Volunteer

Wood Thrush with Geolocator by Emily Patterson

Volunteers are an integral part of our community and successes—we couldn’t do nearly as much as we do without you!

Our volunteers do everthing from trail stewardship & sanctuary restoration to native garden cultivation or helping in the office. They help with our monthly lectures, act as amabassadors at community events and drive our seed sale fundraisers. Click here for new spring 2023 volunteer opportunities.

Our Volunteer Opportunities are listed with Volunteer Match.

You can also fill out an online Volunteer Application, and let us know how you’d like to help out.

If you’re already a volunteer, you can log your hours here.

Groups

We welcome student, service and Scout, and corporate groups to volunteer with us!

If you’re interested in booking a group volunteer event, please email executivedirector@bedfordaudubon.org. Keep reading for current group projects, but we’re also open to new and different projects, too.

Bird Seed Sale Pick-up (November & February/March)

  • Project description: Help us distribute pre-ordered bird seed as part of our annual seed sale fundraiser (off-load bags of seed from truck, organize seed by type/order, load seed into customers’ cars)
  • Age restrictions: 12 & up
  • Location: Bedford Hills Town Park
  • Time commitment: 6 hours including set up and breakdown

Trail Maintenance

  • Project description: Help us maintain miles of trails at three of our wildlife sanctuaries
  • Age restrictions: 12 & up
  • Location: John Ramsey Hunt & Mary Welsh Parker Memorial Sanctuary (Katonah/Lewisboro/Bedford), Ruth Walgreen Franklin & Winifred Fels Memorial Sanctuary (North Salem), Palmer H. Lewis Memorial Sanctuary (Bedford)
  • Date(s): Flexible, can also schedule Trail Maintenance 101 Workshop (free) with the New York New Jersey Trail Conference
  • Time commitment: 2 hours (can be repeated several times, including seasonally if your group would like to steward a trail section

Trail Posting

  • Project description: Help us mark 8+ miles of trails at our largest wildlife sanctuary
  • Age restrictions: 12 & up
  • Location: Location: John Ramsey Hunt & Mary Welsh Parker Memorial Sanctuary (Katonah/Lewisboro/Bedford), Ruth Walgreen Franklin & Winifred Fels Memorial Sanctuary (North Salem), Palmer H. Lewis Memorial Sanctuary (Bedford)
  • Date(s): Flexible
  • Time commitment: 2 hours (can be repeated several times)

Native Garden Planting and/or Mulching

  • Project description: Plant native shrubs and trees in our Leon Levy Native Garden (we will pick the species and sizes and can help you find a source for the plant material), or sheet mulching in the Garden to manage invasive species
  • Age restrictions: 8 & up
  • Location: Leon Levy Native Garden at Bylane Farm, 35 Todd Road, Katonah
  • Date(s): Flexible, May/June or September/October
  • Time commitment: 4 hours

Community & Citizen Science

Head on over to Research to learn more about our community and citizen science opportunities.

Gold Award & Eagle Scout Candidates

We welcome local Scouts. If you’re looking for a Gold Award or Eagle Scout Project, check our list of available projects as a first step—and if you don’t see a project that resonates with you, feel free to propose a project! Before you get started, please read our Project Guidelines with your parents.

Volunteer Application