Opportunities From: Tennessee State Parks

Do you need volunteer hours or just want to support park trails?

Activities can include :

Picking up litter, leaf blowing, invasive plant removal, trail upkeep, and light maintenance tasks!

Stop by the office or email Ranger Marhya at Marhya.Faulk@tn.gov to set up a shift!

Are you a nature lover and love to share your knowledge or would you like to learn more about nature? We would love to invite some enthusiasts to become Nature Center Attendants.

The primary job to just to be available to the visitors to answer questions while the Nature Center is open. Don't worry about knowing everything, we have a frequently asked answers all ready for you, in case you need some help. We will also love to train you to better assist the public on all things nature. 

We are looking for novice naturalists, college bound scholars, TNP students past and present needing volunteer hours, or any who would just love to volunteer their time and enjoy nature with people. 

Bonus if you love animals, especially snakes and wild children.

Additional duties would be  tours of the nature center, basic cleaning, gardening, and some animal care.  

Must apply and be interviewed before volunteering. 

Join Our Invasive Plant Removal Volunteer Program!

Help protect native ecosystems and restore the natural beauty of our local habitats by joining our Invasive Plant Removal Volunteer Program! This hands-on conservation effort focuses on removing invasive plant species that threaten the health and diversity of our environment.

What We’ll Be Removing:

Privet (Ligustrum spp.)

Japanese Stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum)

Johnson Grass (Sorghum halepense)

Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora)

Honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.)

These non-native species outcompete native plants, degrade wildlife habitat, and disrupt natural ecological processes. Your help will make a real difference in preserving the local environment for future generations!

What to Expect:

Training and tools will be provided

Light to moderate physical activity

Opportunities to learn about native and invasive plant species

Invasive Species are threatening our worlds biodiversity!

Join Big Ridge State Park in our efforts to thin out invasives that threaten our ecosystem! Meet Park Staff at the Park Office between 9am to 4:30pm and a Park Ranger will assist you with where to find and eliminate invasives species in our area.

If you do not know how to identify invasive species we especially encourage you to come out so we can teach you!

With the help from our Community we can really make a difference!

Volunteer to help clearing and maintaining trails throughout our new trails on Camp Hazlewood. Please e-mail the coordinator Brandon Baker at Brandon.Baker@tn.gov to set up a date and time to volunteer.

Volunteer to help on the Park and provide much needed help while earning hours needed to complete required community service required for Tennessee Promise eligibility status.

Service hours can be completed over multiple volunteer days.

Contact the park office for more information on current park needs 731-641-4465

Need some volunteer hours? Just want to be a great steward? We appreciate your help no matter what!

Purpose: The purpose of the opportunity is to create a monitoring system for our trails that can provide quick repairs and improve safety on the trail. It allows volunteers to provide important information to park rangers of trail issues, or safety risk on our trail that needs immediate attention. 

When: You can do this at your own leisure. No set time or trail for this. 

Where:  All trails

What to do: Hiking one or multiple trails and either reporting issues or fixing issues yourself. Examples of issues that you can fix are clearing debris of trail such as lose rocks, tree limbs or other items that may impede your hike and removing trash/litter from trail. Examples of issues that you would report would be, down trees over the trail, hazardous trees, bridges broken/not operating correctly, trail markers missing, and any hazards you think should be reported to a Ranger. (Trash pick up is better during the spring on trails next to lake. When spring rains bring the lake back up. Down trees are all year but more severe during winter and early spring)

After your hike please report your hours back on here this gives you credit and allows you another confirmation that the hours were completed if you need volunteer hours. It also allows state park to keep track of volunteer hours at our park and throughout the state. After you report your hours please email Justin.Vaughn@tn.gov about details of your hike. Be as detailed as you possible can about the issues you encountered, such as what trail you were on,  approximate location, size of trees, and how severe you think the issues is. You can even send photos of issues to this email if you want. All this informations makes park staff better prepared for the trail issues which saves time, money and makes for quicker fixes.

Experience: Basic hiking experience and trail knowledge

Questions: Contact Park Ranger Justin Vaughn

Any and all things Disc Golf related.

General course maintenance, cleanup, assistance with projects, and support.

The Duck River Disc Golf Club has on-going tasks available to support the park and the creation of a new course behind the park cabins. Please use the email attached for further information. 

Are you interested in helping at Tims Ford State Park?  Your help may be needed with day to day activities around the nature center and the park's programming animals.  Just reach out to us and we can set you up volunteering with a task that fits you just right!

See you soon!

Volunteer activities throughout the year such as Christmas lights, Easter egg Hunt, Fishing Rodeo, Frontier Days, Jr. Ranger, etc.  

Interested in history or have experience with historic preservation? Are you needing volunteer hours to receive or maintain a related certification? Roan Mountain State Park is in the process of researching and cataloging holdings into our newly established park archives. We are looking for volunteers to assist with preservation and archival activites.

Shifts are flexible and will be scheduled as volunteers and park staff are available. Activities will include coordinating as a team to carefully move objects (which may be both heavy and delicate), bending, reaching overhead, climbing a step ladder, and more. 

For more information, please respond to this opportunity. Ranger staff will contact you to discuss what you are interested in contributing and to coordinate further. 

This is for individuals to keep track of hours they volunteer on the MTB trail project for days other than organized trail workdays. Individuals who use this registration have obtained approval by Ranger staff

* Volunteers are required to make contact with Ranger Staff prior to working on the trial. If individuals work without contacting Ranger staff, they will be asked to leave. 

Please Contact Ranger Jesse Jewell for further information @ (931) 494-6660 or jesse.jewell@tn.gov

Completing any task such as clean up, new nets, or area management of the course

Do you love State Parks? Do you love giving back to your community? Join us at Big Ridge State Park to make a difference. Big Ridge is always welcoming volunteers for park ground clean ups, trail monitoring, weed eating, and lots more. If you are interested, please contact Big Ridge Park Office at (865)-992-5523 to see how you can help!

Friends group varies volunteer work 

Work hours completed on horse trails 

The Miller Farmstead was built in 1908 and is preserved as a reminder of the communities that populated these mountains in the early 20th century. The farmstead is open for daily tours from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day and weekends through October. Because of staffing limitations, we rely on volunteer service to support our farmstead programs.

We are seeking living history enthusiasts to demonstrate historic crafts, farm work & trade skills at the farmstead. If you have an interest in historical research, costuming, and skills, we'd love to help you develop a living history program to deliver at the Miller Farmstead this summer.

All living history programs at the farmstead are subject to site manager review and should be centered on early 20th century subsistence farming and regional history. 

Do you have a need to complete community service or volunteer service to fulfill a requirement?  Respond here to show availability so our staff can notify you of upcoming available hours and opportunities.  Projects may include:  trail work, trash clean-up, limb and stick pick-up, playground mulching, and more!

We can always use an extra set of hands around Harrison Bay State Park! If you need volunteer hours for scholarships, graduation, fraternity/sorority obligations, etc. please let us know! Reach out to John.Radford@tn.gov, Matthew.Vawter@tn.gov or Candace.Edwards.Daniels@tn.gov for more information.

Trails need continued maintenance.  Tims Ford State Park has many miles of trails that have to be kept in good shape.  This is an ongoing need.  If you would like to volunteer to do trail maintenance please reach out to the park and we will set you up with a needed trail maintenance task.  Thank you in advance!

Miscellaneous volunteer work tasks including: weeding, invasive species removal, trash pick up, citizen science data collection, or help with special events. 

Contact Ranger Stephanie to volunteer. stephanie.mueller@tn.gov or 865-333-8270