Join us in protecting our wildlife and natural areas and helping the public enjoy them too. Become a member of Nature NL here and check out opportunities below for getting involved with us or in citizen science projects in the province.
Volunteering
If you are full of initiative and have great ideas, or if you’re a good naturalist, Nature NL is a great place to volunteer. We currently do not provide office space for volunteers to work in. However, the following ideas are projects we’re working on (or would like to be), and you can help out either in the community or in the comfort of your own home.
Review some of our projects below, then sign up as a volunteer with Nature NL here
1) Fundraising Coordinator: Are you great at reaching out to local businesses and partners? Help us out with fundraising. We could run fundraising events, accept donations for our programs, or other things you might think of. For example, how great would it be to get free or discounted snacks from a local business for our events? You can be the one to make this happen!
2) Help us run our next trivia nights. Building on the success of our trivia nights at Bitters Pub and Quidi Vidi Brewing Company, we want to run more. This has the potential to be a great fundraiser for us. We need help writing questions (of course, if you contribute to the questions, you won’t be able to play!), organizing, confirming locations, finding prizes, hosting, and setting up!
Location: Mobile/flexible.
Time commitment: 20-30 hours over 1-2 months.
3) Help us make some more simple 1-page field guides. Our ‘Winter Gulls of Quidi Vidi Lake’ has been very popular and has enabled us to help lots of people learn about gulls for the first time. We’re interested in developing more (for example, seabirds, ducks, warblers, whales, insects, trees, plants, etc.). You’d need to be somewhat familiar with the group of species you’re making the guide for, and have some skills in graphic design. This is a great way to become a better naturalist by studying one group of species (but we can have it reviewed by an expert later, don’t worry).
Location: Mobile/flexible.
Time commitment: 10 hours
4) Run, host, or organize a workshop or hike. Do you enjoy warblers? Wildflowers? Lichens? Trees? Whales? etc. If you are capable of identifying and explaining the topic of the session, please come speak with a board member at one of our events or get in touch. Or, if you want to find a host yourself, feel free to do so. Coming to some of our workshops and hikes first will help you get a feel for the types of events we run and what people would enjoy, as well as the structure. You can propose a time and date, theme, and location for an event, and if it fits within the type of events we usually host we’d be happy to help it run.
Location: Coordination and setup – mobile/flexible. For the event – our events are typically in the St. John’s region or within a couple hours’ drive.
Time commitment: Depends – 5-10 hours.
5) Join our board of directors. If you’re already attending our events and familiar with our programs, but want to do more, speak with a board member at one of our events about joining our board if there is available space. Currently (as of March 2019) we have one spot available on our board of directors for someone to help with fundraising (see point #1!).
Location: Our board meetings are currently one evening per month at Memorial University in St. John’s.
Time commitment: 5-15+ hours a month, depending on what projects you would take on outside of basic board member responsibilities.
6) Write for us. A great way to share your environmental or nature stories and thoughts. Articles are shared through a variety of media such as our Nature NL blog / The Osprey. A great way to help build your writing skills and connect with a community of nature enthusiasts.
7) Help out at Nature Nook, our hands-on nature specimen program at The Rooms
8) Bring us your idea. Have a project you’d like to see us get involved in, a grant you’d like to help write, a program you’d like to start, or any other idea you’d enjoy working on? We love initiative and new ideas. Speaking to one of our board members at an event would be the best way to get a larger project like this off the ground.
Citizen Science & naturalist projects
Projects from various organizations that can be conducted in Newfoundland and Labrador are listed below. If you are interested in listing your citizen science project here, please contact us.
Seasonal projects
ecapelin (WWF Canada) – submit your observations & photos of capelin rolling on shores near you
Swiftwatch (Bird Studies Canada) – keep an eye out for swifts and swallows near you
Arctic Hare sightings – (Provincial government of NL) – watch for this rare mammal & email provincial biologists
Red Crossbill sightings – (Provincial government of NL) – watch for this colourful bird & email provincial biologists
Great Canadian Bumblebee Count (Friends of the Earth) – identify bees to species using a guide then submit data
Project Feederwatch, Great Backyard Bird Count, Christmas Bird Counts, and more (Bird Studies Canada) – identify and count birds near you
Mosquitos of NL – collect mosquitos in a tube for a research study about climate change, human viruses, distribution, etc. Contact [email protected] or their Facebook page to participate
Ongoing initiatives
eBird – a site/app to record all your bird sightings, anywhere in the world
iNaturalist – a site/app to record all your wildlife (bird/mammal/insect/plant/fungi, etc) sightings, anywhere in the world
Marine mammals with Dr. Jack Lawson at DFO – send sightings to [email protected] or @drjwlawson
ties to do stuff with us, [blabla]