Volunteer opportunities

The reserve relies on volunteers to help maintain the trails and provide public programming. Volunteer activities are diverse and offer opportunities to work both in the field or remotely.

Email us at stebbinsccr@ucdavis.edu if you are interested in volunteering, joining our Docent Program, or being included in the information loop, you can sign up here.

Trail Work

The NRS manages almost nine miles of extremely popular hiking trails in the Inner Coast Range’s Blue Ridge catchment. A reliable core of volunteers is crucial to maintaining and improving the structural integrity of the trails network in sensitive and constantly changing sandstone substrates. Primarily trail work involves manual earthworks and the cutting and clearing of woody growth from trail verges.

 

Camera Traps

In order to monitor wildlife occurrence and movements in the area, the NRS has established a camera trapping network in the reserve. Data from this program is used to update species lists and identify rare species, and to understand how wildlife adapts to living alongside a busy public resource. The field component of the program is to regularly service camera traps that are located along public trails and off-trail animal paths and routes. The remote component involves the uploading of data to an AI ‘photo sorting pipeline’, and training it to identify local species.

Docent Program

The vision of the Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve Docent Program is to build a unique NRS model that integrates community science and public use with the reserve’s research and education mission. Docents engage with the public by leading hikes and organizing field events. Other field activities include biological monitoring, giving field classes and conducting surveys.