Volunteer
Job Description
Day-use Interpretive Hosts provide assistance to park interpretive staff with emphasis on interpreting the area’s natural and cultural resources, environmental education, visitor safety, and resource protection. Host assignments require a three-month commitment.
DUTIES:
Hosts may perform all of the following services:
- Greet and provide orientation and interpretive opportunities for visitors entering the intertidal (tidepool) area. These orientations enable visitors to utilize low impact skills and remain safe while exploring this fragile area.
- Provide visitors with area information and answer questions at the Interpretive Center desk.
- Assist in the park’s tidepool education programs offered each spring.
- Provide informal Interpretation of visible marine mammals, sea birds and other wildlife while staffing “interpretive resource tables” located at outdoor viewpoints within the park.
- Assist staff in opening and closing the site.
QUALIFICATIONS:
- Teamwork: All volunteers must show a willingness to work and get along with a wide variety of co-workers and visitors.
- Professional Image: In the eyes of the visitors, the volunteer is the BLM. Thus, volunteers are expected to present a professional image of the BLM in their dress, grooming, and demeanor.
- Customer Service: A genuine desire to insure that each visitor has an enjoyable experience at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area is essential.
- Youth and Family Centered: Should enjoy working with children and families that visit Yaquina Head.
- Physical Ability: The ability to descend and climb the 130 stairs that lead from the parking lot to the Cobble Beach tidepools, walk across rolling cobbles, and on top of algae covered rocks is required. The ability to stand for long periods of time is also desirable, but not required.
DUTY SCHEDULE:
Volunteer Hosts must be flexible enough to handle variations in work routines caused by weather, shifting priorities, tides, and visitor needs. Host couples will usually be scheduled to work the same shifts. However, they will not usually be located at the same facility or program area. One partner may be staffing the tidepools while the other is at the interpretive center.
Duty hours normally occur during daylight hours. However, on occasion, hosts may be scheduled for special evening events and occasionally split shifts.
Hosts almost always work weekends and holidays.
Each adult host living on-site will be expected to contribute a minimum of 20-25 hours per week depending on visitation and weather. (Five days at 4-5 hours/day)
Hosts are typically scheduled for a daily three to five hour shift at the interpretive center, tidepools or wildlife observation decks. Many assignments are completed outdoors, in all kinds of weather.
Compensation:
An RV campsite with a view of the Pacific Ocean is provided free of charge for hosts. The three modern RV sites have complete hookups (50 amp, 35 amp, 110 volt, sewer, access to a satellite dish, shared telephone line), and picnic tables. Each site can accommodate a 45’ RV plus a tow vehicle. Laundry facilities and internet access are not provided.
Supervision:
Hosts are supervised by the on-site volunteer coordinator. The volunteer coordinator will arrange the duty schedules, training, and performance evaluations of the hosts.
PARK AREA INFORMATION:
Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area (YHONA) is a 100-acre day-use area managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The park is located on a prominent headland just three miles north of Newport, on Oregon’s scenic central coast. The city of Newport (pop. 10,500) offers amenities often associated with larger communities including a modern recreation center, performing arts center, visual arts center, restaurants, and parks within the relaxed atmosphere of a small coastal town.
Summers are generally dry with daily periods of fog, sun, and afternoon winds. Visitation is highest during July and August. Like much of the Pacific Northwest coast, winters at Yaquina Head are generally cool, wet, and windy. The park rarely experiences freezing temperatures or snow.
Throughout the year visitors come to view tide pool life at Cobble Beach. Over 65,000 seabirds nest during the spring and summer on the headland’s cliffs and near shore rocks. Harbor seal viewing is available most days. Gray Whales can be observed migrating during spring and early winter, and are also sighted at many other times of the year. The Yaquina Head Lighthouse, at the tip of the headland, has been functioning as a navigational aid since 1873. The site is open 365 days a year, with annual visitation of 450,000.
THE INTERPRETIVE PROGRAM MISSION:
The Bureau of Land Management at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area seeks to utilize the area’s unique natural and historic resources to provide a broad spectrum of interpretive opportunities that inform, inspire, and involve a diverse public in the stewardship of coastal resources.