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Spend the weekend at the Mount St. Helens Science and Learning Center doing trailwork, enjoying live music as well as hiking and kayaking.
Volunteers Needed for Mount St. Helens Weekend Event
Support Gifford Pinchot Restoration
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| The Mount St. Helens weekend will consist of volunteer stewardship and maintenance activities on Saturday, along with community engagement events like hiking and kayaking on Sunday. |
The Science and Learning Center, housed in what was previously the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center, is open this summer for special activities and events thanks to $700,000 in Forest Service investments last year. Economic stimulus funds allowed the Forest Service to repair and replace windows, roofing and more to improve safety while also protecting the building and visitors in this harsh blast zone environment. The space has been repurposed to become a setting for new and expanded research, educational and community programs.
The National Forest Foundation’s Friends of the Forest Day events offer a fun, hands-on way for people to help support meaningful restoration and enhancement projects on National Forest lands for the benefit of all. The Mount St. Helens weekend will consist of volunteer stewardship and maintenance activities on Saturday, along with community engagement events like hiking and kayaking on Sunday.
The volunteer activities will vary in intensity so people of all ages and abilities can participate. Participants will enjoy live music in the nearby amphitheater and dinner options from different food carts. Volunteers will also have the option of camping outdoors in the Coldwater parking lot or sleeping indoors in the Coldwater facility with a breathtaking view of the Mount St. Helens.
Interested volunteers for the Friends of the Forest Day can register here.
About the Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic MonumentAt 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted. The eruption lasted nine hours, but Mount St. Helens and the surrounding landscape were dramatically changed within moments. In 1982, the President and Congress created the 110,000-acre National Volcanic Monument, within the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Inside the Monument, the processes of restoration are allowed to proceed naturally across the volcanic landscape. More than three decades later, the Monument continues to provide world-class recreation, education and research opportunities in an extraordinary living laboratory.
About the U.S. Forest Service
The mission of the Forest Service, established in 1905, is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The Forest Service is also the largest forestry research organization in the world, and provides technical and financial assistance to state and private forestry agencies. National forests are America's great outdoors. They encompass 193 million acres of land, which is an area equivalent to the size of Texas. The Forest Service motto is “Caring for the Land and Serving People.”
NFF Specialists
Mary Mitsos
Vice President, Conservation Programs
NFF conservation programs, community-based conservation
406-830-3351
mmitsos@nationalforests.org
Wes Swaffar
Ecosystem Services Program Manager
Tree-planting & Carbon Capital Fund programs
406-830-3356
wswaffar@nationalforests.org
Kathleen Dowd-Gailey
Director, Northwest Programs
NFF programs in WA, OR, AK, ID
206-832-82820
kdowdgailey@nationalforests.org
Vance Russell
Director, California Program
NFF programs in CA
530-758-2609
vrussell@nationalforests.org
Adam Liljeblad
Director of Conservation Awards
Grants and grant programs
406-830-3357
aliljeblad@nationalforests.org