Get Involved

The Refuge Visitor Center is usually the first stop on a visitor's trip and key to making an exciting first impression of the refuge. Volunteers in this role provide general orientation to refuge trails and surrounding public lands, stock maps and brochures, facilitate use of interactive exhibits and children's activities, and welcome visitors to Canaan Valley. This role also includes selling items in the bookstore/gift shop operated by the Friends of the 500th, the non-profit partner of the refuge. If you love Canaan Valley and enjoy sharing that excitement with others, this is the role for you!

Do you enjoy getting your hands dirty in support of native wildflowers and pollinators? This is the role for you! The refuge manages a garden around the Refuge Visitor Center that showcases native plants and ways people can support pollinators at home. Volunteers in this role help weed, transplant, and maintain the showcase beds as well as the greenspace around the building. This work takes place spring through fall.

Do you enjoy working with kids and fostering the next generation of stewards? Environmental education volunteers help with planning, logistics, and delivery of classroom visits and field trips for students, Scout groups, camps, and more! If you're interested in taking part in this work, please consider joining the Friends of the 500th Environmental Education committee! This group helps the refuge plan and facilitate these educational programs, as well as special events and programs. Committee meetings take place on the third Tuesday of the month at 11am at the Visitor Center or online. Reach out to canaanvalley@fws.gov for more information about the Environmental Education committee.

Do you have a passion for a certain nature-related subject (i.e., birds, wildflowers, nature photography) and are interested in sharing it with others? We are looking for volunteers to organize and deliver interpretive programs throughout the year on the refuge! Training is provided. Check out our event page for examples of programs volunteers put on.

Each year, volunteer plant trees and help restore forests across the refuge. To date, volunteers have contributed to the planting of nearly 300,000 trees across the refuge. Most of the planting efforts have focused on red spruce and balsam fir—trees that historically dominated Canaan Valley prior to the logging boom at the turn of the 20th century. Today, the refuge partners with other organizations to restore these forests across the Allegheny Highlands to connect wildlife corridors for the species that depend on them and to make the forests more resilient to warming temperatures. Other planting efforts for aspen, alder, and other tree species occur as funding and partner support is available.

If you want to plant trees to benefit generations to come, come out to our annual tree planting event in celebration of Earth Day! Be on the lookout for an announcement about the event in late March.

Across the refuge, staff and volunteers monitor stream health across Canaan Valley. These surveys include collecting data on water parameters (such as temperature, dissolved oxygen, and pH) and measuring width, depth, and velocity of the stream. Water quality monitoring volunteers are needed year-round, weather-permitting, to help track changes in the stream over time. Volunteers in this role must be able to follow an established protocol and are comfortable using basic scientific monitoring instruments. Training will be provided. The data from these surveys help refuge staff help staff prioritize and make determinations about stream restoration projects.

Early explorers to Canaan Valley described it as a wild, nearly impenetrable wilderness with its dense red spruce forests and thick understories of mountain laurel and rhododendron. That all changed with the logging boom at the turn of the 20th century that left Canaan Valley barren. The forests have since grown back (albeit looking a little different), but scars remain on the landscape in the form of a haphazard network of compacted logging roads. Long since their purpose of transporting lumber has passed, these roads function today as a disruption to groundwater flow through the soil and source of soil erosion being dumped into streams.

The refuge has worked to help heal the landscape by decommissioning severely eroded sections of old logging road. But with over 100 miles of estimated logging roads across the refuge, staff are working to map and prioritize logging roads for decommissioning efforts. Volunteers aid in this endeavor by mapping out and recording conditions of old logging roads across the refuge. Volunteers are trained on how to use to mapping software and the protocol used to measure impairments on the old logging road.

Each year, refuge staff and volunteers combat invasive plant species across the refuge. Invasive plants take over the landscape, pushing out native plants and the wildlife that depend on them. We are looking for volunteers to help us find, record and remove the invasive species through appropriate management practices. Training is provided on the mapping and treatment protocol. Invasive management occurs from spring through fall.