Volunteer

Volunteers at the park get involved in a wide range of activities

NPS Photos

Are you interested in giving back to your community? Volunteer at Prince William Forest Park and gain valuable skills and experience. Help protect and preserve park for future generations. There is something to do for youth, families, groups, and individuals.

Volunteering is an American tradition that has made an immeasurable contributions to communities, organizations and individuals throughout the country. Today's volunteers are active, dynamic, creative individuals of all ages who possess the skills, desire, patience and time to accomplish a wide variety of tasks. Each year, more than 120,000 volunteers donate over 4,000,000 hours of service in the U.S. national parks. At Prince William Forest Park, volunteers help take care of the historic cabins in the park, provide information to visitors to the park, help clean up park trails, and perform a variety of other services for the park. To learn more about how you can volunteer at the park, please email us.

 

Volunteer working on a historic cabin

NPS Photo

Maintenance Volunteer

Maintenance volunteers support the primary mission of the National Park Service to preserve and protect the park resources, and to promote the enjoyment of those resources by visitors. Maintenance volunteers support operational maintenance work including but not limited to trail maintenance, lawn and landscaping, building maintenance, snow removal, and assisting park craft and trades staff.

 

Volunteer working at the visitor center

NPS Photo

Visitor Center Volunteer

Are you passionate about sharing Prince William Forest Park's story with visitors? As a visitor center volunteer you can work the information desk in the park's visitor center, greeting visitors, answering their questions, explaining the nature of the park, answering phone calls, responding to visitor correspondence, operating cash registers, operating visual equipment, and researching information for visitors.

 

PATC Trail Volunteers work on clearing a trail

Spooky Beaver Crew, PATC

Trail Volunteer

Are you looking to help keep the park trails clear? The Spooky Beaver Crew, part of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC), helps maintain all of the park trails, clearing fallen branches and other debris and helping park staff rebuild bridges and bogwalks when needed. Email the Spooky Beavers for more information on how to join or visit their website.

 

Group of volunteers working during National Public Lands Day

NPS Photo

Special Event Volunteer

Special events often require different skills and large groups of volunteers to make the event successful. Special events that need volunteers are National Public Lands Day, Operation Clean Sweep, OSS Day, CCC Living History Days, National Junior Ranger Day, and many more.

 

Note: This volunteer list is not all-inclusive. If you have a talent of skill not listed above, but feel it would be a valuable service to the park visitor, please let us know. Call the visitor center at 703-221-7181. Email us or check www.volunteer.gov.

 

Current Volunteer Opportunities

 

2024 Operation Clean Sweep Volunteers

NPS Photo

Operation Clean Sweep

We're looking for volunteers to join us for a little spring cleaning in our historical cabin camps to get them ready for the season! A great event for all ages, you can bring your family, a friend or your neighbor to help park staff clean up our cabins after a winter spent vacant. A great opportunity for large groups of volunteers, we are looking for volunteers for the following Saturdays:

• Check back soon for 2025 Operation Clean Sweep dates

The event runs from 9:00am to 1:00pm with check-in beginning at 8:30am. Meeting location will be emailed to you prior to the event. RSVP by calling 703-221-2847 or emailing us.

Public Lands Day 2006. NPS Photo.