RV Volunteer: Maintenance Focus

Duties/Experience:

Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge is seeking 1-2 residential RV volunteers to focus primarily in our maintenance program- assisting with facilities management, repairs, heavy equipment operation, maintaining vehicles, assisting with habitat management, trail maintenance, and landscaping. The volunteer(s) will work at the direction of the acting refuge manager, deputy refuge manager and maintenance program staff.

Experience in related maintenance fields is preferred. Certifications to operate heavy equipment are also preferred.

Couples are encouraged to apply. If one member of a couple does not have maintenance experience/certifications, volunteer duties assisting with visitor services, biology, or administration programs can be assigned.

Volunteers must work a minimum of 24 hours per week to qualify for housing.

Location:

Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge is tucked behind an industrial zone in Albuquerque’s South Valley, occupying 570 acres of what was once a large-scale alfalfa farm right along the Rio Grande. This refuge is a long-term ecological restoration project, and as a flagship Urban National Wildlife Refuge, also a center for community programs and activities for local families focused on conservation education. The site has several miles of public trails, a beautiful visitor center, multiple constructed wetland habitats, grassland meadows, and restored riparian forest. The refuge is located adjacent to the Rio Grande Bosque State Park, which protects a strip of wildland riparian forest that sprawls north-to-south throughout the city of Albuquerque.

The refuge is uniquely located right next to New Mexico’s largest city, and resident volunteers will have convenient access to world-renowned cuisine, cultural events, shopping, hospitals, and all the comforts of a major city- not to mention access to the region’s expansive nearby public lands to explore including national parks, historic sites and Wilderness areas.

Volunteers must have a camper or RV and will have the refuge’s small camp area to themselves with electric and water hookups.

Interested volunteers are encouraged to reach out to the volunteer coordinator dakota_dominguez@fws.gov