All the activities and programs offered by Nature Vancouver are made possible by a large group of dedicated volunteers. There are many opportunities for new volunteers to get involved. 

Volunteers are always needed to lead field trips, organize evening programs and other events such as the Summer Camp or multi day tours.

For more information, please EMAIL us or use CONTACT US FORM.  Or better still, talk to a board member or section committee member at one of our EVENING PROGRAMS.

Current Volunteer Opportunities

Summer Camp Volunteers

Camp Committee Members: The Nature Vancouver Summer Camp Committee has openings for two or more new members.  Meetings occur about 10 times per year, mostly by zoom.  If you are interested in this position please email the camp committee at NVcamp@naturevancouver.ca.

Camp Registrar: Primary responsibilities are registering and communicating with campers.  Previous experience at a Summer Camp would be beneficial.  Should have some experience with basic Excel and Word.  Position begins as soon as you are available with the intention that you will take over the 2027 camp registration.  The current registrar is committed to staying through the 2026 camp in September and mentoring you as needed.  There are several perks that occur with this position including a substantial subsidy should you attend the Summer Camp.  If you would like to understand the details about this position, email the current registrar to arrange a chat about it.  Elena.K.NVcamp@outlook.com.

Committee Members at Large: There is room for more committee members who are able to take on tasks as they come up.  Examples of these include phone calls to campgrounds, filing documents on the drive.   If you are interested in this position please email the camp committee at NVcamp@naturevancouver.ca.

Geology Section

The Geology Section focuses on the geology of southwestern BC, mainly through a series of self-guided tours. This section is in need of volunteers who are interested in chairing the geology section and / or leading geology field trips. Please contact David Cook for more information.

Social Coordinator (aka Party Planner)

We are looking for one or two social coordinators who can plan bi-annual social events for Nature Vancouver members! Getting the membership together throughout the year is a great way to build community and collaboration across our sections of interest. We have been very lucky to have a great Social Coordinator, Sue Garber, who has stepped back from this recently to go on a long journey. 

As social coordinator you would:

• Plan social events for Nature Vancouver members throughout the year.
• Pick and coordinate booking of venues, helpers for set up and clean up, organize decorations, plan for food (potluck has worked in the past). 
• Coordinate with web services and e-news to ensure the membership is aware.
• Track attendance. 

Examples of some previous amazing social events include walks and partying at VanDusen Gardens, Winter and Summer Socials at Hewitt Hall, celebrating our AGM etc. Quite a few people volunteer to help with these events in one way or another, but it does take someone to be in charge of organizing.

For more information please contact: Donna@naturevancouver.ca

Field Trip Leaders 

Interested in sharing your knowledge about flora and fauna? Excited about getting a community out to enjoy nature? We are always looking for volunteer field trip leaders. If you’re curious about leading walks themed in one of our active sections (birding, botany, marine biology) please reach out to the section leads or speak to trip leaders at an event. Have a new idea? Feel free to reach out to: treasurer@naturevancouver.ca

Volunteer Coordinator

As our volunteer programs grow, we are looking for a dynamic Volunteer Coordinator, responsible for managing a list of volunteers, ensuring they have meaningful opportunities to contribute to our mission and our 5 primary objectives. The Volunteer Coordinator would liaise with the Nature Vancouver Board of Directors, or ideally, be a Director themselves. 

The primary duty of the Volunteer Coordinator would be to build a list of Nature Vancouver members who are willing, and have the necessary skills, to partake in a number of activities. These activities range from hikes and walks, outreach, such as Wings Over Iona, to requests for presentations to schools or other community groups, or taking part in restoration events.

The hourly commitment is anticipated to be only a few hours per month. The duties would generally involve emailing or phoning Nature Vancouver members that have indicated an interest in assisting with certain types of activities, when requests are received via the info@naturevancouver.ca email.  Recruiting members for specific activities via a notice in the weekly e-news may also be a strategy in some instances. Documenting all contact with members, as related to volunteer activities, would also be required. As the Volunteer Coordinator will have access to members’ personal contact information, they would be required to sign a Protection of Privacy Agreement. 
The Volunteer Coordinator could potentially be a shared role if more than one Nature Vancouver members were interested.

For more information please contact: president@naturevancouver.ca

Coordinator – Nature Vancouver iNaturalist City Nature Challenge

This global challenge has been running now for 10 years. Nature Vancouver administers the iNaturalist project for the Metro Vancouver Regional District. We have a proven model in place for you to use. See the 2025 project at: https://www.inaturalist.ca/projects/city-nature-challenge-2025-metro-vancouver-regional-district-mvrd
We need someone (or a team) to help administer this project going forward. The project is copied and reused each year. We need someone to attend the organizer challenge meetings on zoom which average 4, one-hour sessions in the fall. Communications with other stakeholders via email during the spring promotion phase and journaling (posting notices) in the project during the 4-day event to keep others informed.
It is useful to know and use iNaturalist to be able to answer questions but most of this is done by the regional partners as well as event leaders when this event is held at the end of April, early May each year.
You will have support from Nature Vancouver, Canadian Wildlife Federation and others. Please contact John.Martin@naturevancouver.ca if you are interested.

Using iNaturalist to record your observations

Any Nature Vancouver member who uses iNaturalist can help fill in gaps with our nature observations. Read the following iNaturalist blog to find out more about what you can do to help enhance the documentation of our biodiversity. You can use the dots to focus on our area in and around Vancouver or any other part of Canada. There is also a request to help improve the quality of existing iNaturalist observations.
https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/108240-help-find-these-missing-canadian-species

Board of Directors

At present there are two vacancies on the Nature Vancouver Board of Directors. If you, or someone you know, would like to volunteer for this role, please contact John Martin at President@naturevancouver.ca

Communications Volunteer

We are looking for volunteers to join our newly established Communications Committee that will help and support the organization through varying forms of communications channels and media. Varying levels of involvement can be filled from single day volunteering at an outreach event, to content creation, to helping establish communication toolkits, and more.

If you are interested, please email communications@naturevancouver.ca with a brief background of yourself and what level of involvement/commitment you are looking to volunteer to provide.

New Brighton Park Biodiversity Enhancement Project

Since January 2022, the Nature Vancouver led effort has been working to enhance the biodiversity at the park in Vancouver’s northeast corner. On what was an industrial fill site crowded with scotch broom, himalayan blackberry and other invasive plants, over 300 volunteers have worked to remove the invasive plants. We have also planted around 3000 native perennial flowers and shrubs to provide a better habitat for insects, birds and animals. You can read more about the history of the project and the reports of the past work parties from https://naturevancouver.ca/category/new-brighton-park-restoration/.  

We can use your help! In order to volunteer for future work parties, please see the Events Calendar at https://naturevancouver.ca/events/ or contact newbrighton@naturevancouver.ca.

Volunteers needed to help with daily bird census at Iona

Do you enjoy birding at Iona? Or have you been meaning to?

WildResearch is looking for volunteers to help with our daily bird census at Iona.

Local birders in the lower mainland, we need your help! We need volunteers to lead the daily census at Iona. It is vital monitoring data for the Iona Island Bird Observatory. Census leader volunteers need to be able to identify at least 75% of the regularly occurring land-bird species at Iona Beach Regional Park by sight and sound. The shift begins one hour after sunrise and entails walking along a prescribed route while recording all avian detections, and requires about 2 hours of your time in total. For more details on the census protocol see https://wildresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/IIBO-Census-Instructions-2026.pdf

For more information, or to sign up, please email Angela at iibo@wildresearch.ca