Volunteer

Volunteers Working the Information Desk in the Visitor Center

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Each year millions of visitors enjoy our national parks. Today, the National Park Service includes over 420 sites. Employees have been challenged with a dual mission of conserving and protecting our natural, historical, and cultural resources, as well as providing recreational opportunities. Many individuals assist our parks and their employees by volunteering their time and talents. Those who work in partnership with park employees are called Volunteers-In-Parks, or VIPs.

At Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve volunteers work side-by-side with National Park Service employees to help serve over 30,000 visitors each year. VIPs may work on week days, weekends, mornings, or afternoons. The schedule and amount of time worked will be negotiated. Training for all duties and uniforms are provided for volunteers who work with the public.

Volunteers are not paid by the federal government. However, you will have the benefit of working with a national park, and there will be other rewards as well. Volunteers are not considered federal employees for any purposes other than tort claims and injury compensation. You will meet people from all over the United States and abroad. Also, you will have the opportunity to make the most of your talents, while developing new skills and gaining experiences that will enrich your life and assist you in the present or in future careers.

Apply to Volunteer

Email the park for a Volunteer-In-Parks Application or go to Volunteer.gov and complete via the web. Please be specific in describing your talents, skills and interests; this makes it much easier to place you. Once your application is completed, send it to the address shown below. It will be reviewed to determine if your skills and our needs match. Examples of volunteer opportunities are listed below. If you have a talent or skill not listed below or any other questions, please contact Chief of Interpretation, Heather Brown at [phone] and leave a message.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
ATTN: Heather Brown
2480B KS Hwy 177
Strong City, KS 66869

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Volunteer Opportunities

Artist in Residence Program

• The Tallgrass Artist Residency invites 8 artists a year to participate in two-week residency periods between May and September.

Visitor Information Desk

• Greet the general public, provide information regarding park activities and local points of interest, answer the phones, operate the park audio visual program, and assist park rangers with projects. Assist with lost and found items.

Roving Interpretation at the Preserve

• While roving, provide dual role of answering questions about the Spring Hill Ranch and protecting the museum displays. Possible opportunities to present formal interpretive programs for the general public and/or school groups exist after appropriate training.

 

A volunteer talks about caring for livestock on a ranch.

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Present Living History Demonstrations

• Living History Programs are on the first Saturday of each month during the summer.
• You will dress out in period appropriate clothing to demonstrate the 19th century life and daily activities on a ranch. Activities may include gardening, churning butter, cleaning the stalls, saddling and horsemanship demonstrations, historic cooking, building fence, carpentry demonstrations, wool spinning, quilting, and many other typical ranch chores.
• All living history clothing will be provided, however you may provide your own if it is correct to the time period being presented. Volunteers will be provided living history training prior to their demonstrations.

Lower Fox Creek School

• Volunteer at the Lower Fox Creek School on weekends from noon to 4 p.m. in May, June, September, and October. The one-room school is not air-conditioned and temperatures may reach in the upper 90s, but a cool breeze is usually found at the school. Volunteers will answer visitor questions and provide information about the history of the 1882 Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse.

Education Programs

• Volunteer at the Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse in the spring with our living history Education Program. Assist park rangers with children as they experience school life of the 1880s in a one-room country school house.

Research Special History Projects and Conducting Oral History Interviews

• Assist park rangers with special research projects using scanned microfilm and by conducting oral history interviews with local citizens who have a connection to the history of the ranch. Projects will also include the transcription of past oral history interviews onto computer.

Other Volunteer Opportunities

• Potential opportunities include working in the park library. Here volunteers work on special library projects or process archival collections. With the ranger staff, VIPs assist in the maintenance of permanent exhibits and development of special exhibits. In the administration division, volunteers provide clerical assistance, and in the maintenance division VIPs may assist with grounds or building maintenance.

 

A volunteer surveys for wildlife.

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Tallgrass Trail Stewards

• Walk the hiking trails at the preserve and provide resource information, minor First Aid, and water to our visitors. Volunteers will be required to attend First Aid training prior to beginning this activity. Training and Tallgrass Trail Backpacks will be provided by Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.

Trail Workers

• The preserve is always in need of assistance on various projects with over 40 miles of trails to maintain. These are great ideas for group labor projects. Please call ahead (620-273-8494) to see how you may assist making a difference.

Prairie Work at Tallgrass

• Assist the Natural Resource division with special projects in the prairie. Such projects may consist of gathering seeds, taking water samples, conducting special research projects, and other projects as they arise. Working in the prairie can be very hot, tiring, and dirty work. Volunteers should wear appropriate clothing and use insect spray to protect from ticks and other insects. Bring drinking water for a long day.
• Prairie Seed Harvesting - The seeds collected will be used to restore bottomland prairie areas at the preserve. A short training will be provided by the staff before the activity begins. Volunteers should wear appropriate clothing, sturdy shoes and a sun hat. Use bug spray.
• Volunteer Birders Needed with Bird Monitoring - Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve and the Heartland Network Inventory and Monitoring Program of the National Park Service are seeking volunteer birders to augment an ongoing region-wide bird monitoring program. Volunteer birders will apply standard monitoring techniques to determine the annual distribution and abundance of breeding birds on the preserve. Volunteers will work closely with the parks Natural Resource Staff and the Heartland Networks project supervisor in this bird monitoring effort.
  • David Peitz, Wildlife Ecologist [phone] ext. 276 for questions specific to bird monitoring.
  • Kristen Hase, Superintendent [phone] ext. 280
  • Heather Brown, Chief of Interpretation [phone] ext. 241