Become a Volunteer
The Botanical Garden offers a variety of volunteer opportunities in the areas of education/programming, conservation, propagation, and garden maintenance. You can have a fulfilling experience for yourself while helping to further the Garden's mission of conservation and education for a diverse audience.
Beyond the obvious benefits of serving your community and nature, volunteers receive the following benefits: discounted ($10) membership, 10% discounts on plants and gifts, free seeds each spring, a special volunteer newsletter, and the fun of working with and meeting people with similar interests.
Potential volunteers may download an application [PDF] or pick one up from the Totten Center reception desk. For more information, call the Garden's main number, 919-962-0522 or email us.
Volunteers assist the elderly as part of the Horticulture Therapy program
Interested in plants and people? Join one of the following Volunteer Groups (more information about each group is below):
Education
- Tour Guides ↓
- Education Outreach ↓
- Children and Families ↓
- Teaching Assistant ↓
- Nature Explorers Camp Leaders
Horticulture: Off Site
- Battle Park Volunteers ↓
- Coker Arboretum Volunteers ↓
- Green Dragons ↓
- Herbarium Volunteers ↓
- Penny's Bend Volunteers ("Wild Blues") ↓
Horticulture: On Site
- Habitat Gardens Volunteers ↓
- Herb Garden Volunteers ↓
- Horticultural Therapy Volunteers ↓
- Plant Propagation Volunteers ↓
Garden Support
- Library Volunteers ↓
- Weekend Front Desk Reception Volunteers ↓
- Crafts Volunteers ↓
- Special Events Volunteers ↓
Tour Guides
The Botanical Garden Tour Guides lead informative tours throughout the gardens for the general public and school groups. Tour Guides are asked to provide a minimum of 30 hours of service over and above the hours spent in training.
Meeting Times: Tuesdays, 9:30 - 11:30 during spring and fall months. Tours scheduled through the Public Programs Department.
Qualifications: Enthusiasm for learning and an interest in people is the most important requisite. Experience in the natural sciences is helpful but not required.
Education Outreach
Volunteers assist with environmental educational programs in schools, grades K - 5. NCBG will provide training and materials for the programs.
Time: Varies, flexible
Qualifications: Experience in education is helpful.
Children and Families
Management of formal and nonformal activities throughout the Garden for children and families.
Time: Ongoing and flexible.
Qualifications: Interest in children and family programs.
Teaching Assistant
Volunteer assists certificate program instructors with set-up, handouts, and clean-up, upon request of the instructor.
Time: Varies with class schedule.
Qualifications: Great job for students!
Nature Explorers Camp Leaders
Volunteers assist and contribute to the weekly planning and implementation of summer camp activities.
Time: Summer weekdays, 8:30 am - 3:00 pm.
Qualifications: Experience with children very helpful. Great experience for students and junior volunteers.
Battle Park Volunteers
Volunteers assist in monitoring natural areas and controlling exotic invasive plants by means of a variety of tasks. This is part of the Garden's ongoing conservation effort to maintain the diversity of native plant species.
Time: Thursday mornings, 9 am - 12 noon; occasional Saturdays.
Qualifications: ability to work outdoors and on uneven terrain; some plant knowledge helpful though not required.
Coker Arboretum Volunteers
PLEASE NOTE: At this time we are unable to accommodate additional volunteers at Coker Arboretum. When volunteer positions again become available, we will make note of that here. Please consider other volunteer options at the Botanical Garden.
Help maintain the overall health and appearance of plant collections and grounds at this five-acre arboretum on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Duties include weeding, raking, and supervised plant care.
Time: Flexible weekday hours.
Qualifications: Ability to work outdoors in variable weather; some plant knowledge is helpful but not required.
Green Dragons
Work with staff on Mason Farm Biological Reserve and the Coker Pinetum. Duties include helping with trail maintenance, helping to eradicate invasive exotic plants, managing permit-holder records. There are also opportunities for working with the Center for Plant Conservation (CPC), of which the Garden is a charter member. CPC is the only national organization dedicated to the ex situ preservation of rare plant germplasm (seeds and/or whole plants).
Time: Summer—Tuesdays, 9 am - 12 noon & Wednesdays, 9 - 11 am. Winter—Tuesdays, 1 - 4 pm & Wednesdays, 1 - 3 pm.
Qualifications: Ability to work outside and walk a minimum of two hours during trail work.
Penny's Bend Volunteers ("Wild Blues")
Volunteers work at Penny's Bend Nature Preserve in Durham: maintain interpretive/hiking trails, control invasive exotic plant species, sample macroinvertebrate fauna, and monitor rare plant species.
Time: Weekends.
Qualifications: Ability to work outdoors.
Herbarium Volunteers
Volunteers assist the curator with sewing and gluing of specimens on herbarium sheets, filing specimens into the collection, and entering information into databases. The Herbarium is located on campus in Coker Hall.
To explore volunteering in the UNC Herbarium, please contact Assistant Curator Carol Ann McCormick at 919-962-6931, or via email
Time: Flexible weekdays, 9 am - 4 pm.
Qualifications: Precision and an interest in plants.
Habitat Gardens Volunteers
Volunteers help maintain the native plant collections located in the Coastal Plain and Mountain Habitat Gardens. Duties include weeding, raking, pruning, and occasional planting.
Time: Tuesdays, 9 - 11 am.
Qualifications: Ability to work outside as part of a group. An interest in native plants is helpful but not required.
Herb Garden Volunteers
Volunteers help in the general maintenance and upkeep of the Mercer Reeves Hubbard Herb Garden. Duties include raking, weeding, transplanting, and mulching.
Time: Thursdays, 9 - 11 am.
Qualifications: Ability to work outside as part of a group. An interest in herbs and some gardening skills are helpful but not required.
Horticultural Therapy Volunteers
Volunteers assist individuals of varying ages and abilities in horticultural therapy activities.
Time: Time and place varies.
Qualifications: An interest in horticultural activities as a therapeutic tool.
Plant Propagation Volunteers
Seed processing, potting, and other activities related to the Garden's conservation-through-propagation program.
Time: Wednesdays, 9 - 11 am
Qualifications: Ability to do detailed work and an interest in plants.
Library Volunteers
Duties include shelving books, checking in periodicals, typing, and filing.
Time: Flexible.
Qualifications: Attention to detail and flexibility for stooping, bending, or moving books. Library experience is helpful but training is provided.
Weekend Front Desk Reception Volunteers
Volunteers greet the public, answer the telephone, and sell gift shop items.
Time: Weekends. Must commit to one weekend shift (4 hr) per month, 9 am - 1 pm or 1 - 5
pm.
Qualifications: Must enjoy people, be capable of handing cash, check, and credit card sales, and be able to multi-task.
Crafts Volunteers
Volunteers produce natural crafts for holiday decorating, special events, and seasonal displays.
Time: Flexible and varies.
Qualifications: Enjoy working with people creating creative, simple displays and
crafts.
Special Events Volunteers
Volunteers assist during special events: check-in, plant sales, managing refreshment tables, classroom set-up and clean-up, and distribution of promotional materials.
Time: Varies, depending upon scheduled events at Garden.
Qualifications: Must enjoy working with the public.
Last updated by Laura Cotterman on December 13, 2007 at 10:03:16 am.
