This summer, two Tacoma Public Schools teachers, Phil and Lisa Hertzog, volunteered as Meadow Rovers at Mount Rainier National Park. They walked the trails surrounding Paradise on the west side of the park and educated park visitors on how to protect the fragile alpine meadows.
The Hertzogs plan to incorporate their volunteer experiences at Mount Rainier into their biology and math classroom lessons. Phil teaches 10th-grade biology at Stadium High School and Lisa teaches eighth-grade math at First Creek Middle School.
They helped visitors understand that one foot step can destroy more than 20 plants and 10 people walking across the meadows to the same snow patch can create a social path that can result in erosion and loss of native vegetation. With more than 1.5 million visitors a year to Mount Rainier National Park, the Meadow Rover program helps inform visitors to stay on the trails and to protect a significant national resource.
One of the biggest challenges Phil Hertzog faced as a Meadow Rover was dealing with a group of 50 middle school students who did not speak English. The students had never seen snow before and raced across the fragile meadows to have a snowball fight. “As the students were trampling avalanche lilies, lupine and pink mountain heather; I had to use hand gestures to communicate with these non-English-speaking young people about the damage being done to the meadows,” said Herzog.
He carefully brought the students back to the trail and hiked with them up another 300 yards where they could continue their snowball fight without damaging the vegetation. Later these students spotted Hertzog at the Jackson Visitor Center and waved him over to join in a group photograph.
The Hertzogs also helped out with “The Shadows of the Past” Living History program held at Longmire in the park on the evening of Aug. 15. Lisa Hertzog carried a lantern to light the way for a group of 50 park visitors on the “Trail of the Shadows” that runs one mile around Longmire Meadow.
As an interpretive ranger made introductory remarks, volunteers dressed as historical characters, such as conservationist and naturalist John Muir, would appear out of the darkness along the trail and describe their role in the history of Mount Rainier National Park. The Hertzogs and other lantern bearers would light up the characters’ faces as they acted out their parts, making a magical evening in the shadow of Mount Rainier.
Volunteer opportunities at Mount Rainier National Park
Several volunteer opportunities are available for both students and teachers at Mount Rainier National Park this fall and next summer. Volunteering at the park can help teachers and students improve science skills and help out the community. Volunteers have opportunities to participate in National Park Service training sessions that may benefit a teacher’s classroom curriculum.
Volunteers are needed to help plant up to 140,000 plants at the site of the old Jackson Center at Paradise on the west side of Mount Rainier National Park. The National Park Service opened a new Visitor Center last fall and completed work this summer to allow revegetation of the old center site to start this fall. Will Arnesen, Mount Rainier National Park Restoration ecologist, will lead the planting efforts and has set up the following weekends for groups who would like to help out: Sept. 19–20, Sept. 26–27 and Oct. 3–4.
Groups are encouraged to sign up for any of the above dates by contacting Arnesen via e-mail at Will_Arnesen@nps.gov or calling 360.569.2211, ext. 3374. Students under the age of 18 will need to have parents sign a National Park Service permission form.
Individuals who would like to help out are welcome to drop by the old Visitor Center site located in the lower Paradise parking lot on Saturday, Sept. 26, and Saturday, Oct. 3. Individuals may be able to drop in on the other four dates listed above if other groups sign up for those days. If you have a strong interest, please contact Arnesen to find out if planting will occur on those days.
All volunteers should bring rain gear and work gloves, and be ready to work in muddy conditions since native plants need lots of water to get them growing after planting.
The park will also have a number of volunteer opportunities next summer. These opportunities include patrolling the Paradise and Sunrise trails to educate visitors on how to protect the fragile sub alpine meadows, assisting with park research efforts, helping with trail maintenance and participating in interpretive history programs. You can find out more information about these activities by going to the park’s volunteer Web site at www.rainiervolunteers.blogspot.com or contacting Kevin Bacher, Mount Rainier National Park volunteer and outreach program manager, at Kevin_Bacher@nps.gov or 360.569.2211, ext. 3385.
Phil Hertzog at Stadium High School can also talk to you about his volunteer experience at Mount Rainier and can be contacted at 253.571.3176.