive species surveys, and amphibian monitoring.
→Eel Monitoring
Every spring millions of see through “glass eels” arrive in the Hudson River after an eight-week journey from the Atlantic Ocean. Sign up to use nets and traps to catch, weigh and release the eels at the Black Creek Preserve in Esopus. The data you collect may help biologists discover why populations of these mysterious fish are declining. What’s the experience like? Read this article from a local volunteer who brought her whole family, donned waders, and said, “We felt like we were doing something important.”
→Defining Urban Biodiversity
People of all ages can collect data to help researchers at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies document and discover the amazing diversity of life in the changing landscapes of Kingson, Poughkeepsie, and Newburgh. At specific sites along urban greenways, blueways, and other open spaces, you can add your observations of plants, pollinators, and birds to build each city’s biodiversity profile as part of the Defining Urban Biodiversity study. Helping in this research will allow scientists to better understand what affects the diversity of life in cities and the social benefits of engaging with urban nature.
→Phenology Trail
Help researchers track our changing climate by studying phenology — the seasonal changes that plants and animals undergo each year. While hiking on the Phenology Trail at our Esopus Meadows Preserve in Ulster Park, you’ll observe eight designated plant species and record your findings on a mobile online monitoring network that scientists rely on for data. You can do it anytime, making it perfect for people with busy and unpredictable schedules.
Interested in getting involved in 2025? Email Volunteer Coordinator, Jeremy Laplanche.
