Volunteer.gov and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

Driving north from Steens Mountain along an endless flat plan, through an actual plague of locusts that left a hundred or so crisp bodies embedded in Bruce's radiator grill, we arrived at the desert oasis of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.  Malheur is one of the most extensive freshwater ecosystems in the western United States, and home to hundreds of resident and migrating birds. It also offers some interesting volunteer options for migrating humans.

Retirement comes with lots of times and unlimited options of how to spend it. Some people travel (our current modus operendi), some watch TV (average U.S. retiree spends more than 60 hours/week watching TV), some work part-time, some make home improvements, and some volunteer. (U.S. News). We've been a little curious about volunteering at the National Parks and Forests so a fellow traveler and self entitled "Naturalist Nomad" told us about the volunteer.gov website.  In additional to the Park and Forest Services, Fish and Wildlife, the BLM and other Federal agencies all list their volunteer openings. A number of the posts are targeted to folks like us, traveling retirees. Many offer a free tent site, RV pad, or housing in exchange for 25-40 hours/week. Go ahead, take a look at volunteer.gov if you're interested.

Camp Host appears to be the most prominent job. While I think S.D. would make an excellent parking garage attendant when he's 85, right now I don't think hosting is our thing. However, search deeper into the site and there are some other, very interesting options, including some at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. We thought the idea of volunteering there for a few weeks, learning more about birds, and giving back a little sounded interesting, and so we were stopping by to see just exactly what the area looked like. And it was really pretty cool. Locust plague aside, it was obviously a very diverse landscape of marsh, lakes, deserts, mountains and plains all located on the Pacific flyway, there was lots of opportunity to learn, and these types of volunteer opportunities might make an interesting addition to our nomadic lives.

We submitted our applications yesterday and will keep everyone posted!!