Volunteerism

Parks Division

Volunteer hours

About this measure: King County Parks engages the community, educates park visitors, and provides basic enhancements to the park system and the environment through our volunteer program. In addition to the added resources volunteers bring to park projects, people leave with a greater knowledge and appreciation for the park system.

2008 results: 48,500 volunteer hours

2008 target: 60,000

2009 target: 45,000

Influencing factors: Volunteer hours declined slightly from 2007 primarily due to the temporary loan-out of the Volunteer Program Manager to the KC Animal Control & Care Shelter to assist in re-organizing their volunteer program in the face of their public pressure for change and internal budget crisis. Other factors include fewer spring school events due to order schedule of soil and seedlings at the KC Green House, and no "mega-event" to replace the previous year's Starbuck's Park Makeover at White Center Heights Park.

• The 48,500 volunteer hours for the year were provided by the incredible support of more than 6,600 caring citizens. There were over 458 events in which over 50 different groups participated.
• Volunteers planted over 13,660 native trees and shrubs at 11 King County sites. These plants are helping to restore wetlands and streams, forested floodplains and add diversity to our forests.
• Over 3,000 tree and shrub seedlings were potted up by volunteers at the Green House and Nursery for future projects.
• A record number of volunteer backcountry events occurred with 172 trail work days. These were completed at Grandridge, Soaring Eagle, Cougar Mtn., Squak Mountain., O'Grady Park, Duthie Hill Park, and Taylor Mt. Forest with the help of WTA, Backcountry Horsemen, Evergreen BTC, and others.
• The restructured Marymoor Concert Composter/Recycler volunteer project resulted in over 210 highly motivated environmentally conscientious people giving almost 700 hours at 17 concerts to help educate concert goers and divert recyclable and compostible items out of the waste stream.

Strategy going forward: The program will continue its efforts to build upon increasing volunteer recruitment by focusing on key volunteer program elements such as improving and increasing volunteer recognition (two new items will be used in the first quarter of 2009); strengthening existing partnerships with communities and organizations while building new ones (this has begun with increased communications and expanding staff skill-sets through trainings:; and developing more consistent messaging and advertising (the new website will allow for easier and more efficient changes to the volunteer web page). The program's target has been overly ambitious in the past and a new target of 45,000 will be set for 2009 that is more realistic yet motivates and challenges staff to obtain. One of the reasons that it will be lower is that the King County Fair is being transferred to the City of Enumclaw, which normally results in thousands of hours of volunteer time.

---

Solid Waste Division (SWD)

About This Performance Measure: This measure represents the number of volunteers trained by the Master Recycler Composter Program each year. The volunteers receive free training in waste prevention, recycling, home composting and alternatives to household hazardous wastes. In return, participants agree to share their knowledge and skills through various community outreach efforts.

2008 Results: 29

2008 Target: 25

2009 Target: 25

Influencing Factors: Training recruitment was the same in 2008 as it had been in 2007.

Strategy Going Forward: Recruitment for the 2009 training will target residents interested in providing outreach in curbside and food scrap recycling in South King County.

---

Water and Land Resources Division (WLRD)

Salmon watcher program

About this measure: Salmon Watcher is a multi-jurisdictional effort focused at protecting a Pacific Northwest treasure and educating the community in the process. The thirteen year old program involves volunteers watching streams for spawning salmon in King and Snohomish Counties. This effort mainly focuses on waters within the Lake Washington watershed.

2008 results: 119 sites on approximately 49 streams were watched in 2008.

2008 target: 130 sites on 55 streams

The number of sites and their locations vary from year to year. For example, in 2007, 134 sites were watched on streams. As of 2008, a total of 432 sites on approximately 145 streams have been watched in the program to date. Additionally, since we started collecting information on citizen contacts in 2001, volunteers have talked with nearly 8,000 citizens at their stream sites.

2009 target: 130 sites on 55 streams

Influencing factors: The Salmon Watcher program is voluntary and new watchers enter the program upon their interest and request. Budget allocations and proactive recruitment of watchers can influence how many and the location of monitoring locations.

Strategy Going Forward: Continuing to educate property owners with salmon streams on their property by participating in the program about things they can do to improve aquatic habitats.

Back to top