Volunteer

Join Our Volunteer Crew!

We Depend on You

With current development pressures and projected population growth in the Bay Area, Save Mount Diablo’s work is more important now than ever.

Given limited staff, resources, and time, Save Mount Diablo depends on volunteers to take organizational effectiveness from excellent to exceptional. Save Mount Diablo seeks to connect a passionate community to our mission, cultivating a sense of ownership and proficiency in every volunteer position offered. Whether you want to help with restoration and stewardship, build and maintain trails, help with events, assist in the office, lead hikes, or advocate for us, there’s a place for you.

Volunteering at Save Mount Diablo’s DiRT days is very rewarding for Boys Team Charity of Walnut Creek, as we are helping to preserve and restore the open space and parks nearly right in our backyard. It’s also a fun outdoor excursion working on the land including watering, weeding, and helping to keep the native plants and trees growing healthy and strong. In a growing suburban city such as Walnut Creek where development is high, it is very important to our community to help keep some of the land open for people to enjoy hikes and open space as well as continue to improve the habitat for our local wildlife.

For the past eight years, I have been a member of the Diablo Restoration Team, a DiRT volunteer. I have sown acorns, buckeye, and grass seeds; planted native tree, shrub, and grass seedlings; uprooted mustard, yellow star thistle, poison hemlock, and other invasive flora; spaded, raked, hoed, pruned, toted, and watered; and been rewarded a thousand times over with the camaraderie of like-minded souls, young and old, staff and volunteers.

As a lifelong lover of books and reading, I have been delighted to discover, through my DiRT work, Nature as a storyteller. Not a day goes by out on the land that I am not aware of the poetry of birdsong and wind in the canyons and treetops, of the drama of the changing seasons, of that ongoing narrative of rebirth and renewal—that great saga of the cycle of life.

In a world in which hope so often seems elusive, habitat restoration work along the banks of Marsh Creek has given me an abundance of hope. Come join me and thrive.

Volunteer Opportunities

Join Save Mount Diablo’s passionate, energetic and dedicated volunteers. There are plenty of opportunities to help us protect natural lands on and around Mount Diablo. Our open volunteer positions are below. Check the categories to find the appropriate contact for each department, and send them a brief email stating your interest and best way to reach you.

Even if you don’t see a match, we may have a place for you!

Volunteer Opportunities for Individuals by Category

Browse our volunteer categories to learn more about each area.

The following descriptions are just for your information. You do not have to choose only one area in which to work—you are welcome to volunteer across a variety of areas. However, if you do have a particular interest in volunteering for a specific category, we have included direct contact information for the staff in charge of coordinating volunteer work in that category.

Still not sure how you would like to get involved? Give us a call or drop by our office during business hours and we’d be happy to chat with you. Let us know if you have any questions!

***Our Policy on Volunteers under the Age of 18

As we continue to strive to bridge the gap between youth and nature, we encourage families and youth groups to participate in our stewardship workdays. We have outlined our policy on volunteers under the age of 18 in order to create the best environment for everyone involved. Please note, our stewardship workdays are not drop-off programs.

Young volunteers under the age of 18 must have a signed waiver by a parent or guardian. In addition, they should meet one of the following requirements before participating on our stewardship workdays:

Be accompanied by their adult guardian/parent/chaperone throughout the duration of the workday
Be a part of a recognized organization (such as a school group, youth group, etc.) with their authorized chaperone/teacher/leader present at the workday

If you have any questions about our policy, you can reach our Diablo Restoration team leader, Haley Sutton, at dirt@savemountdiablo.org.

Join an existing body of Stewardship Volunteers that perform a variety of tasks on Save Mount Diablo holdings, such as:

Our all-volunteer Stewardship Committee cares for Save Mount Diablo acquisitions, from the smallest (a few acres) to the largest (more than 1,000 acres). In addition to basic land management, Save Mount Diablo stewards help to lead hikes through our properties for interested members of the public.
The Diablo Restoration Team (DiRT) helps restore properties so they can be turned over to park systems for public access. Volunteers weed, water, plant, clean, and build. View the Annual DiRT Workday Calendar.
The Save Mount Diablo Trail Dogs, a group of volunteer trail-builders, works with us to create environmentally appropriate trails through our properties. Trails are designed in consultation with whichever public agency may take ownership of the land so that new trails will eventually connect with existing trail systems.

With a land bank of about 2,000 acres and three stewardship staff, we depend greatly on the “boots on the ground” work that stewardship volunteers perform— including two workdays per month on rotating properties, mowing firebreaks in the spring, monthly property monitoring visits, and specific projects to steward the land. For information on volunteering for stewardship activities, please contact: Haley Sutton, Land Stewardship Associate

Save Mount Diablo leads fun and informative hikes on the mountain, at all levels of intensity, throughout the year. If you are an experienced hiker and would like to learn how to lead hikes, we’ll provide training. Hike leaders help to host trailblazers on Save Mount Diablo properties and other portions of local open space as part of the Discover Diablo free public hike series. Meet new people who share an interest in Mount Diablo, and educate hike participants about new and potential additions to state and regional parks, as well as regional planning issues. Join in on periodic planning sessions and help shape annual Discover Diablo hike schedules! Save Mount Diablo coordinates 24 hikes annually, so there are plenty of opportunities to help lead groups, learn from experienced hike leaders, and become familiar with the network of protected lands in the Diablo Range. Check out Save Mount Diablo’s Activities Calendar for the next upcoming hike leader workshop. For information on volunteering as a hike leader, please contact: Haley Sutton, Land Stewardship Associate

Help Save Mount Diablo convey its mission to community groups, service-based organizations, and partnering land conservation agencies in the Diablo Range and beyond. Participate in tabling opportunities and speaking engagements, acting as an advocate and ambassador for the organization. For information on volunteering for Save Mount Diablo’s public education and outreach efforts, please contact: Haley Sutton, Land Stewardship Associate

The land-use volunteer (LUV) can assist Save Mount Diablo’s land use advocacy work in a variety of ways, from producing written materials to walking neighborhoods and distributing information during a campaign. Because land use activities can be of a sensitive political nature, they may not follow a standard schedule, may require in-depth knowledge of SMD issue positions, and may require in-office work or off-site travel. The specific activities a land-use volunteer may engage in depend on the characteristics of the particular volunteer. Therefore, those interested in the LUV position will first be interviewed to determine if and how SMD can utilize them in our land-use work and whether SMD can provide an interesting, meaningful, and engaging volunteer experience. For information on volunteering with Save Mount Diablo’s land use planning and advocacy work, please contact: Juan Pablo Galván, Senior Land Use Manager

Want to build up your portfolio and marketing/communication skills while supporting Save Mount Diablo? We’ll tailor your role to suit your abilities and match your interests. Help out with a variety of print and digital graphic design projects including event signage, print publications, postcards, flyers, posters, and other collateral, or on digital marketing projects such as helping with our social media content planning, website maintenance, email marketing campaigns, and more. For information on volunteering in our communications department, please contact: Laura Kindsvater, Communications Manager

Save Mount Diablo hosts several recreational, friend-raising, and fundraising events per year, and these events are made possible through the efforts of many enthusiastic volunteers. From event-planning committees to course marking, working at the event itself on registration, aid stations, food stations, parking, etc., we need your help! For information on volunteering for events, please contact: Brit Hutchinson, Event Coordinator

Our small staff can use your help in the office with some of the basics like stuffing envelopes, filing, article and photo archiving, and copying. We love company! Stuff an envelope. Save our mountain! Volunteer to perform a variety of office-related administrative tasks in our Walnut Creek office. They do everything from simple letter-stuffing and handwriting to making phone calls, to computer data entry. We have a heavier need in the later three quarters of the year. For information on volunteering in the office, please contact: Shannon Grover, Senior Development Associate and Event Manager

Diablo Restoration Team Workday Calendar

Another way to get involved is by joining a Diablo Restoration Team (DiRT) workday. DiRT is dedicated to the conservation and enhancement of natural resources in Contra Costa County. Volunteers meet monthly to get DiRTy and contribute to the stewardship of habitat for sensitive and endangered species. Sign up below to volunteer to restore land at several sites on the east side of Mount Diablo.

Upcoming DIRT work days are shown below. Not available on these dates? Check out the rest of the schedule in our annual DiRT calendar.

Join Us in the Field!

View Our Calendar

For Groups and Corporations

Corporate Volunteering

Our corporate partners play an important role in the protection, restoration, and celebration of Mount Diablo. Save Mount Diablo partners with companies in a variety of ways—through sponsorship, volunteer days, special events, grant contributions, and more. Learn how your company can be an integral part of our work, and discover the benefits that you, your employees, and clients will receive.

Group Volunteering

Your group can have fun outdoors, learn about Save Mount Diablo’s land conservation message, and help us protect open space. You can work with Save Mount Diablo to schedule a special volunteer program for your corporate or community group.

For more information and to get started on scheduling a special program for your group, fill out this group workday interest form.

If you have additional questions, please contact us at groupvolunteers@savemountdiablo.org

Volunteers are the lifeblood that runs through this organization.

Save Mount Diablo is lucky to have amazing volunteers who help us to keep things running smoothly.

From setting up tables for Moonlight on the Mountain once a year to dedicating dozens of hours stewarding our properties, we can’t do it without our talented and generous volunteers.

Our volunteers not only work side by side with us, they give us an extra dose of inspiration to continue our work to preserve open spaces right here in the Bay Area for people and wildlife to enjoy.

We thank all of our volunteers from the bottom of our hearts. Each month, we select a volunteer to recognize for their outstanding work.

Here are some of their stories.