Nearly 1,840 volunteers gave 70,130 hours of their time at Mount Rainier National Park this last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. That translates into $1.37 million worth of work, representing more than 10 percent of the park’s annual operating budget.

This season’s volunteer hours were down from the 2006-07 season when volunteers worked 84,038 hours. The decline is no surprise given that the demand for help was much greater following the historic flood of November 2006.

But it is surprising, and pleasantly so, that the number of people who volunteered at the park went up 6.5 percent. There were 1,724 volunteers working the park in the 2006-07 season.

It’s great so many people turned out to help with flood recovery and other projects. There wasn’t nearly as much press coverage of the park’s need to drum up support, yet people still showed up.

To me, this proves the park is on its way to building a sustainable cadre of volunteers who want to work throughout park operations.

“We really held our own. It surprised me, but it didn’t shock me,” said Kevin Bacher, who runs the park’s volunteer program.

Coming into the year, Bacher said his goal was about 64,000 volunteer hours. “But the real story is less in the total numbers and in the details on where we made gains, and how we made gains,” he said. “We had more volunteers involved in more programs in the park than we ever had in the past. We’ve always had large groups of volunteers working on revegetation and on trails and in a smattering of other programs.”

Now volunteers are assisting with projects such as soundscape surveys, endangered species counts and working in park archives.

“We’ve got all these programs that have never worked with volunteers in the past,” Bacher said. “It suggests that the idea of involving the public in our everyday operation is catching on. I personally think that is a great asset, not only for the public but for the park.

“Getting the public involved in that work means the public supports our work a whole lot more and connects us as public servants to the public a whole lot more.”

Expanding volunteer programs throughout the National Park Service has required a philosophical change. Many staffers feared losing their jobs to volunteers. Others questioned whether volunteers have the skills needed to do specific scientific and cultural work.

“A lot of people we work with have a tremendous amount of skills. Some of them come up to do something they’ve never done before,” Bacher said.

“Others have skills we need or have the native understanding of Mount Rainier National Park because they have been hiking here for 50 or 60 years,” he said. As an example, “that’s expericence we don’t have as professionals because three years ago we were working at Acadia National Park in Maine.

“They make it fun because we get to come in and work with them.”

With flood recovery work done, Bacher and the rest of the park staff face the challenge of maintaining the momentum of the last two years.

“I’ve thought about it a little bit. I think if we come close to holding our own to this year, I’ll be very pleased,” Bacher said when asked about his goal for next year.

“It won’t surprise me if we don’t dip a little bit over the next two or three years, but I don’t see it as an unreasonable goal to match what we did this year.”

Jeffrey P. Mayor: 253-597-8640

jeff.mayor@thenewstribune.com

blogs.thenewstribune.com/adventure