Volunteer Opportunities for May and June

CALL FOR DOCENTS

There are openings for more Docents for the 2007 season at the Orono Bog Boardwalk. Docenting is fun, and a valuable community service. Twenty docents worked as volunteers at the boardwalk in 2006. Would you like to join this illustrious group? We want to hear from you!

Docents greet visitors; answer their questions about the boardwalk, the ecology and the natural history of the bog; act as natural history guides for small groups; and they inform visitors of boardwalk rules, when necessary. In addition, docents may occasionally need to nail down a loose deck board, or in a rare emergency call 911 (a cell phone is provided at the boardwalk).

Each docent shift lasts three hours or less. We encourage docents to put in one shift every two weeks, on average, from May through October. That's a total of 10-12 sessions spread over the six months. Scheduling and the number of days between sessions are very flexible, and can be fit around the docent's personal schedule.

Docent Short Course - To prepare you to answer questions on the ecology and natural history of wetlands (with a focus on Orono Bog) there will be a half-day of instruction taught by Dr. Ron Davis in the Spring. The Short Course will take place at the boardwalk and will also cover history and administrative aspects. Recommended reading: "Bogs of the Northeast" by C. W. Johnson, (1985. University Press of New England) This book can be ordered at any bookstore. In addition to the half-day course, experienced leaders will be on hand to work with each new docent on his/her first session at the boardwalk.

To volunteer to be a docent, please contact Director John Daigle by email John_Daigle@appollo.umenfa.maine.edu or telephone him at 207-581-2850.

Directions to the boardwalk site: Via Stillwater Ave, drive about 200 yards south of American Concrete (which is just south of the Orono/Bangor town line), turn westward onto Tripp Drive, go to Bangor City Forest parking lot at end of road, park, walk through gate, and follow the East Trail about 1/4 mile to the boardwalk.