For an investment of almost $26,000 this summer, Mount Rainier National Park received more than $1.6 million in volunteer help. That is the assessment of Kevin Bacher, volunteer and outreach coordinator at the park, in his report on the summer volunteer program.
This year 1,728 people donated 74,504 hours to work on projects at the park, ranging from serving as campground hosts to planting native plants to working on trails.
Based on estimates of volunteer value from Independent Sector, those volunteer contributed $1.61 million worth of service to the park.
Bacher noted that while there were 288 fewer volunteers at the park this season compared to last year, they worked 514 more hours.
“The largest reductions in our numbers of volunteers were in the revegetation program, which had more than 300 fewer volunteers,” Bacher said in the report, “and our (Washington Trails Association) partnership, which lagged behind last year’s record numbers by about 80 people, but still contributed 448.”
Bacher said he noticed there were fewer large school groups this year.
Helping pick up some of the slack were Scout groups. Bacher said 100 Boy Scouts spent three days working on projects in August. Scouts helped with trails, revegetation and citizen science.
New this year was the effort from Central Washington University. Staff and students contributed 2,560 hours on an archeology project. They helped investigate a site in the Sunrise area to study the long-term human use of Mount Rainier’s higher-elevation landscapes.
Other citizen science volunteers surveyed amphibians and butterflies and helped lead activities for Keep Wildlife Wild day.
Jeffrey P. Mayor: 253-597-8640
jeff.mayor@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/adventure
VOLUNTEER EFFORT
Here are the details for the 2011 volunteer season at Mount Rainier National Park:
Total volunteers: 1,728
HOURS BY CATEGORY
Administration: 43
Campground host: 2,549
Cultural resource management: 6,817
General management: 3,936
Interpretation: 13,682
Maintenance: 2,246
Natural resource management: 9,163
Protection/Operations/Law Enforcement: 35,395
Training: 673
Total hours: 74,504
PROGRAM COSTS
Housing: $4,691
Meals: $1,210
Recognition/Awards: $422
Supplies: $12,085
Training: $375
Transportation: $2,377
Uniforms: $4,585
Total costs: $25,745
Source: Mount Rainier National Park
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