Trail Work & Maintenance 

• Trail Crew - With over 95 miles of trail and counting, many hands are needed to maintain this vast network! If you like to work outdoors or spend time on the trail with others, this is a great way to become more active in your community and give back. Trail work days typically involve trail pruning, blazing, bridge building, or down tree removal for 2-3 hours and occur periodically through the season. No prior experience with tools is needed, tools and training are provided. Come join the fun, vibrant community of volunteers maintaining our trails! You can participate once a year or once a month as your schedule allows.

• Preserve Trail Steward - Adopt a trail section and make sure it stays accessible and inviting to all visitors! Trail stewards walk their trails ~4x/year and report maintenance needs (i.e. broken bridge, down trees, signage needs). This is a great role if you already frequently visit a preserve and are looking for a way to deepen your connection to it by stewarding the trail.

• HVNC Trail Steward - Adopt a Trail at HVNC. With over 25 miles to choose from, we're sure to have something for everyone. Help by hiking or biking your adopted trail once a month and reporting issues like erosion, down trees, pruning needs, etc.

Invasive Plant Removal

• Land – There is nothing more satisfying than watching the pile of invasive plants grow as you clear habitat for native plants to thrive! Invasive plant work days entail removing plants with loppers, hand saws, shovels, weed wrenches, etc. for 2-3hrs and occur periodically from spring-fall. No prior experience with tools is needed, tools and training will be provided. You can participate once a year or once a month as your schedule allows.

• Water - Adopt a section of Damariscotta Lake to survey for invasive aquatic plants in the late summer, manage IPP volunteers, and/or allow your property to be utilized to house IPP equipment and coordinate volunteers. 

HVNC Welcome Center steward

• The Roland S. Barth Welcome Center is the first point of contact for most visitors to Hidden Valley Nature Center.  Welcome Center stewards meet and greet visitors, and help them get launched on their adventures. It’s a great place to volunteer for anyone who loves to use their people skills and is passionate about our mission!

Leading Nature Education and/or Outdoor Recreation Programs

• HVNC Program Leader - We're always looking for folks with knowledge to share. As a program leader you can lead a forest walk about your favorite natural history subject, lead a full moon paddle, or a full moon hike, lead mountain bike clinics, lead cross country ski clinics, and more. 

Water Quality Monitoring

• Sheepscot and Medomak Rivers – You can help us by adopting a site on either river or one of their tributaries and monitoring water quality every other Tuesday morning from May to October, or by collecting those bacteria samples from several locations and delivering them to the lab in Augusta. You could also use your organizational experience to help us coordinate these efforts.

• Damariscotta Lake – Come out on the lake with a staff member to help us as we collect water quality data on Damariscotta Lake. 

Property Monitoring 

• Help ensure that all is well on our conserved lands! Property monitors walk Midcoast Conservancy's preserves and easements every summer to check for activities that might negatively impact the property (ex. timber trespass). If you like to hike and explore new places where few people visit, this is for you. The degree of difficulty varies by preserve so you can choose whether you'd like to stroll on woods roads and trails or bushwhack deep into untouched woods. You can sign up for one preserve (typically 2-3hr commitment) or multiple.

Supporting Fundraising Events and Activities

• Many hands make Light work! Come help at our Annual Gala; we can also use help with fundraising activities in our office, such as helping with mailings and more!

Sustainable Forestry Program

• Timber Stand Improvement - Every year we thin and prune selected trees on 15 – 20 acres. By removing and making use of lower-quality trees – trees that are out-competed, diseased or in decline – we are investing in our future. The healthiest trees continue to grow in value. Our investment will be realized many years down the road. Come help us with this labor-intensive project.

• Lumber – Help us to mill lumber harvested from our sustainable forest. The logs we cut are turned into lumber for building projects.  

• Firewood processing/Stacking - If you like meditative work this job is for you. We process over 40 cords of firewood at HVNC each year. Come help split & stack firewood for use here at our many wood heated buildings.

• Timber Frame Courses – Volunteer to help facilitate our Timber Frame Courses. Each year we hold several 4-day workshops where you can learn how to make a timber-framed home, barn or other structure. 

• Learn more about our sustainable forestry program here.