Volunteers Expand and Expedite Our Work!
The Watershed Center’s mission is to steward healthy landscapes and foster healthy communities. To that end, we have implemented numerous projects across landscapes, invested rigorously in local youth to raise the next generation of land and water stewards, and made extensive efforts to inform, empower, and inspire Trinity County residents of all ages to carry forth this same mission on their own time and properties.
Strong turnout for a trail workday, preparing the LaGrange Classic racecourse for cyclists.
The adages, “Many hands make light work” and “We go further when we go together” ring universally true, especially when caring for vast swaths of land that need a direct, persistent hands-on approach to improve conditions.
We are extremely fortunate and grateful to have benefited from volunteer service over the years, which has expanded and magnified our work. Local residents and visitors to Trinity County alike have assisted with trail maintenance, tree planting, noxious weed removal, clean-ups both terrestrial and aquatic, and we have seen an increasing number of interested volunteers join our prescribed burns on private lands, embodying the Fire Management Team’s motto, “Fire is for everyone!”
One of multiple cannabis restoration clean-up days.
The impact of Watershed Center volunteers is substantial and profound. Here is one of our most impressive statistics to date: a gargantuan 36 tons of trash have been removed from U.S. Forest Service lands within the last 2.5 years thanks to local participants, regional contractors, and organizational partnership. Beyond the hard figures—hundreds of miles maintained and trees planted, dozens of pounds of invasive plants pulled and acres burned—the real ripple effect lies in neighbors helping neighbors, sharing what they’ve learned and putting in the elbow grease to improve properties, habitats, and communities.
“It’s a lot to ask of people, working in all weather conditions, swinging tools, yanking tough weeds out of the ground, and stuffing garbage into bags,” says Megan Killeen, Communications Coordinator. “Every time we have volunteers arrive at an organized event, I feel heartened by the dedication displayed by folks carrying out these vital tasks all across the county.”
Volunteers served up delicious grilled salmon, led educational activities, and helped maintain the facilities in Hyampom during the 2025 Salmon Gathering.
Not every volunteer event requires rubber gloves and physical labor. Some gatherings are pure fun! Most recently we had several enthusiastic volunteers assist with the 2025 Salmon Gathering, guiding kids through various games and crafts, barbecuing salmon, and otherwise helping smooth out the logistics of a fun community event that served over 200 youth and adults during a 3-day stretch.
Even with natural resource management organizations working at the federal, state, and local level in Trinity County, only a few hundred employees work directly on the ground in an area the size of Rhode Island. By leveraging volunteer hours, we can more effectively target priority projects to maximize positive outcomes. In 2025, volunteers contributed over 200 hours of time to haul waste off of USFS lands, cut back brush, improve tread, and dig out invasive blackberry bushes choking out sections of trail. That’s just over 25 days of extra labor completed by big-hearted local folks
We appreciate and offer our deepest thanks to everyone who has ever lent a hand, from brand new volunteers to veteran participants. We couldn’t do it without you!
You can become a volunteer by filling out the form on our VOLUNTEER page.
