Are you interested in ecological research, place-based education, marine conservation biology, coastal communities or off-grid living? Cedar Coast Field Station is always looking for keen individuals to help out around the station grounds and participate in-house monitoring projects. We ask successful volunteer applicants to be available for at least one week to work 4hrs/day in exchange for free food, accommodation and boat transportation between Tofino, BC and Vargas Island. Please feel free to fill out a volunteer application form here and send to info@cedarcoastfieldstation.org.
For a more personal look at what its like to volunteer at Cedar Coast, read from our amazing, witty, heart-of-gold volunteer Teddy Rose who shares his 3 week experience on Vargas Island:
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As a relatively new resident of BC, I wasted no time interacting with the provinces seemingly never-ending nature through hiking, swimming, and biking. After a while though I began to feel that these activities were somewhat superficial ways of getting to know my new home. I had been looking for a more meaningful way to give back to this amazing part of the world, and the CCFS volunteering program provided a perfect opportunity to do so!
Some things I learned during my stay at CCFS:
- How to conduct a fish seine to study salmon fry
- What sound eagles make when mating (which happened to be a great alarm clock)
- How to operate a tractor and build roads
- How to integrate seaweed and sand into garden beds
- What wolf prints and poop look like (spoiler: the latter is full of hair!)
- How to resize photos on WordPress websites (they don’t make it easy!)
- What ingredients make a delicious borscht soup
More generally I was extremely happy with how many different ways there were to contribute, how open the CCFS team was to new ideas, and how no two days were the same. Is the weather bad? Help write for the website blog! Is the house feeling cold? Help clean out the furnace or chop wood! Not satisfied with Tofino’s grocery store? Add something special to the garden!
These experiences collectively helped me interact with, and learn about Clayoquat Sound in a way I couldn’t have as a tourist. That said, the volunteering program still left me with plenty of time to escape to remote beaches on a kayak and to see how long my face could handle cold-water snorkeling. All things considered, it might have been my most wholesome and well balanced lifestyles I have ever lived. Thanks for everything Julia, Mack, and Simon!!!!!
