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For the Love of Stewardship

Every year our Stewardship Team coordinates hundreds of volunteers to give back to our public lands. While the season for plantings and trash clean up typically peaks in the spring and summer months, our fall season has proven that nothing can stop the stewardship spirit.

In October alone our volunteers logged over 1,000 hours. These efforts contributed to our Trails and Natural Lands Department’s restoration goals. In addition to this, they removed over 400 lbs. of trash throughout our city and cleared over 1,000 lbs. of weeds! These kinds of numbers for projects like trash and weed clean up make an immeasurable difference in the quality of life for not only our human neighbors, but the ecosystem we dwell within.

Our staff works hard. We love our jobs because we love our public lands. But, between the number of bodies available and the number of hours in a day to get things done, we don’t always have enough time to dedicate to every project we hope to complete. Our volunteers are the foundation of the work that we do, and our team feels immensely fortunate to have them work alongside us.

 Without them, beautification and restoration projects would take twice as long. Our community would not be as strong, loving, or robust. Without our volunteers, our public lands would not be our public lands. Plain and simple.

This year, our stewards gave us over 6,000 hours. We recognize this enormous number is no small feat. We know the amount of valuable time, sweat, and love that gets poured into each session. Being able to come together to celebrate a shared appreciation for our public lands is what we strive for, and our volunteers make that dream possible.

We already have some exciting projects in the works for next year, and we can’t wait to see our volunteers out in the field in 2026!