Get Involved

Volunteer with Bring Conservation Home

There are a number of ways to become involved with the Bring Conservation Home program. This program is growing quickly and we are in great need of Habitat Advisors. There is also a need for volunteers to help with outreach education events such as the Native Plant Fair, the Native Plant Garden Tour or tabling at other community events. Contact bch@stlouisaudubon.org to get started.

Community/Participatory Science

We encourage you to check out these programs:

Bird Safe STL is a program run by the St. Louis Audubon society during spring and fall bird migration. Participants log bird collisions in downtown St. Louis and downtown Clayton.

Caterpillars Count! is a participatory science project for measuring the seasonal variation, also known as phenology, and abundance of arthropods like caterpillars, beetles, and spiders found on the foliage of trees and shrubs.

Feeder Watch is a longstanding initiative of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology which runs from November - April. Participants choose a location to observe birds - your own bird feeder or another natural area - then enter your bird counts online, enabling you to contribute to a continental data set of bird distribution and abundance.

iNaturalist is an app which can be useful in helping you to identify various flora and fauna. A joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society, this tool allows you to share your observations with trained scientists who can use data collected by community scientists like you.

Project BudBurst is a community-focused, data-driven approach to plant conservation.

Missouri Stream Team: Missouri has 110,000 miles of streams that provide recreation, drinking water and serenity for ourselves and our children, but they need your help. Stream Team has a busy calendar of litter pickups, tree planting, streambank stabilization, volunteer water quality monitoring and other activities.

Illinois Riverwatch: Monitor water quality and aquatic species around the state.

Bumblebee Atlas Missouri: run by the Xerces society, it involves netting, photographing and then releasing bumblebees.

FrogWatch: This project has multiple ways you can help track frog populations around the region (MO only).

Great Sunflower Project: plant a native sunflower and count how many insects visit it.

Monarch and Pollinators on Ornamental Plants: Collect data on monarch abundance and what pollinators visit non-native ornamental plants. These two projects are run through University of Illinois (IL only).

Join a local Wild Ones Chapter

The St. Louis Metro area now has three chapters of the national Wild Ones organization: St. Louis Wild Ones, St. Charles Wild Ones, and Southwest Illinois Wild Ones.

Other Organizations to volunteer for:

Forest Park Forever: St. Louis’s beloved Forest Park has a variety of volunteer opportunities for native plant enthusiasts, including seasonal exotic species control to restore ecosystem’s function and structure within natural communities, as well as planting and mulching in the Nature Reserve areas in the Park.

Missouri Botanical Garden: There are lots of opportunities to volunteer for MoBOT whether it be at the garden, Litzsinger Road Ecology Center or Shaw.

Bellefontaine Cemetery: Help manage the plantings across the cemetery (and Level 3 accredited arboretum).

Measuring mussels for Illinois Riverwatch

Prepping seeds for restoration at Litzsinger Road Ecology Center

Volunteering for the Native Plant Garden Tour

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