Focus Area
Environmental Volunteer Opportunities in Central Oregon
Matching organizations, in a different order on every visit
Heart of Oregon Corps empowers young people ages 16–24 through jobs, job training, education, and service to Central Oregon communities. Its programs include YouthBuild, where youth build affordable homes while continuing their education, the High Desert and Central Oregon Youth Conservation Corps, Camp LEAD, and Food Heroes. Since 2000, it has served more than 4,750 youth who are disconnected from school and work.
Volunteers can mentor a young person working to build job skills and finish their education, join the Employer Advisory Council to connect Corps members with local employers and careers, or serve on the Board of Directors (two seats are reserved for program alumni, and no prior board experience is needed). General volunteer opportunities are also available through the inquiry form.
Think Wild is Central and Eastern Oregon's only public wildlife hospital and conservation center, located on four acres on Bend's east side. Its veterinary staff and volunteers rescue, treat, and release hundreds of injured and orphaned native animals each year, from hummingbirds and flying squirrels to bald eagles and bobcats. Think Wild also runs a wildlife hotline, humane wildlife conflict help, Beaver Works Oregon habitat restoration, and education programs and camps for youth and the community. Found injured or orphaned wildlife? Call the hotline at 541-241-8680 (8am–6pm daily).
Volunteers help in the wildlife hospital with animal care, diet prep, and enclosure upkeep; rescue and transport injured wildlife; care for ambassador animals; support education programs, camps, and community events; and assist with humane wildlife conflict projects. Youth and family volunteering is available for kids and teens, and families and groups can join habitat restoration through Beaver Works Oregon. Training is provided.
Friends of the Central Cascades Wilderness
also known as FCCW
Friends of the Central Cascades Wilderness is a Bend-based volunteer group that helps care for the Three Sisters, Mount Washington, and Mount Jefferson wilderness areas on the Deschutes National Forest, partnering with the Forest Service to keep wilderness trails open and teach visitors to protect these wild places. It is a partner in the Deschutes Trails Coalition.
Volunteers join wilderness trail crews, with volunteer sawyers using crosscut saws to clear downed trees from wilderness trails where chainsaws aren't allowed, and serve as wilderness stewards who educate visitors at trailheads and on the trail. Saw training and backcountry first aid training are available.
Central Oregon LandWatch
also known as LandWatch, COLW
Founded in 1985, Central Oregon LandWatch works for a balanced, responsible approach to planning and conserving the region's land and water, protecting ecosystems and wildlife habitat while fostering thriving, sustainable communities. Its programs cover rivers and springs, farms and forests, urban planning, and wildlife habitat, and it helps residents take part in public decisions, from Bend's growth boundary to water and resort policy. It also hosts the Livable Future Forum, a lecture and community conversation series.
LandWatch relies on engaged community members: attending and testifying at public hearings on growth, water, and land use decisions, helping with outreach and its Livable Future Forum speaker series and other events, and joining field activities. Staff help volunteers understand the issues and how to make their voices heard.
Oregon Star Party
also known as OSP
An annual summer star party held under dark skies at Indian Trail Spring in the Ochoco National Forest east of Prineville. The multi-day gathering brings amateur astronomers together for night sky observing, speakers, observing programs and youth activities, and is organized and run by volunteers.
Oregon Star Party is run entirely by volunteers. Attendees sign up for short shifts during the event: registration and information tents, entry gate greeters, site setup and breakdown, activities tent tech support, lunch and ice distribution, and telescope mentoring for youth and adults. People with medical credentials are needed for the first aid team. Sign-ups open with each year's registration.
Sierra Club Juniper Group
also known as Juniper Group
The Juniper Group is the Central Oregon group of the Sierra Club's Oregon Chapter, bringing together people who care about the region's forests, high desert, rivers, and wildlife. It works to protect wild places through public-lands advocacy, education, and community outreach, and runs an outings program of hikes, snowshoe and Nordic ski trips, and campouts that is open to members and non-members alike.
Volunteers lead and join hikes, snowshoe, and Nordic ski outings (free outdoor leadership training is offered for new trip leaders), table at community events, give presentations at local schools, write for the newsletter, capture photos and video, and help with conservation research and public-lands comments. No experience is necessary, just an enthusiasm for wild nature.
NatureConnect Central Oregon
also known as Children's Forest of Central Oregon
Formerly the Children's Forest of Central Oregon, NatureConnect unites a network of 30+ public, private, and nonprofit partners to inspire lifelong connections to nature for every child. It focuses on youth and families who face barriers to the outdoors, running culturally specific programs through Vámonos Outside, outdoor school days for rural and Title I students, and paid youth internships and career pathways in natural resources.
Volunteers support outdoor family events and youth programs, help with photography, blog writing, and social media to share the network's stories, and lend a hand with outreach and partner events across the region.
Beaver Works Oregon
also known as Think Wild Beaver Works
Beaver Works Oregon is Think Wild's habitat restoration program, working with land managers and conservation partners across Central and Eastern Oregon to bring back healthy, beaver-supported streams and wetlands. Staff and volunteers build beaver dam analogs, hand-built structures that slow water where beavers are absent, plant native willows and cottonwoods, survey waterways for beaver activity, and help people and beavers share the landscape, making watersheds more resilient to drought and wildfire.
Volunteers build and maintain beaver dam analogs, plant native willows and cottonwoods along streams, harvest willow for propagation, and survey waterways for signs of beaver activity to support long-term research. Projects range from physically demanding backcountry field days to beginner- and family-friendly outings. No experience needed; training, tools, and guidance are provided.
The High Desert Botanical Garden, a project of the High Desert Horticultural Center, is a planned regional botanical garden for Central Oregon, conceived to help residents and visitors understand and connect with the plant communities of the high desert east of the Cascades. Showcasing native and drought-tolerant plants, it aims to be a sanctuary for at-risk species and a place to learn, and is working with Bend Park and Recreation District on site analysis, planning, and design.
Volunteers help build the garden from the ground up: serving on an advisory board that draws on deep knowledge of High Desert ecosystems, helping raise funds and spread the word, and pitching in on behind-the-scenes tasks like mailings. A good fit for people who love native plants and want to shape a new regional garden from its earliest stages.
Commute Options increases access to transportation options across Oregon, helping people walk, bike, roll, carpool, vanpool, and ride transit more and drive alone less. Based in Bend, it runs Safe Routes to School programs with bike and pedestrian safety education and walking school buses, the Get There commuter challenge and rewards program, and free e-bike safety education.
Volunteers lead Walking School Bus routes, walking students to and from school on a planned route, and support Safe Routes to School by helping at Walk+Roll to School Day, leading safety workshops, and mapping safe walking and biking routes. Volunteers also help at community bike and walk events and Get There challenge outreach, and board service is available.
A statewide nonprofit working to preserve Oregon's dark skies and reduce light pollution through advocacy, education, and monitoring, supporting Dark Sky community certifications like Sisters and the Oregon Outback.
Volunteers help measure and track light pollution using sky quality meters across Oregon, advocate for local lighting ordinances, and support outreach and education efforts on responsible outdoor lighting.
The Crooked River Watershed Council brings landowners, agencies, tribes, and community members together to restore the health of the Crooked River basin for fish, wildlife, and people. Based in Prineville, it leads riparian, floodplain, and wetland restoration and water-quality monitoring, including a $1.4 million federally funded project restoring habitat on the Lower Crooked River below Prineville, to support the return of spring Chinook salmon and summer steelhead, working with partners like the Ochoco Irrigation District and Deschutes Land Trust.
Volunteers join riparian planting and restoration days, help with river cleanups and monitoring, and support watershed education with local students.
You haven't seen them all yet. There are more organizations below.