If you are looking to put tools to the ground and leave an impact on the forest and our trails, come volunteer with us! We offer a wide variety of volunteer opportunities ranging from day projects to 10-day long “working vacations.” Check our Events Calendar to see what is available near you, or email us if you would like to set up a project. To get up-to-date info on all things LPFA, subscribe to our newsletter. Emails will be sent out on a monthly basis.
Volunteer Wilderness Rangers (VWR) provide a number of critical volunteer activities in the back country areas of the Los Padres National Forest. These include trail work, wilderness patrols, repairs to structures, maintenance of historic buildings and other tasks — whatever needs to be done that the Forest Service can’t. Contact us if you would like to join our annual VWR training: Volunteer@LPForest.org
What is a Working Vacation?
Working Vacations are larger scale volunteer trail maintenance projects that the LPFA organizes in support of the Los Padres National Forest. Working Vacations are generally focused on maintaining harder-to-get-to trails and they usually range from 7-10 days in length.
— The LPFA provides all the food for the Working Vacations and we normally have stock support bring in food, gear and supplies with a dedicated cook on hand to ensure everyone eats well throughout their stay.
— While we’d love to have everyone volunteer for all 7-10 days, we realize that life doesn’t usually allow us to be away for that long and we always have shorter options available as well. We do ask that everyone commit at least 3 days for the project.
— The usual Working Vacation day starts off with sunrise coffee followed by breakfast. We then we pack our lunches and hit the trail by 8am. We work throughout the day or until we’re tired and return to camp for a cold drink, dinner and ideally some story-telling, songs and laughter around the campfire before heading off to bed.
The flow of Working Vacations is very soothing and somewhat addictive, most people who come on a Working Vacation end up signing up for the next one as well. The Working Vacations are a lot of fun and a truly rewarding wilderness experience. That’s the sales pitch, in case the opportunity to spend time in the forest wasn’t enough of a pull all by itself.