Sagehen welcomes volunteer efforts, but we don’t often have staff to create structured programs, so it’s up to you: what did you have in mind?
The following are some past and ongoing examples of volunteer-created contributions. To get involved in an existing volunteer effort, use the contact information in the project description. Please contact the Station Manager if you would like to propose a new volunteer project.
Here is a fun project with which we can definitely use help right now: finding animals in camera trap photos!
iNaturalist and California Naturalist
| Sagehen California Naturalists and other interested volunteers post their observations of plants and animals in the Sagehen Basin to our iNaturalist project, giving us incredibly valuable documentation of our biota lists and the distribution of these species over time. Get more info about iNaturalist here, then get involved and start posting your own observations! * * * California Naturalist aims to develop a core of committed, trained volunteers to take an active role in citizen science, education and conservation projects. Sagehen’s first California Naturalist training took place over 10-weeks in summer 2012. |
Sagehen collections
| Museum curator Erica Krimmel repaired our bear mount and coordinated other volunteers, the Berkeley MVZ, and Cal Poly’s Hoover Herbarium to digitize the Sagehen botany, mammal, bird and insect collections. Though not complete, the Sagehen herbarium is a large and useful plant collection that is now available and searchable online, thanks largely to Erica. The digital collection includes specimen records and color images, including hi-res scans for some vouchers. With Faerthen Felix, she is actively expanding the collection to match our basin plant list, and worked with other volunteers to mount specimens and digitize records, as well. |
Truckee River Watershed Council projects
TRWC offers volunteer opportunities at Sagehen (and elsewhere) throughout the year. These opportunities typically involve a fun outing to a stream, including:
Contact the Truckee River Watershed Council for more information or to sign up! |
Adventure – Risk – Challenge Summer Leadership & Literacy Program
| ARC is Sagehen’s outreach program for English Language Learners. The program combines committing outdoor activities with intensive grammar and writing exercises. There are a number of volunteer opportunities with ARC at varying levels of commitment, ranging from acting as an interview subject for a couple of hours, to providing day-to-day assistance with program logistics. Read profiles of dedicated ARC volunteers, Suzie Cordero and Susie Lippuner. Contact ARC for more information. |
Sagehen’s On-line Wildflower Identification tools
| Al Grigarick bought a digital camera and decided to photograph wildflowers to teach himself to use it. He worked with local botanists to ID the plants and Sagehen staff to create a system to present them on the web. The collection includes 200 of the species on our basin plant list. The photos are great for learning botany and cross referencing common and scientific names. There’s a spreadsheet and information sheet about the collection, allowing you to look up flowers by name. In 2007, Al added a new section on conifers (evergreen trees). Lots of people use the tools, including students, teachers and agencies. Take a look at this useful collection on our Collections page. |
Sagehen Summer Speaker Series
| Sagehen presents occasional volunteer speakers on scientific topics of interest to the local community. See our events page for more information. Contact the Station Manager if you would like to offer a presentation or suggest a topic. |
Invasive Species Removal/Prevention
Sagehen has a few invasive species concerns that volunteers can help with. To prevent future problems, please do not bring non-native genotypes into the creek or basin.
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Research Project Assistants
| From time to time, Sagehen researchers need volunteer help with their projects. In the past, research volunteers helped band birds for the MAPS project, hunted for slave-making ant raids and fished to collect non-native trout for comparative studies. Contact the Station Manager to ask about current researchers possibly needing assistance. | |||
Sagehen low-impact cleaning supplies
| Volunteer Susie Lippuner lobbied the Biokleen company and others to provide low-impact cleaning supplies to replace the conventional ones used by Sagehen visitors in the past. This excellent program benefits our septic systems, the basin and creek environment, and chemically-sensitive station visitors. |
Maintenance & repairs
Folks occasionally help us with ongoing maintenance and repairs to the facilities. For instance:
Contact the Station Manager to ask about projects that may need doing. | |||
Graphic Art
| Scientific Illustrator Stephanie Rozzo produced graphic art demonstrating concepts behind the Sagehen Forest Project. |