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

Editor of the Annual Journal, Discovery  

The present co-editors of Discovery (Sheila Byers and Bev Ramey) are ‘retiring’ after the 2025-2026 edition. This notice to the Nature Vancouver membership is to find someone, or a team of two or three, who would like to edit or co-edit Discovery. Work would begin in Fall 2026 with the deadline for Discovery submissions by November 1, 2026. Editorial work typically continues through the winter. The Discovery Style Guide for submissions helps with the editing task. The current copy editor, Rick Gee, is willing to continue, and his careful review provides well-appreciated grammar edits on near-final articles.

In late December the final copy of reviewed submissions is sent to graphic designer, Laura Fauth. Laura is willing to continue her work with a new editor, or team of editors. Laura’s final blueline copy is sent to the printers and uploaded online in early February.

Sheila and Bev have co-edited all the articles together for the past five volumes. However, if a team is interested in taking on this valuable work, that annually documents the several aspects of Nature Vancouver’s activities, as well as conservation articles and nature exploration, it would be possible to divide the tasks. For example, one person could edit articles (and if needed encourage article submissions which we’ve found has not been necessary as there has always been sufficient submissions), another person could handle and ensure submissions on Nature Vancouver sections (including summer camp reports, president’s message, awards, scholarships, photo show), and a third person could handle book reviews and solicit advertisers.

If you are interested, or would like to discuss further, please email Discovery@naturevancouver.bc with a short description of your experience and interest. If you’d like a phone conversation to ask questions or discuss further, please provide your phone number.

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 Liability Waiver Form Coordinator 

Ensuring liability waivers are properly scanned and stored on the Nature Vancouver sharepoint after field trips is an important task for ensuring we are properly covered for events. Field trip leaders currently are required to upload these themselves, but this can be a frustrating task for those who just want to get people outside. We are looking for an organized and dedicated volunteer who can track upcoming field trips and follow up with trip leaders to ensure that copies are uploaded in the sharepoint. This may involve occasionally scanning hard copies, or getting scans via email to upload into the sharepoint. The role shouldn’t take a lot of time – but could make a big difference in supporting our field trip leaders. 

For more information please contact: treasurer@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 to create a new role that will focus on a broad range of communications strategies to support the major objectives of Nature Vancouver. It can start out as one person but likely evolve to a committee of several volunteers. Bring you passion and commitment and help us create and mold this new support role. The following are the general goals: 

• Goal 1: Share the findings and excitement of natural history as well as Nature Vancouver. 
• Goal 2: Support the primary objectives of Nature Vancouver through communications.
• Goal 3: Understand and navigate the modern world of communications.

For more details of the expected roles and responsibilities please contact: Kelvin Yip at kelvin@naturevancouver.ca

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 during the spring and fall migration seasons:
• Mid-April to end of May
• Mid-August to early October

If you are an intermediate or advanced birder, you can be a huge help to the Iona Island Bird Observatory in Richmond, BC by assisting with the daily census. You’re welcome to come early or stay after and observe or assist with banding.

Census volunteers need to be able to identify at least 75% of the common occurring bird species at Iona Beach Regional Park by sight and sound.

Each census walk:

• Begins one hour after sunrise
• Follows a prescribed route while recording all bird detections
• Takes about 1.5 hours
• Involves a flat, easy walk on established trails
• Can be done by a group or an individual

Even one or two mornings this season makes a difference.

Your contribution will be part of the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network and helps monitor the state of Canada’s migratory birds. Learn more about the census protocol from Bird Census (PDF 3 pages).

To volunteer, contact Angela at iibo@wildresearch.ca