Volunteer Project Catalog
Polk County Conservation
Join Polk County Conservation’s efforts to restore our prairies and preserve local biodiversity - help us plant over 5,000 plants in our seed production plots! Throughout the year, Polk County Conservation staff and volunteers engage in a variety of activities to promote the production of diverse prairie plant species throughout the county. Prairie seed generated through these efforts help to restore prairies, wetlands, and oak savanna habitat. Restoration of Polk County’s prairie heritage helps create a resilient landscape by increasing biodiversity, expanding wildlife habitat, improving water quality, reducing flood potential, and storing carbon dioxide. An important part of ensuring access to quality seed for this important restoration work is the use of seed production plots. In partnership with the Iowa DNR, PCC utilizes these production plots as a means to grow desirable prairie plants for their seed which provides species diversity in native prairie ecosystems, saves tens of thousands of dollars in seed costs, creates availability to rare and expensive species, and promotes biodiversity in wildlife. This year, we are proud to announce the expansion of our production plots to include more unique species, and we need your help getting these plants in the ground. Join us for a day of planting while learning about the tallgrass prairie habitat and its ecological significance in Iowa. Dates: Friday, June 13 @ 7:30 - 1:00 PM Saturday, June 14 @ 7:30 AM - 1:00 PM *For Friday and Saturday, light breakfast will be available from 7:30 - 8:00 AM during volunteer check-in in addition to a post-event BBQ from 12 - 1 PM for all registered participants. Ensure your dietary restrictions are up-to-date in your VolunteerMatters account. Tuesday, June 17 @ 8:00 AM - 12 PM Wednesday, June 18 @ 8:00 - 12 PM
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Polk County Conservation
Join us for a morning of teamwork, conservation, and community as we continue building a new and improved trail at Easter Lake Park. This is an excellent opportunity for trail enthusiasts to gain entry-level trail construction skills while make a meaningful impact on our local trails. During this event, participants will help to clear existing vegetation and construct newly laid out trail sections. The new layout of this trail system improves the sustainability of the trail system, decreases maintenance, and helps to increase trail accessibility. Equipped with essential tools and guidance from PCC staff, you'll learn the best practices and proper techniques for trail construction. This event will start with a trail construction training follow by trail building activities. This event is designed for beginner to experienced trail building volunteers. This volunteer project has been made possible by passing of the 2021 Polk County Water Land & Legacy Bond, which has provided $10 million towards trails throughout Polk County. Upcoming Dates: Tuesday, May 13th @ 9am-12pm Thursday, May 15th @ 9am-12pm Friday, May 16th @ 9am-12pm Tuesday, May 20th @ 9am-12pm Thursday, May 22nd @ 9am-12pm
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Polk County Conservation
Come lend a hand in our native pollinator and rain gardens! Throughout Polk County parks, pollinator and rain gardens utilizing native plants provide biodiversity, wildlife habitat, help to manage stormwater runoff and improve water quality, and beautify our parks. Garden volunteers help take care of gardens in a location of their choosing for a few hours each month on a schedule that works for them. Whether you area a beginner or experienced gardener, there is a place for you in our garden volunteer program. All garden volunteers will be provided training and instruction as needed. Garden volunteers are not fully responsible for their garden(s). Throughout the year, staff and public volunteer events focused on gardening help to maintain these garden spaces. Many hands make lighter work! Garden volunteers are expected to: - Meet with volunteer staff for onboarding and training - Volunteer in their designated garden areas a couple hours every two weeks or more if desired - Communicate needs and requests for more training/education if needed - Submit their volunteer hours
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Polk County Conservation
Help restore native habitat and biodiversity in Polk County Parks by removing garlic mustard! Garlic mustard is an invasive plant species that tends to develop thick patches which outcompetes native understory flowers and grasses. Volunteers are needed to help specially handpull this plant from our woodland areas. Volunteers are needed in early spring through May as its an ideal time to remove this species before it goes to seed. Volunteer Staff will train individuals on plant identification, proper removal techniques, and help to identify known locations of garlic mustard within the park they choose to volunteer within. Volunteers are asked to track their volunteer hours and submit locations where they found and removed garlic mustard. While a major threat to our forests, garlic mustard also makes a dangerously delicious sauce in the kitchen! All volunteers will be given recipes to try out for a garlic mustard pesto sauce that can be used in a variety of culinary creations. Upcoming Dates: March-May Locations: Jester Park, Sycamore Trails, Chichaqua, Fort Des Moines Park
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Polk County Conservation
Help support our mission to restore Iowa’s native habitats by harvesting seed grasses and wildflowers from PCC tallgrass prairies, wetlands, and woodlands. All seed harvested is used for future habitat restoration projects across Polk County. As a seed harvester volunteer, you will collect native seed by hand that is ready to harvest from select plant species. This role will require bending at the knees, standing, kneeling, and walking through uneven terrain through grasses and wildflowers. Volunteers can be approved to work independently or with local stewardships groups to harvest seed within Polk County parks and along trails. Once onboarding and training are complete along with continuous ongoing support and direction from PCC staff, volunteers can harvest seed from approved locations on their own time. Each volunteer holding this position is required to report volunteer hours dedicated to harvesting efforts within designated areas. Volunteer hours that are self-reported are those that are completed outside of publicly promoted events led by PCC staff.
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Polk County Conservation
Whether you are seeking an inspiring setting in which to give back to the outdoor community; a senior looking to enjoy retirement; or simply wishing to spend quality time in a beautiful county park, all are invited to share their unique talents and passion for the outdoors and conservation with park visitors entering into their adventure at Jester Park. What Will You Do? Volunteers will be serving an important role at the Jester Park Nature Center welcoming visitors into their outdoor adventure at Jester Park. Volunteer Duties: *Welcome and assist visitors *Direct visitors to the various amenities that Jester Park provides *Provide information regarding events and programs *Check in and out Park Packs *Help set up and clean up for programming and events
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Polk County Conservation
Help beautify our parks and community through litter cleanup! Removal of litter from waterways and beyond has lasting impacts on water quality, animal health, and more. Volunteers can be approved to work independently or with friends and family to remove litter within Polk County parks, trails, and watersheds during. Volunteers that sign up for this role will identify parks or focus areas with PCC volunteer staff for litter removal and will be given supplies including trash bags, trash grabbers, and gloves. This volunteer position is designed to be flexible allowing volunteers to participate on schedules that work for them. Volunteers are required to report volunteer hours dedicated to litter removal within our parks, trails, and watersheds. When possible, volunteers are asked to weigh and report the trash removed. Locations volunteers can participate include any Polk County park or trail. Find a list of our trails here: https://www.polkcountyiowa.gov/conservation/parks-trails/ *Hours should be reported for litter removal completed outside of publicly promoted litter removal events.
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Polk County Conservation
Are you interested in becoming a water quality monitor volunteer? Across Polk County, volunteers help monitor 70 sites along our local waterways as a part of the Polk County Conservation Water Quality Monitoring Program (PCCWQMP). Each month volunteers monitor sites collecting data on weather, stream conditions, and basic chemical testing (pH, nitrate/nitrite, chloride, phosphate, and dissolved oxygen). WHAT TO EXPECT: TIME COMMITMENT Water quality monitoring occurs the first and/or third weeks of each month of the year. Monitoring takes 15-20 minutes at individual sites during most of the year. In mid-July/early August additional habitat assessments and biological (benthic macroinvertebrate collection) assessments are completed. These assessments typically take 1-2 hours. TRAINING and SUPPLIES All monitors receive free training prior to taking on a monitoring site. Online independent learning modules are available. All supplies, including equipment needed to complete water quality, testing will be provided to each volunteer. Field monitors submit their data through an app. FIELD ENVIRONMENT Monitoring takes places along our local waterways throughout neighborhoods of Polk County. Monitors are asked to monitor in the flow of the stream, although sometimes this is not possible so sampling along bridges is allowed in those cases. If becoming a water quality field monitor sounds like a good fit for you, we encourage you to sign up! After signing up, you will be asked to complete the agreement and the 5 modules of water quality training. Please contact the coordinator if you have questions. Thank you!
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Polk County Conservation
The Polk County Conservation Bat Monitoring Program is designed to learn which bat houses around the county are being utilized and by what type of colony. Monitoring is done by performing bat house emergence counts which entails counting how many bats exit and reenter bat houses shortly after sunset. Bat house emergent counts can vary in lasting between 25 minutes to 1 hour. Regular intervals of monitoring provides valuable insight regarding distribution, roost preferences, and population estimates bats found across the county. Volunteer Bat Monitor Requirements: - Perform at least 6 emergent counts throughout the monitoring season at your selected park (or roughly 1 per month if beginning monitoring after season has started) - Submit emergent count data online at https://forms.gle/DLorcK4f9xZtBQDR9 within 3 days of monitoring - Submit bat monitoring volunteer hours at the end of each month *Volunteer bat monitors are asked to monitor at least 6 times per park and not per bat house location.
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Polk County Conservation
The purpose of the central Iowa bluebird monitoring program is to provide habitat for and protection of bluebirds. Bluebird populations face the threat of habitat loss due to encroachment of urban construction as well as the usurpation of nesting cavities by European Starlings and House Sparrow, both of which were illegally introduced into the United States. Organizations partnering within the bluebird monitoring program address the bluebird habitat issue through bluebird box trails and weekly trail monitoring. Bluebird boxes are designed with openings too small for the European Starlings to enter through and monitors exclude House Sparrows from the boxes throughout the nesting season. The boxes and weekly monitoring efforts help to provide protection from predators and other threats and to benefit other bird species. Volunteer Bluebird Monitor Responsibilities: - Close and prepare their designated boxes between 2/15 and 3/15 each year - Perform weekly nest monitoring checks April 1st through August 31st, or until the last fledgling has left - Submit bluebird hatch record summary data using the designated online form to the wildlife programs volunteer coordinator no later than September 15th. - Submit bluebird monitoring volunteer hours at the end of each month Hatch record summary data should be submitted online at https://forms.gle/TLY2gztkd5K9qfAV9
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Polk County Conservation
In 2021, Polk County Conservation (PCC) began partnering with the Iowa Butterfly Survey Network (IBSN) to monitor butterflies. Monitors are asked to complete a virtual training with IBSN and to monitor designated route(s) 6+ times between June 1 and August 8. IBSN and Polk County Conservation aim to utilize butterfly data to better understand the health and distribution of native butterfly species and the habitats they are living in. Volunteer Butterfly Monitor Responsibilities - Work with PCC volunteer coordinators to select a portion of hard or soft trail to monitor - Make an account with IBSN and complete their online training - Complete 6 runs of your designated route between June 1st and August 8th - Upload data to IBSN in a timely manner - Submit your butterfly route monitoring volunteer hours at the end of each month *Volunteer hours will need to be tracked for both IBSN's records/database and for PCC's records/database. For PCC's records and ease of reporting hours, if you cover another monitor's trail one or two times please simply report the monitoring time under your primary butterfly route's volunteer hours. *During a monitoring run, volunteers are going through and trying to identify which butterfly species they encounter along their route
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Polk County Conservation
The Polk County Conservation Kestrel Monitoring Program originally began in partnership with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and monitors kestrel nest box use within Chichaqua Bottoms Greenbelt. The American kestrel is the smallest native bird of prey of North America. Its current population is regarded as "least concern", but its total numbers are in a sharp decline without the a clear cause on what is driving it. In response to the decline, groups and individuals across the country have began to monitor kestrel nest boxes. Polk County Conservation's nest box data is documented internally for trend tracking and shared with the American Kestrel Partnership for their research. Volunteer Kestrel Monitor Requirements: - Monitor designated nest boxes 1-2 times per month throughout the monitoring season (March 15th - August 31st) - Climb ladders (10 - 15 feet) to nest boxes for seasonal maintenance - Remove nests of invasive species from nest boxes as needed - Use a borescope/snake camera to look into nest boxes while monitoring - Document the animal species and number of adults, eggs, and offspring found within each nest box - Coordinate sharing monitoring supplies/equipment with Polk County Conservation staff and other volunteer(s) - Submit kestrel monitoring volunteer hours at the end of each month *Monitors can borrow Polk County Conservation's snake/borescope camera(s) as well as a ladder for nest box monitoring
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Polk County Conservation
Jester Park is home to two purple martin colonies. Purple martins are the largest North American species of swallow. They roost in colonies that can consist of thousands of birds. Colony monitoring used to be a much more common practice, and the species adapted to using manmade structures. Today, purple martins east of the Rocky Mountains tend to utilize artificial homes while those west of the mountain range favor their natural habitat. Colony monitors are tasked with collecting data on the colony's nesting and reproduction success throughout the summer. They are asked to change the nesting material if the interior of the nesting structure has become wet/saturated due to weather and/or when the nestlings are about 10 days old. Depending on the year, purple martin nesting areas may become infiltrated by various bugs/pests/mites. Based on guidance from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Purple Martin Conservation Association, monitors may perform a nest change for pest control. However, save for the nest change when nestlings are 10 days old, monitors are not asked to perform nest changes for bug/pest/mite control. This is in part due to a 3-year study on the benefit of nest changing that revealed no clear, long-term benefit from the practice when they compared nest structures with and without nest changes.
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Polk County Conservation
Each spring and fall, Polk County Conservation (PCC) staff and volunteers keep an eye out for snakes in the landscapes PCC manages. Originally started to monitor the local smooth green snake population within Chichaqua Bottoms Greenbelt, Polk County Conservation's snake monitoring program keeps tracks of what species of snakes are being spotted and where in order to better understand where different populations reside and how land management practices may impact snake populations overtime. Polk County Conservation has 7 total established snake monitoring routes located at Chichaqua and Brown’s Woods Park. Volunteers can choose to monitor a specific monitoring route once a week or they can also help to record chance snake encounters within Polk County Parks and trails. Monitoring is only done during daylight hours between 50-80 degrees Fahrenheit, and when it is not actively precipitating. Volunteer Snake Monitor Requirements: - Complete training with Polk County staff - Monitor designated routes once per week - Follow trails and roadways within Polk County Conservation managed parks and trails to look for snakes for chance encounters - Document any snakes that you come across by recording the species, quantity, location, time, date, temperature, and cloud cover - Record your snake sighting online at tinyurl.com/pcc-snakes - Record your snake monitoring volunteer hours at the end of each month
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Polk County Conservation
Polk County Conservation is working in partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Army Corps of Engineers, IA DNR, and the City of Des Moines to collect data for the Urban Wildlife Information Network. A primary goal of the Urban Wildlife Information Network (based out of the Lincoln Park Zoo) is to gather and share data so that partners can quantify differences in the composition of urban wildlife communities both within and among cities. This study utilizes 25 trail camera traps placed along a linear transect to document wildlife sightings within various cities across the United States. Volunteers are assigned folders of images captured by the camera traps and are asked to go through each photo and to tag any animals they can locate within each image. The online photo library utilizes a Google library, and a Google email will be required to participate. This volunteer activity can be done from anywhere with a secure internet connection. Volunteers interested in this position will be asked to review information and training prior to participating in the UWIN camera study.
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