We appreciate your interest in becoming a volunteer! The Watershed relies on our volunteer family to help us protect our water and environment in central New Jersey. We have a small staff, but a large mission, so we have plenty of opportunities for volunteering. Whatever your talents and interests are, we will find a way for you to contribute! Please explore the section below and see what appeals to you!
If you’re interested in organizing a work group for your business, school, or another organization, please click here.
NJ Salt Watch engages community scientists to assess the impacts of winter road salting on New Jersey freshwater nontidal streams, rivers, ponds, and lakes. No training is required to participate. Click below to request your own set of NJ Salt Watch chloride test strips to start monitoring – registration for the NJ Salt Watch 2025-2026 winter season will kick off soon!
StreamWatch is our most hands-on science program. We have three teams of StreamWatchers:
CAT volunteers commit to taking water quality measurements on the third weekend of each month for at least one year. Currently, volunteers measure temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and nutrient levels using tools provided by The Watershed Institute. The results are analyzed and reported to the public through our quarterly subwatershed report cards, municipal report cards, and online. Data is also submitted to the EPA’s Water Quality Exchange.
StreamWatch CAT requires a minimum one-year commitment because of the extensive training required. (Due to the one-year minimum requirement, CAT is not a good option for rising seniors or 12th graders.)
BAT volunteers collect samples at their assigned site once a year. They conduct habitat assessments and monitor populations of organisms called macroinvertebrates. Because these organisms vary in their sensitivity to pollutants, the types and relative abundance of macroinvertebrates serve as indicators of water quality. Sampling is conducted once a year in the spring.
BACT volunteers help to monitor Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) levels in the water. HABs are caused by a type of photosynthesizing bacteria which can produce toxins. E. coli is a type of bacteria that lives in the intestinal tracts of animals and humans. The presence of this bacteria indicates that disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and parasites of a fecal origin may be contaminating the water. Monitoring helps to rapidly identify bacterial problems and monitor their status throughout the summer.
Minimum age for StreamWatch: 14 with an adult; 16+ solo.
This initiative is designed to help us protect and restore natural habitats in our 950-acre Watershed Reserve. In some portions of the Reserve, natural habitats are being undermined by non-native plant species that compete with the native flora.
We’ll assign each volunteer, volunteer family or volunteer group a plot, with samples of one or more targeted invasive plants, and give them instructions and tools to remove them. Volunteers may also have an opportunity to work with staff to plant trees in their plots. We are looking for volunteers or organizations who can commit to tending to their assigned plot on a regular basis (weekly or bi-weekly) for the Adopt-a-Plot season. An initial individual in-person training will be arranged for volunteers to tour their assigned plot, learn how to identify relevant invasive species and what to do with removed materials, and where to find necessary tools (if needed). Additional support meetings can be arranged to help with questions about your plot.
Minimum age: Kids must be accompanied by parent or guardian if under 15.
Stewardship volunteers also assist with Litter Patrol from Dec-March. Volunteers can come with family or work colleagues, scouting, school club, or other groups to patrol the roads surrounding the Watershed Reserve to remove litter that might otherwise end up in our local streams. We can supply reflective vests, gloves and garbage bags or you can bring your own. Litter Patrol is best done in the late fall and winter (but not when there’s snow on the ground) and in the spring before the growing season really starts.
Minimum age: 12 with a parent or guardian; 15 and above to volunteer solo.
Monitoring bird nests is a very hands-on science project. We have groups of birdhouses throughout the Watershed Reserve designed to attract bluebirds and other cavity nesting birds, and our monitors check the boxes on a regular basis to see if nests are being built, eggs are being laid, chicks are hatching and growing and cleaning out the boxes when young have fledged.
The nests must be checked every three-four days, so each group of bird houses will have a team of 3-5 monitors assigned, requiring a trip to the Watershed roughly every two weeks. This schedule should also accommodate people’s summer vacation schedules as the people in the group can cover for each other when group members are away.
We report the data we collect to the ornithology lab at Cornell University, a world leader in the study and conservation of birds.
Help with our rain gardens, trail maintenance, stewardship, planting and invasive removal, among other things. In the spring and summer, stewardship volunteers might be needed to help transplant and water our trees. If you have a string trimmer and can bring that to the ‘Shed to help address some of the edges around our boardwalk and trees, please come help out! Other opportunities occur sporadically. We also have a monthly Sunday Stewardship program.
Minimum age: 12 with a parent or guardian; 15 and above to volunteer solo.
Trailwatching involves walking our 10 miles of trails and serving as our eyes on the ground (so to speak) to maintain the trails and spot problems. You can do this on your own whenever you want (the reserve is open dawn to dusk, 365 days a year except when trails are closed for deer management on some days in December, January, and February). Trail watching volunteers pick up sticks and branches they find on the trail and toss them into the woods. If something is too big for a volunteer to move, we ask that you take a photo and send it to us so that we know that there’s a tree or large branch down. If volunteers find something else that needs attention (a broken boardwalk for example), they send in photos of such problem spots as well.
In the spring and summer, we also need to trim back branches and bushes that are encroaching on the trails. Loppers and other tools can be found in our tractor garage for spring/summer trimming back of trees or bushes overgrowing the trails. It’s also suggested that volunteers bring a garbage bag with them to pick up any trash found on the trails and please feel free to invite family and friends to join you!
Many of our largest special events happen in the spring and summer; World Water Day in late March, our Solstice Trail Run in June, our Fairy Festival in July and our largest event of the year – the Butterfly Festival – in early August. In the fall we have our Halloween Hike, followed by our Winter Fairy Festival, among others. Volunteers for these events help register, educate, and entertain our visitors as well as helping to set up and clean up.
Minimum age: 14 – some individual event shave a higher minimun age.
Volunteers help us with photography at some of our special events (such as our Butterfly Festival or World Water Day). They also help document other events such as the Watershed Conference, the Watershed Fest, and other programs that we run. Volunteers don’t need to have a 35 mm SLR to do so, but if a volunteer is using their camera phone, they need to be willing to get close to their subjects (usually people!)
We sometimes need Spanish language interpreters for events at the Watershed or at other sites. If you’re fluent in Spanish and available to help, please let us know.
Office assistance needs pop up now and then (usually with little warning!). These tasks can range from putting together an excel spreadsheet to helping with video editing to working on outreach for our publicity department. Most of this work is done at home, although occasionally we need volunteers to come to the Watershed. Usually those demands do fall during the school/work week, but sometimes there are things that can be done at home or over a weekend. I’ll send out an email when we need help.
Our welcome desk volunteers are the first face our visitors see and really serve as Watershed ambassadors. The welcome desk volunteers greet visitors, answer phone calls, make sales in our shop, and introduce people to the organization and to the building.
Our weekday shifts are 9 a.m. – 1 pm. and 1 – 5 p.m. and are generally staffed by volunteers who come in weekly. However, between vacations, days off and illnesses, we need subs often during the week, so even if you can’t do a regular weekly shift, we would welcome your involvement. Our weekend shifts are 10am-1pm and 1 – 4 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday. Signups for those shifts begin 2-3 weeks before the next calendar month.
There will be a building supervisor at the welcome desk on weekends, and weekend volunteers work closely with the building manager. All training is provided during the shift.
Minimum age: 16
The Watershed has limited staff and yet is engaged in communities throughout central NJ to guide and influence new development and regulations that affect the quality of our water and environmental resiliency. The Watershed Institute’s Community Watershed Advocate Program (CWAP) educates all those interested in learning more about how best to advocate for their water resources.
Training on a multitude of topics including environmental policy, development regulations, how planning and zoning boards work, environmental justice and more are conducted by in-house and guest experts. In previous years, we have focused on water-related climate change issues, how to advocate for change to address climate impacts at the community and state level, and regional approaches to advocacy. Even if you can’t participate in this program, you can still use our webinars and newsletter to help you to become an effective – or more effective – citizen advocate!
Minimum age: 15
The Watershed Institute’s 2025 Stream Cleanups were a great success; our next Stream Cleanups will be in April 2026 in roughly 10-15 towns.
We do tabling at local community events such as farmer’s markets, street or community fairs, and corporate fairs. Volunteers work with our staff – and sometimes without them – to educate visitors about the Watershed’s mission and about educational and fun programs offered at the Watershed.
Minimum age: 15
Our Butterfly House Crew will take responsibility for helping to maintain the gardens in our Butterfly House. The gardens are planted in the spring and then we need volunteers to both help capture butterflies as well as weed, water, and maintain the butterfly friendly plant species in the Butterfly House through August (and possibly beyond). All training provided! If you know something about weeds and plants, that’s a plus but not strictly necessary – a desire to learn is key.
Minimum age: 16
Our critter care volunteers come weekly to either feed our critters (turtles, snakes, insects, frog, toad, fish) or clean their cages and do other care. If you love slithery and slimy things, this is the task for you! Younger volunteers may need parental assistance with moving heavy things or reaching things on higher shelves, but parents do not need to have contact with the critters themselves. If you can commit to coming weekly on the same weekday or even a weekend day, please let me know.
Critter Care does require a minimum one-year commitment because of the extensive training required.
Minimum age: 14
Our volunteer teacher naturalists help supplement our staff when we have visiting school children on class trips. Teacher naturalists need to be comfortable working with children from K-12 and have formal experience (teacher) or informal (scout leader, religious schoolteacher) working with kids. We provide extensive training and get you up to speed to teach our modules and there’s lots of on-the-job experience and opportunities to learn about the Watershed and the natural world.
All volunteer hours are logged online through the Watershed volunteer hours tracker. You’ll receive that link after submitting your volunteer information form.
Meet Eve Niedergang, our volunteer coordinator. She works closely with individuals, schools and businesses to connect eager hands to crucial tasks. Volunteering is fun and rewarding; we would love to hear from you.
Contact Information:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 609-737-3735 ext 51
Site by Scout Digital
