Several work parties on the North Olympic Peninsula will mark National Public Lands Day on Saturday.
The day before, volunteers will be recruited for work on public lands all year long at open houses in Forks.
Two open house meetings are planned Friday at the state Department of Natural Resources’ Olympic Region Office Conference Room, 411 Tillicum Lane, Forks.
The meetings will be from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Recruiting on Friday
DNR, Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park are co-hosting the gatherings to recruit volunteers for a number of projects and special programs throughout the year, said Cathy Baker of the DNR.
Volunteers can sign up to be campground hosts, participate in forest watch patrols, help maintain campgrounds and trails or help at the ONP plant nursery.
Training sessions will be held later in the year or next spring.
For more information, phone Baker at 360-374-2860 or e-mail her at cathy.baker@dnr.wa.gov; phone Dean Millett, Olympic National Forest, at 360-374-1222 or e-mail him at dmillett@fs.fed.us; or phone Maggie Tyler, Olympic National Park, at 360-565-3141 or e-mail her at Maggie_Tyler@nps.gov.
Dungeness festival
One volunteer work party also will be a celebration.
The Dungeness River Festival will begin Friday and run through Sunday at the Dungeness River Audubon Center at Railroad Bridge Park, 2151 W. Hendrickson Road in Sequim.
Volunteers will help with festival setup, activities, walks, exhibits and cleanup.
Festival hours will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.
It will offer 25 nature activities and interactive exhibits, talks, demonstrations, nature walks, food and music.
Special events include a presentation from Jamestown S’Klallam story teller Elaine Grinnell from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, the opening of the Olympic Driftwood Sculptors art show at 10 a.m. Saturday and native art activities from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday.
Admission to the festival will be free, but donations will be welcomed.
For more information, phone Bob Boekelheide, director of the Dungeness River Audubon Center, at 360-681-4076 or visit www.dungenessrivercenter.org
Saturday events
All other Peninsula events marking National Public Lands Day will be only on Saturday.
Volunteers will work with staff overseeing federal and state lands to clean up, spruce up and fix up trails, campgrounds and other public areas.
Here are other Peninsula projects that can use volunteers.
• Volunteers will work on the Slab Camp Trail in the Olympic National Forest near Sequim, addressing drainage problems on the trail, removing brush and resurfacing the trail.
The work is sponsored by the National Forest Service and the Pacific Northwest Trails Association.
For more information, phone 360-765-2251 or see www.fs.fed.us/r6/olympic/index.shtml.
• The Big and Little Quilcene watersheds, the water supply for Port Townsend, will be cleaned up, with volunteers picking up trash and tearing out noxious weeds.
The project is in the Hood Canal Ranger District of the Olympic National Forest Hood Canal Ranger District, based in Quilcene.
For more information, phone 360-379-5610, ext. 200
Another project in the Olympic National Forest is near Potlatch.
Volunteers will work on the South Fork Skokomish Trail in the Olympic National Forest.
They will clear brush and do tread work and drainage maintenance.
For more information on the project, phone 360-765-2251.
For more about National Public Lands Day, including finding volunteer projects, see www.publiclandsday.org.
