[Sust-mar] Great Volunteer Opportunities at the Nature Trust!

[Nicole Arsenault]

Great Volunteer Opportunities at the Nature Trust!


Looking for a meaningful way to help nature, and save spectacular wildlife
habitat in Nova Scotia? Whether you want to help out in the field or in the
office, the Nature Trust would love to have you volunteer your time and
skills to help us protect Nova Scotia’s natural heritage. We have some
great volunteer training opportunities coming up, and you are always
welcome to attend our guided walks and events (see our summer Events Guide
at www.nsnt.ca). Here are some upcoming events related to just of the great
volunteer programs the Nature Trust has to offer…



The Nova Scotia Nature Trust’s new Bird’s Eye View program gets volunteer
bird watchers out on glorious Nature Trust properties across the province.
Bird watchers are asked to record their bird sightings and report them to
the Nature Trust in an effort to better understand the bird species using
our protected properties. All experience levels welcome and appreciated.
The next training session for new volunteers is coming up on June 9. We can
also highly recommend improving your bird watching skills by attending a
New Birders’ Walk with the Nova Scotia Bird Society (next one June 2). And,
all new and potential Nature Trust volunteers are invited to an orientation
session at the Nature Trust office on June 13. Details of each event are
below.



Saturday, June 2, 2012 – New Birders’ Walk, Jerry Lawrence Provincial Park,
HRM

Leader: Bonnie Carmichael, Nova Scotia Bird Society

Email: bonniecarmichael at hotmail.com
Meet at the main entrance to Jerry Lawrence Park at 8:00am. To reach the
park drive south on Highway 103 (in the direction of Lunenburg), and leave
at Exit 5. Turn left (south) on Route 213 and continue until you reach the
traffic lights at Highway 3 – you'll see the Superstore south of the
intersection. Turn left (east) and drive two km to the park entrance.
Meeting place: Parking lot by picnic benches and washrooms. Expect a
variety of different warbler species. No storm date for this trip.



Saturday, June 9, 2012 – Bird’s Eye View training session, outside Wolfville

Start time: 9am. Duration: 2 hours.

The third Bird’s Eye View training session of the season will get new
volunteers out to our Wolfville Ridge Property, just outside the town of
Wolfville. This site has a diversity of habitats, a perfect place to
practice completing our monitoring forms. Hopefully, we’ll catch a glimpse
of breeding bobolinks while we are there! Please contact Karen (
Karen at nsnt.ca) if you can attend. Please bring binoculars (if you have
them), sunscreen and water, and potentially a
biting-bugs-avoidance-mechanism.



Wednesday, June 13 – Nature Trust Volunteer Orientation Session, Nature
Trust office, Halifax

Start time: 6pm. Duration: 1 hour.

The volunteer orientation session is our opportunity to provide an overview
for new and potential volunteers about the Nature Trust, how we work and
what we do. It’s also an opportunity for volunteers to ask questions of,
and meet, the staff people who work directly with volunteers. If necessary,
it also gives us the chance to finalize some paperwork that we need to have
on file for each of our volunteers. We like to have all of our volunteers
attend an orientation session either before they start, or as soon as
possible after they start as volunteers. We tend to organize 6-8 volunteer
sessions through the year. The next volunteer orientation session is
Wednesday, June 13, from 6pm – 7pm, at the Nova Scotia Nature Trust (2085
Maitland Street, Halifax). There will be treats! Please inform Nicole (
nicole at nsnt.ca) if you plan on attending.



Please contact nature at nsnt.ca for more information about anything related
to the Nature Trust.