| VOLUNTEER PROGRAM
Volunteer Coordinator, Rick Lavoy
Volunteers are an important part of Archbold activities. A formal Archbold volunteer program was established in January 1995 with 38 volunteers. During 2000-06, Archbold was fortunate to have more than 500 volunteers donating 25,511 hours of services (see Table 1 below). This is the annual equivalent of 1.75 full-time employees.
At the Archbold Biological Station, volunteers have worked for the: Bird Lab, Education program, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Lab, Hydrology Monitoring, Invertebrate Lab, Land Management, Library, Operations, Plant Ecology Lab, and Vertebrate Lab.
At the MacArthur Agro-ecology Research Center, at Buck Island Ranch, volunteers have helped with the Ranch Ecosystem Tour and Agro-ecology research projects.
Volunteers are an indispensable part of two Archbold education programs: 1) the summer day camp, Scrub Ecology, where adult and teen volunteers assist campers with crafts, research-oriented activities, and ecology-oriented games, and 2) the elementary environmental education program, Getting to Know the Real Florida, where adult volunteers help lead and assist visiting 3rd-5th grade classes from Highlands County, and surrounding county schools, on a variety of activities - scrub hunt, animal tracking, weather station and scientist’s lab.
During 2002 and 2003, the Vertebrate Lab received support from the Earthwatch Institute, which included 43 volunteers who assisted in gopher tortoise research.
An annual Volunteer Appreciation Day is celebrated with a Ranch Safari aboard a 22-passenger swamp buggy at Buck Island Ranch. In 2005, 30 adult and student volunteers attended. Thank you to all our volunteers!
New volunteers are always welcome. To volunteer at the Archbold Biological Station, please contact Richard Lavoy, Volunteer Coordinator, at 863-465-2571 or send an e-mail.
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 Volunteer Tor Rothman, a retired environmental engineer from Lake Placid, reviewed our inventory of chemicals for proper disposal during 2002-03, digital photo by Nancy D. Deyrup.
 Here, volunteer Charlotte James helps a Lake Country Elementary School 3rd grader identify animal tracks during the school’s visit to Archbold (photo by Nancy Deyrup).
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