Staff Reports

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources relies on volunteer help more than the average citizen might guess.

During 2019, some 14,000 volunteers donated more than 132,000 hours of their time to maintaining, improving and restoring natural and cultural locations.

The department will thank and recognize those contributors during National Volunteer Week from April 19 to 25 and announced this week it would salute the individuals on the dnr.IN.gov website.

DNR receives a large volume of assistance through considerable hands-on physical aid for such projects as trail improvements, removing invasive plants, time given at department events, helping to organize supplies for activities and painting park structures.

The DNR is always open to welcoming more volunteers. Volunteer applications can be found online at on.IN.gov/dnrvolunteer.

There are numerous ways to volunteer in specific programs, such as becoming a nature center attendant, planting, cleaning waterways, helping with carpentry projects, maintaining trails and monitoring birdhouses.