Volunteering

It’s about People, just like you....Our volunteers and partners contribute to a wide variety of tasks on the Sierra National Forest. 

Volunteer Opportunities Now Available

The Sierra National Forest is seeking wilderness volunteer rangers to carry on their passion and enthusiasm for protecting and preserving our Wilderness areas. Rangers will experience the John Muir and Ansel Adams Wilderness, as well as the lesser-known Dinkey Lakes, Kaiser and Monarch Wilderness Areas. 

The following are some volunteer opportunities and duty descriptions that are offered here. 

Fire Lookout Volunteers report fires from lookouts, which enable  firefighters to engage in fires early on before it develops into larger incidents.  In addition, the volunteer teaches wildfire prevention to the public. 

Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Volunteer Clubs contribute to projects, such as Adopt-A-Trial and Adopt-A-Campground. The volunteers provide general trail maintenance and campground maintenance, such as clearing trails of downed trees, repair waterbars, trail signs, maintain cleanliness of campgrounds, and other duties.

Recreation Facilities Volunteers perform general facilities and ground maintenance; which includes cleaning and painting restrooms, making repairs to buildings located at remote trailheads, trim branches, and other duties.

Trail Maintenance Volunteers perform routine trail maintenance through brushing and limbing, tread work, tree removal, grubbing out roots and stubs, water bar cleaning and installation, installing drainage dips, and repairing other structures as needed.  Trail maintenance serves to renew and restore degraded, damaged, or destroyed areas in the Forest.

Volunteers from the High Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew are involved with marijuana garden restoration through removing non-native materials from Forest Service managed lands.  They clean up and dismantle abandoned marijuana grow sites, remove many miles of irrigation line, drain man-made ponds and swimming pools use for irrigation.

Volunteer Campground Hosts greet and inform day use and overnight visitors about the rules and regulations pertaining to the Sierra National Forest. In addition, the volunteer provides interpretive information to visitors based on Forest Service approved interpretive materials. 

Wildlife Surveying Volunteers are trained to operate FS vehicles safely, field safety, wildlife protocols, equipment use (including radio), and general rules and regulations. Duties include: following wildlife survey protocols, utilizing the radio caller to illicit wildlife animal, listening and identifying wildlife calls, and completing survey forms and compiling data.

These are only some of the many volunteer opportunities that are offered.   

If you are interested in spending time volunteering for the Sierra National Forest and don’t know what you want to do, fill out the Volunteer Application Form at the following link:  Volunteer Service Application and send it to Judi Tapia via email at: judith.tapia@usda.gov.  If you would like to mail  in the application please sent it to: Volunteer Coordinator SNF, 1600 Tollhouse Rd., Clovis CA. 93611. We will match you accordingly to your interest and initiate a Volunteer Service Agreement (OMB 0596-0080 ex.10/2021).