Focusing Close to Home: Building Volunteer
Efforts in a Small Town
Linda Seibert
Abstract—Natural resource managers in the West often work out
of small towns. The areas they manage are vast, and human
resources are scarce. While the American Bird Association and
other national organizations are excellent at recruiting volunteers
to help with bird monitoring and research projects, enticing volunteers to small towns and remote areas can be a frustrating experience. While agencies should continue to recruit volunteers through
national groups, they also should encourage homegrown efforts.
Local people may actually be the most productive volunteers. Bird
clubs are obvious sources for candidates, but commercial outfitters
such as river guides and outdoor schools should not be overlooked.
Natural resource managers in the western United States
often work out of small isolated towns. The areas they
manage can be vast, and human resources are usually
scarce. An example is the town of Moab, Utah, which includes offices of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM),
National Park Service (NPS), and the U.S. Forest Service
(USFS), but only 5,000 people. Utah’s only urban area is 200
miles away. Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) coverage is light in
such a remote area, and other types of avian distribution
data also are spotty. While the effective use of volunteers can
help to fill the void for surveys and management of birds and
their habitat, finding volunteers in remote areas can be a
frustrating experience.
Wildlife biologists in the Moab District were interested in
developing a volunteer program for bird work. We initially
believed that we could not locate sufficient volunteers within
our own small towns, so we tried to develop a program
focused around national recruiting with the American Birding
Association (ABA) and several local outdoor education schools.
We had only limited success with these efforts, however.
Then we began to realize that we had been ignoring many
talented volunteers right in our local area.
National and Regional Recruiting
Efforts _________________________
Bureau of Land Mangement offices in Utah have tried to tie
in with national and regional recruiting efforts. For example,
many of us have advertised projects with the ABA. The Moab
District also has worked with two outdoor education schools
In: Bonney, Rick; Pashley, David N.; Cooper, Robert J.; Niles, Larry,
eds. 2000. Strategies for bird conservation: The Partners in Flight planning process; Proceedings of the 3rd Partners in Flight Workshop; 1995
October 1-5; Cape May, NJ. Proceedings RMRS-P-16. Ogden, UT: U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research
Station.
Linda Seibert, Bureau of Land Management, 82 East Dogwood, Suite M,
Moab, UT 84532.
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in our area—Canyonlands Field Institute (CFI) and Four
Corners School of Outdoor Education (Four Corners)—to
advertise bird watching trips that would focus on bird inventories. Southeast Utah is a tourism hot spot, and ecotourism
is extremely popular, so asking people to come bird watching
in combination with a river or backpack trip seemed like a
natural sell. Disappointingly it wasn’t, with a few exceptions.
For example, every year Four Corners offers a wildliferelated trip, generally tied to a desirable river, for which they
recruit an expert guide and advertise nationally. Their most
successful offering, a trip called “In Pursuit of the Peregrine,”
has gathered useful data on Peregrine Falcons (Falco
peregrinus), with many new eyries documented in remote
areas in southeastern Utah. These sightings have added to
Utah’s statewide database and have allowed us to support
the present proposal for delisting the species. However, during some years this trip has not drawn enough interest to be
conducted. During one year BLM and Four Corners worked
together to offer a “Neotropical migrant” inventory on the San
Juan River. Only one person signed up. A similar trip was
advertised with CFI, and also was unsuccessful.
As another example, Utah BLM’s Richfield District advertised through ABA for someone to conduct point counts in
riparian areas that are subject to special management. They
found two excellent birders, both Utah residents. One of
them, a college professor, used the opportunity to take his
family on weekend camping trips. Meanwhile our district
attempted to advertise through ABA several times with no
response. Our failure may well have been caused by poor
marketing or poorly thought out projects.
Local Successes ________________
Initially we were disappointed with our inability, or only
limited success, in recruiting volunteers. Then we began to
realize that a great deal of useful birding was going on in our
immediate area, and almost no recruiting had been needed
to accomplish it. For example, although our town has no
chapter of the National Audubon Society (NAS), a nucleus of
enthusiastic birders do come together for Christmas Bird
Counts (CBCs).
Another focal point for bird enthusiasts is Canyonlands
Raptor Center, a rehabilitation program run by a married
couple named John and Marilyn Bicking. Their efforts,
along with other local birders, proved to be far more significant than those that we purposely had tried to recruit.
The Bickings moved to Moab from New Jersey in 1984.
There Marilyn had worked in a rehabilitation center, and
she felt a need for one in southeast Utah. In the past 11 years,
they have cared for 1,450 hundred raptors, including 125
eagles. In addition, they are very involved in raptor habitat
USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-16. 2000
management issues. They have taken an interest in the
known Utah Bald Eagle population, consisting of three
active nests in the southeast part of the state. They have
promoted and assisted with banding and genetic studies,
and participated in the development of interagency management plans.
Two of the nests are along popular rafting areas, where
several years ago my agency proposed to build a new boat
ramp in a location close to one of the nests. The Bickings were
concerned about the location, and were instrumental in
getting it changed when they rallied commercial and private
boaters to petition BLM to find a different location.
The Bickings also have used their own funds to hire a man
named Nelson Boschen to monitor eagle nests and to search
for new ones. A self-taught naturalist, Nelson puts in many
more hours than those for which he is paid, as he ensures
that bald eagle chicks successfully fledge. He also has added
greatly to our knowledge base by making detailed observations of eagle foraging and feeding activities, by conducting
a BBS on the Colorado River, and by organizing the CBC for
the Moab area.
As another example, Gail Lea, a school librarian, devotes
her summers to birding. She also has added greatly to bird
distribution data in southeastern Utah. She monitors several peregrine eyries in the Moab area; assists the NPS by
conducting several BBSs and by monitoring raptor nests;
she has helped BLM with avian inventories on public land;
and she now organizes the CBC.
Reaching and Organizing the Right
People ________________________
Even a small town can produce an abundance of volunteers and volunteer projects. The first problem is finding the
USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-16. 2000
people; the second is using them effectively, focusing their
energy on the most important needs. Several things should
be kept in mind.
First, have your strategies in place. In Utah we have had
interagency work groups for priority species such as Peregrine Falcon, Mexican Spotted Owl, and Bald Eagle. We
hold regular meetings with discussions on research, inventory and monitoring, and management issues. Non-agency
biologists and non-professionals always are invited to these
meetings. They are excited to be part of the process, and are
more likely to offer their help. This is how the Bickings
became involved financially with our bald eagle monitoring,
and how Gail Lea took responsibility for monitoring peregrine eyries. Of course, the same tactics should be used with
state Partners in Flight meetings. Then regional and state
plans can be used to direct volunteers toward appropriate
inventory, monitoring, and project needs.
Second, seek out opportunities for ties with the ecotourism
and environmental education communities. We are fortunate to have several schools in southeast Utah that specialize in ecotourism. Although such groups don’t exist everywhere, many possibilities exist with college classes taking
field trips, tour companies who may want to diversify, and
established groups such as Hawkwatch.
Third, solicit input from local birders and other citizens
when making management decisions that affect avian habitats. This process can make local people feel a sense of
ownership that will encourage more participation in the long
run. But be prepared to hear opinions that you may not
welcome. You cannot use this tactic unless you are honestly
going to listen, because people will be very disappointed if
they feel their input was ignored, and trust will be lost.
Finally, remember to work with national and regional
groups such as ABA or NAS. They are well-established
organizations with recruiting mechanisms in place.
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