Volunteer in Virginia

In addition to participating in work days, trail maintenance and cleanups, our volunteers perform internet research, help at events and complete administrative tasks in the office. Some needs we regularly seek to fill include:

• Preserve Stewards: Visit select preserves at least 4 times a year to assess trail and preserve conditions and perform basic trail maintenance by removing fallen branches and overgrown vegetation.
• Volunteer Photography/Videography: Take pictures and/or video throughout the year for use in the Virginia chapter's publications, website and social media.
• Social Media: Share posts from the chapter's Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts with your personal networks to help spread the word about our work across the commonwealth.
• Environmental Education: Volunteer with the Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve and assist with outdoor field experiences for 5th, 7th, and 10th grade classes during the school year (September-May).

Volunteers in Action

Each year since 2016, the Virginia Chapter has partnered with Fairfax County Park Authority in Northern Virginia to host a Chesapeake Bay watershed cleanup. The goal of the cleanup is to keep trash and debris out of waterways that flow into the bay.

In 2023, 417 volunteers worked across Fairfax County parks, giving 936 hours to remove 1.8 tons of trash! 

The most common items found during our cleanups include plastic bottles and bags, cans, cigarette butts, styrofoam and glass bottles.

Collectively from 2017-2023 (minus 2020 due to COVID), 3,628 volunteers cleaned more than 150 miles of stream, shoreline and trails, removing 25.3 tons of trash from more than 25 parks and locations, giving 8,587 hours of service.

While the numbers are impressive, it’s the stories that make this effort successful, too. Many volunteers express how the cleanup impacted their children and how it opened their eyes to some of the environmental challenges we face. We also get a lot of people asking how they can continue to make a difference.

Each year, The Nature Conservancy and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), along with several partners in the Seaside Heritage Seagrass Community Restoration Program, begin another chapter in the largest seagrass restoration project in the world!

And you can be a part of it.

Volunteer snorkelers and water lovers are needed to collect millions of eelgrass seeds offshore of Oyster on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Volunteers must sign up to get updates as collection days each year are weather dependent and cancellations may occur.

Trips will last from 4-5 hours. Volunteers will meet at the eelgrass tanks near 6493 Sunnyside Road, Cape Charles, VA. If you have not collected before we highly encourage you to sign up for at least two collection days.

For more information or to sign up, call or email Jen Dalke, volunteer program manager, at jdalke@tnc.org or 540-335-1302 (cell). 

Which city on Earth has the most nature and the most engaged residents?

The City Nature Challenge aims to find out!

The City Nature Challenge (CNC) is an international community science effort to discover and document plants and wildlife in cities across the globe. Stay tuned for the 2025 City Nature Challenge!

Explore Your World

The City Nature Challenge encourages people to discover and document the biodiversity of our urban spaces. What began in 2016 as a friendly challenge between Los Angeles and San Francisco has now grown to an international event!

There are many ways to look for nature right in your own backyard. Discover the plants that are growing on their own and the insects and pollinators that live in and around our homes and yards. You never know what you might find!

How to Find Insects

Insects are probably some of the easiest organisms to find in and around our homes, since they’re abundant and incredibly diverse! But where should you look to find them? What can you use to catch them?

These sites provide some guidance on how to find and temporarily hold insects. Be sure to release them after you've posted your observation on iNaturalist!

• BugCollectors: Where to Find Insects
• WikiHow: How to Catch Small Bugs

Moth Lighting

Setting up a light and a sheet to attract moths is a simple and easy way to bring more nature into your backyard. Photographing moths on the sheet is easy, and you’ll definitely attract other flying insects as well!

Science Friday has a great set of instructions for observing moths, and the Devon Wildlife Trust's video shows how to build your own moth light to attract a wider variety of moths. (Note: in the video, "torch" is British for flashlight.)

• Science Friday: Go Mothing!
• Devon Wildlife Trust: How to Make a Moth Trap (2:59)

Get Involved

It’s easy to get involved using the iNaturalist app (free on the App Store or Google Play). Just take a picture of a plant or animal and upload it to the app. Observations made during City Nature Challenge also provide valuable data for scientists, land managers, non-profits and governments about the areas that they help to protect.

Explore your neighborhood parks—or even your own backyard. There's nature all around you!

Want to be a part of our conservation efforts on Virginia’s Eastern Shore?

Opportunities are available as an island or boat ramp steward.

Island steward is a volunteer position best suited for a person who lives on the Eastern Shore of Virginia who visits The Nature Conservancy’s barrier islands by their own means and would like to serve as a TNC representative on these occasions

Boat ramp steward is a position for someone who is interested in volunteering to distribute educational brochures at seaside boat ramps on weekends, especially holiday weekends, throughout the summer.

Volunteer stewards act as official representatives of TNC’s Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve program, to educate visitors about the sensitive natural resources of VVCR’s barrier islands by talking with visitors and handing out brochures as needed. The steward’s educational efforts focus on, but are not limited to, breeding shorebirds and colonial waterbirds. Duties include:

• Attend annual training sessions at TNC’s office in Nassawadox, typically held in early spring.
• When on the islands and engaging in stewardship responsibilities, educate visitors about the sensitive natural resources on the islands through casual conversation and distribution of informational literature.
• Report incidences of use-policy violations immediately to TNC staff.

Commitment:

No regular island visitation schedule will be set; steward responsibilities will be on an on-going, opportunistic basis, when stewards choose to visit the islands. Stewards interested in volunteering at boat ramps can set their own schedule and report days and hours spent to TNC staff.

Qualifications include:

• Local Eastern Shore resident.
• Excellent communication skills which can positively and effectively, yet casually, teach all island visitors.
• Desire to help protect the biodiversity of the Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve through education of island visitors.
• Must have transportation to get on and off the islands, as well as familiarity with the local waterways unless only interested in volunteering at boat ramps.
• Must undergo a background check (requires SSN) and Nature Conservancy Youth Safety Qualifications prior to volunteering which will take 1.5-2 hours of time.