Education and Community Engagement Volunteer Opportunities
We have ongoing opportunities to assist with events and programs onsite. With few exceptions, we recruit volunteers in two categories:
- Interpretive naturalist volunteers to lead hikes and share information with the public during the summer.
- Education volunteers to assist with elementary and middle school field trips during the spring and fall (must have experience working with K-8 students, in either formal or informal settings and be able to pass a background check).
Volunteers will:
- Attend a training event.
- Commit to a somewhat-regular volunteering schedule.
- Have interest (experience preferred) in connecting people to the environment around them. No science background is needed.
If you are interested, please contact Kara Baldwin ([email protected]).
Land Management Volunteer Opportunities
With more than 5500 acres of land to manage and maintain, volunteers are also needed from time to time to assist with land management projects. Our Buildings and Grounds team offers regularly-occurring opportunities to help with things like trail upkeep, road clearing and fence repair. From time to time, other opportunities may arise to assist with invasive species management, restoration work, and other related initiatives. Opportunities and registration for the start of 2026 are available for sign-up now! We are excited for your help with trash pickup, trail maintenance, invasive species removal, and more. Please contact Mark Saxhaug ([email protected]) with questions.
For those frustrated by the lack of opportunities in this space, please keep in mind that we do not have a staff member whose job is volunteer coordination, and the capacity of our team to plan and supervise volunteer events is limited by their other job responsibilities. The field station is very busy from May through September, so the majority of our volunteer events take place in the spring. We have also found that volunteer attrition (folks signing up for events and then failing to show up for them) is high in the summer when heat, mosquitoes, and family responsibilities all seem to peak. We are working to expand our capacity in this area in a responsible and sustainable manner. While we work on that, please be patient. We are not able to create projects for individual people, work around the scheduling constraints of volunteers, or respond quickly to all the emails we receive about volunteering. We are also limited in the type of projects we can assign volunteers to work on — we need to follow University rules in regards to oversight, liability, ethics, and overlap with paid staff responsibilities (especially those held by union-represented staff). We are doing the best we can, and we appreciate your understanding!
Participatory science projects
Participatory science projects are a great way for people of all backgrounds - scientific or not - to connect with nature and contribute to important scientific research on a regular basis. Volunteers on these projects collect data under the direction of site scientists and contribute to large, long-term scientific projects. Most projects involve a training day as well as a regular commitment to follow protocols and conduct fieldwork. The time commitment varies by project and can be adjusted somewhat to fit your schedule but may require regularly-occurring, on-going responsibilities. This is a great opportunity to participate in scientific research and to earn hours you may need for Master Naturalist or similar volunteer programs! No science background required, but may be helpful depending on the project. Youth under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.
We are currently recruiting volunteers for a handful of bird-related projects in spring and summer 2026. Most of these projects require a regular commitment to field work, so please keep that in mind before filling out the volunteer form for bird-related opportunities!
Red-headed Woodpecker Nest Monitoring (recruiting for 2026!)
Cedar Creek is home to a fabulous and apparently stable population of red-headed woodpeckers - notable since the species is in decline throughout Minnesota and the rest of their range! Beginning in 2008, volunteers from local Audubon chapters assisted with monitoring the population onsite. Since 2017, Dr. Elena West, a faculty member at the U of MN, has led an active research program exploring these birds' habitat preferences, parenting behavior, foraging decisions, and more. Currently, volunteers are needed to classify thousands of hours of nest camera videos (no sign-up necessary), and to assist with ongoing field work (please fill out the form)!
Breeding Bird Survey (recruiting for 2026!)
More than half the bird species documented in Minnesota have been spotted at Cedar Creek. The diversity of habitats and plant communities onsite attracts a wide variety of breeding birds in particular. Dr. Elena West, a faculty member at the U of MN, oversees an annual breeding bird survey program which sends teams of volunteers out to do point counts on fixed transects in May, June and July. The data collected through this project helps us better understand which species are using which areas of Cedar Creek, and how that is changing over time as the climate warms, urban pressure increases, and land management practices shape landscapes. We need experienced birders to join our survey teams for summer 2026! If that might be you, please fill out the form.
Cedar Creek Wildlife Survey Project (ongoing)
The Cedar Creek Wildlife Survey (CCWS) is a participatory science project started in summer 2016 in cooperation with Jonathan Poppele and the Minnesota Wildlife Tracking Project. The goal of CCWS is to connect participants with nature and the world around them, survey the diversity of wildlife on the Cedar Creek property, and provide Cedar Creek scientists with valuable data about our wildlife. No tracking experience necessary – come learn this new skill and then put it to use on Cedar Creek’s sand roads! Please contact Jonathan Poppele ([email protected]) for more information on upcoming training opportunities and survey days, and to be added to the information list for project events. We hold ~2 public tracking surveys annually; additional surveys are conducted by project leaders and highly experienced volunteers. Please see the MN Tracking Calendar for dates of upcoming surveys and learning opportunities at Cedar Creek and elsewhere around the state.
Cedar Creek: Eyes On The Wild (paused)
Are you sitting at your desk but secretly dreaming you were hiking in the woods? Interested in meaningfully contributing to scientific research, but don’t know where to begin or don't think you have the skills? Come with us on an “armchair exploration” of Cedar Creek and explore the beautiful landscape of the reserve through our network of remote camera traps! These hidden cameras, deployed across the 9-square mile Cedar Creek property, provide a sneak peek into the secret lives of animals. Researchers investigating animal behavior and community dynamics need to extract information from millions of images, but are currently overwhelmed by the large volume of data we have generated. We need your help! You can directly assist Cedar Creek researchers by classifying animals in camera trap images online at eyesonwild.com or on your phone using the free Zooniverse app. You can read a wonderful overview of the project in the Star Tribune or watch a video about our research on KSTP Channel 5 News.
Phenology Monitoring (not actively recruiting volunteers)
Phenology, the study of seasonal cycles, is an important area of research at Cedar Creek and around the world. Regular phenology monitoring can provide insight into and evidence for how climate change and other human impacts are affecting our natural communities. At Cedar Creek, a small team of scientists and community members conducts weekly monitoring of nearly 100 individually-marked plants in several ecosystems. Volunteers must have their own transportation, be able to follow a standard protocol that involves recording data in a cell phone app, and commit to surveying 2-3 times per month from March to November. To volunteer, reach out to Dr. Katrina Freund Saxhaug ([email protected]).
Minnesota Bumble Bee Survey (completed)
Help us help bumble bees across the state! This project, coordinated by the U of M Bee Squad and U of M Extension, has been running at locations statewide since 2007. Cedar Creek participated from 2018 to 2020. On survey days at the reserve, volunteers learned how to collect and identify bees, identify flowering plants, and contribute to a statewide effort to understand and protect our native pollinators! This project wrapped up in 2020 and is no longer active.