Volunteer
- Campground Host
- Large Group Volunteering
- Park Surveys
- Restore Oak Savanna at LEPR
- Eagle Scout & Silver Awards
Washington County Parks welcomes campground hosts in the campgrounds at Lake Elmo Park Reserve and St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park. Campground hosts are volunteers who live in the campground, in their own camping unit, for a portion of the summer. In exchange for a free campsite, they are responsible for providing information to campers, registering campers in the spring and fall, cleaning restrooms as necessary (between staff cleanings), and other related tasks. These positions fill quickly and may not always be available. If you are interested in learning more about these positions, contact the Parks Division at 651-430-8370 or email.
Washington County can accommodate large volunteer groups. This is great for scout troops, company volunteer days, volunteer organizations and more.
If your company or organization is interested in a private group volunteer event for ~10+ people for seed collecting in September, October, please complete this form and email it to our Natural Resources Coordinator.
Volunteer to help us collect information from park visitors at various places around the County. During specific 2-hour periods, volunteers count visitors and hand out visitor surveys. This data helps staff determine park use and visitor preferences. Volunteers are needed at nearly all parks, including the Hardwood Creek Trail in Hugo / Forest Lake. If you are interested in being a random survey volunteer, please contact the Parks Division at 651-430-8370 or email.
The Monthly Natural Resource Volunteer events at Lake Elmo Park Reserve have been cancelled for the remainder of the year.
If you or anyone in your household still want to recreate outdoors and help us with oak savanna restoration efforts in the park, please send us an email at dan.macswain@co.washington.mn.us so we can connect and provide you or your household with a spot to adopt and restore in the park.
Washington County Parks regularly receives requests for Eagle Scout/Silver Award volunteer projects, where a scout has identified a project to solve a problem/need in the parks. Below is a list of current potential projects, we also encourage scouts to present their own ideas:
- Construct wooden benches in the parks
- Scouts must show existing bench locations on a map, and include locations for the proposed bench installation as part of the project submittal.
- Natural resource activities (growing high value prairie plants from seed, buckthorn removal).
Please spend time in a county park or facility and think about the project, discuss the project with troop leaders and parents prior to submitting the Eagle Scout Project Description form. Once you have submitted the form, a response will be given within 30 business days. Please email the general parks email with the completed proposal form as a scanned PDF.