By expanding park staff’s capacity, volunteers help overcome resource constraints and carry out essential tasks such as trail maintenance, habitat restoration, planting, and more. Their involvement fosters community engagement and connection, spreading awareness and inspiring others to appreciate and protect these natural and cultural treasures.
VOLUNTEER HIGHLIGHTS
Building a Volunteer Community in Urban Parks: Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook
In partnership with Nature Nexus Institute, we relaunched workdays at the park after a three-year pause. These workdays primarily involve ongoing habitat restoration. A major focus has been removing the invasive black mustard and thistle and managing the site’s test plot garden. Our workdays not only benefit the flora and fauna of the park but also educate the public about habitat restoration and allow residents of the surrounding urban landscape of Los Angeles to experience these natural areas.
When Crisis Struck, We Stepped Up: Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park
We hosted monthly volunteer workdays at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, focusing on general park maintenance to keep the popular day-use area visitor-ready and prepare the campground to open in fall 2023. Volunteers repaired fencing, raked leaves, cleaned out BBQ pits, and restored picnic tables. In response to the unprecedented winter storm damage to the area — the San Lorenzo River flooded the picnic areas and windstorms brought down many California bay laurel trees — we added a second workday in March to support staff cleanup efforts. Our volunteers helped remove debris and fallen branches, allowing six picnic areas to open for safe gathering.
Pride in Our Parks
New this year, we organized two Pride in Our Parks volunteer days to provide affinity space for LGBTQ+ people and allies in June. Our workdays took place at Fort Ord Dunes State Park and Candlestick Point State Recreation Area. Intentionally creating space for LGBTQ+ park lovers is important to us as we continue to ensure parks are welcoming spaces for everyone, bringing together our Justice, Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity (JEID) work and our access and experiences program, too.
What would you like to tell future volunteers to help encourage them to join in on volunteer workday projects?
“You will not regret it. I guarantee you will feel greatly rewarded by spending time in our beautiful state parks, and you will feel good about your role in protecting and preserving them for future generations to enjoy.”
– Helen Ogden, Volunteer Core Leader
EARTH DAY CLIMATE ACTION 2023
Since 1998, California State Parks Foundation has hosted Earth Day events. Statewide, thousands of volunteers each year plant native trees and community gardens, restore trails and wildlife habitats, remove trash and debris from parklands, and make repairs to fences and boardwalks. In April 2023, California State Parks Foundation was proud to activate thousands of people across California to participate in this global movement by taking action on climate change throughout the month.
California state parks are increasingly threatened by climate change, and building resilience to withstand and manage climate impacts is essential. Our 25th Annual Earth Day Climate Action took direct action to protect our parks from wildfires, flooding, increased coastal erosion, and loss of biodiversity. We hosted 11 in-person volunteer workdays, organized a statewide do-it-yourself (DIY) trash cleanup, and provided educational content about climate change and how to make state parks more climate-resilient.
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86% of survey respondents felt an increased sense of connection with state parks after participation in the workday.
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94% of survey respondents felt that the event connected them with a broader community of park supporters.
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“All the activities were fun and informative. The staff and volunteers were incredibly welcoming and helpful.” – Earth Day Participant
Elected Officials
Bold climate action will require significant support and funding to be successfully implemented statewide. California State Parks Foundation advocates for climate resilience at a policy level and engaged legislators at the following sites during Earth Day Climate Action events:
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Assemblymember Mark Berman welcomed volunteers at Half Moon Bay State Beach.
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Andrea Chmelik, District Director for Assemblymember Dawn Addis, welcomed volunteers at Montaña de Oro State Park.
DIY Cleanup
For the third year, as part of Earth Day Climate Action, we offered free DIY kits to give participants the materials they need to pick up trash in their local outdoor spaces.
7,750 participants collected more than 620 bags of trash.
Over 95% of volunteers said the experience inspired them to clean up their local state park on a future visit.
