VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES


Get involved by donating your skills and time as a volunteer. Together, we can ensure a future for North Carolina’s wonderful wildlife and the habitats critical for their survival. Check out the available opportunities below and learn how you can get involved in your area.
 

Statewide

Hunter Education Instructor

Getting Started Outdoors

Calling Amphibian Surveys

Monitoring Songbirds

Tracking Reptile and Amphibian Populations

Monitoring Bat Populations

 

Coast

Sea Turtle Projects

Waterbird Projects

 

Piedmont

John E. Pechmann Fishing Education Center, Fayetteville

Aquatic Habitat Enhancement Projects
 

 

Mountains

Monitoring Bog Turtle Populations


Hunter Education Instructor


Hunter Education Instructors are volunteers within their community who teach hunter education courses. They share knowledge and appreciation of the sport of hunting, while they promote conservation and safe, responsible outdoor recreation.

Volunteers must be 21 years old, pass a background check and satisfy training requirements to instruct a standardized state curriculum. View a list of instructor workshops. They follow a code of conduct and accept the responsibility to be dependable, prompt and efficient.

North Carolina Volunteer Instructors are important and valued members of the hunter education team. Each year, the NCWRC highlights instructors of the year, as well as Hall Fame Inductees. Visit our Hunter Education Awards page for more information.


John E. Pechmann Education Center

The John E. Pechmann Fishing Education Center offers volunteer opportunities for Scouts, anglers and people interested in helping in programming or grounds maintenance and enhancement. 

Contact: Tom Carpenter 910-868-5003


Getting Started Outdoors

A significant amount of volunteer support is essential to the agency's Getting Started Outdoors (GSO) program, which is designed for new hunters to help them learn hunting basics, such as new hunting skills, equipment and strategies and wild game processing and cooking. How can volunteers get involved? They can:

  • Assist as an Instructor, or instructor assistant during a Getting Started Outdoors (GSO) Workshop.
  • Host a GSO Workshop at your Hunt Camp or Property.
  • Host a one-time hunting opportunity to someone completing a GSO Workshop.
  • Offer a one-time hunting opportunity on public land to someone having completed a GSO Workshop.

If interested in getting involved outdoors, please email gso@ncwildlife.org


Aquatic Habitat Enhancement Projects

The NCWRC enhances aquatic habitat in reservoirs by building and installing fish attractors and establishing native aquatic vegetation. These projects take a lot of effort and volunteer support is essential to make them successful. Fisheries Biologists establish native aquatic vegetation in various Piedmont reservoirs from late May to August. This work entails building fenced exclosures to protect vegetation and planting vegetation in ankle to hip deep water. There also may be opportunities to help at the NCWRC aquatic plant nursery in Mebane NC. Contact Mark Fowlkes for more information for these and other opportunities.


Calling Amphibian Surveys

If you are familiar with frog calls, you can volunteer for a route with the Calling Amphibian Survey Program. This is a night survey where you listen for frog calls. The program requires being able to identify frogs by sound, but training sessions are available.  To find out more, visit N.C. Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation or contact Jeff Hall for more information or to choose a route.

 


Monitoring Songbirds

The Wildlife Diversity Program monitors songbird populations throughout the year using various methods, including aural surveys and bird banding. There are also numerous opportunities for people across the country to engage in other citizen science programs, including the North American Breeding Bird SurveyProject FeederWatch, the Great Backyard Bird CounteBird and many others through the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Contact Christine Kelly (western) or Scott Anderson (statewide) for more information about these and other opportunities.


Tracking Reptile and Amphibian Populations

Help NCWRC biologists track reptile and amphibian populations by registering with the HerpMapper project and reporting your observations.


Sea Turtle Populations

There are 22 active sea turtle beach projects along North Carolina’s coastline that monitor sea turtle nesting and stranding in partnership with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. For information about sea turtle volunteering opportunities at a specific beach or island, contact Matt Godfrey


Waterbird Projects

Coastal North Carolina is home to many species of marsh-, shore-, sea-, and wading birds. To keep these species common along our coast, and to monitor rare species closely, the Wildlife Diversity Program conducts seasonal surveys and research, and protects important habitat. If you are interested in assisting with surveys of Piping Plovers, American Oystercatchers, colonial-nesting waterbirds, or other species; ongoing research projects; or habitat protection activities, contact Carmen Johnson for more information. (Photo: Scott Anderson)


Monitoring Bat Populations

The Wildlife Diversity Program has several efforts underway to monitor North Carolina’s bats (most in the mountains of N.C.), including winter surveys of hibernating bats, surveillance for White Nose Syndrome (a deadly bat disease), long term monitoring at summer habitats, and bat acoustic surveys (NC BAMP – Bat Acoustic Monitoring Program). Contact Katherine Etchison to find out about volunteer opportunities with bats. (Photo: Katherine Etchison)


Monitoring Bog Turtle Populations

The Wildlife Diversity Program also works closely with volunteers from the N.C. Herpetological Society to survey, monitor, and conserve bog turtle habitat in North Carolina. Contact Gabrielle Graeter for more information about bog turtle monitoring and management in North Carolina. (Photo: Jeff Hall)