Volunteer
Thanks for your interest in volunteering, and for being willing to spend some of your finite and ever-diminishing lifespan making the world a better place. We’re always happy to have help, and to share our work with the greatest possible number of people.
We’re also stretched to the limit of our capacity during build season, and will likely have little extra bandwidth for supporting you getting from your house to the site. Additionally, cell service way out in the sticks is patchy and unreliable, and we may be out of contact for days at a time.
So, in the interest of making your visit as easy and successful as possible, please read the below material carefully, bring everything listed, and adjust expectations accordingly. Once on-site, you’ll immediately have all the help needed—it’s just getting there that’s the crux of things.
What To Bring
Start with food, water, utensils and something to cook on. The rest of these suggestions are based on what people have brought, wanted, forgotten and regretted, and learned over time. Nothing really specialized is needed, but please be fully self-sufficient when you arrive. There’s a lot of work to get done, and while we’re happy to help as/where able with personal gear, it’s definitely a strain on resources that we can rarely spare.
Sleeping
Fatigue is good for sleeping, being cold and cramped is not. Nights frequently get down to 20 degrees or so, and your average “summer breeze 50-degree Wal Mart special” is very unlikely to be sufficient.
Tent w/rainfly
Sleeping bag and mat, inflatables are suspect.
Pillow
Blanket
Accessories
We’ll have service at roughly half our locations, and it’s often kind of crappy, so if you’re a really digital kind of person plan accordingly. We’ve got some random dishes lying around, and usually a couple camp chairs, but they won’t be super nice.
Headlamp + extra batteries
Bowl, plate, utensils, thermos, mug
Camp chair
Field work gear
This stuff could get destroyed depending on the hitch, so don’t spend a bunch on new gear. Expect everything in this list to get wet and muddy.
Quick dry synthetic long pants & long sleeve shirt—light colors for summer, dark for winter
30 liter(ish) field backpack – your old, beat-up one is plenty.
Work gloves—leather for dry and nylon for wet, we can provide a few
Sunhat, Sunglasses and/or safety glasses
2 Water Bottles
Sunscreen, lip balm
Earplugs
Work boots & rain/muck boots
Waders—more important in cold weather, optional but pretty expensive, and the cheap ones will fail day one, guaranteed, so don’t bother with them. If you have waders, an extra pair of work boots one size larger than normal that you don’t mind destroying in the creek. Thrift stores are a good option for these.
Camp Clothing
This is dependent on the season, but prepare for the worst—it can snow any month in the mountains.
Rain pants/jacket – breathable, you’ll be moving around a lot
Thermals top and bottom
Pair of thick and thin socks
Warm jacket/sweatshirt
Sweats or similar for lounging
Beanie
T-shirts
Shorts/Bathing suit and towel
Sandals
Thermal gloves (not for work)
Sanity Items
Books
Journal
Running Shoes
Sketch Pad
Tablet/laptop/etc.
That’s a rough start—if you’ve got meds, nutritional needs, supplements, and the like, remember those for sure. We won’t have any specialty stuff.
What To Expect
The real answer with anything in PBR is always, “it depends”. Which makes radical self-reliance the best possible strategy. We’ll be working from sea level to 9000 feet, from April to early December, in pretty much any kind of weather. From rocky desert landscapes to lush mountain meadows, cattle ranches, alpine streams, burn areas, in sagebrush and trees—you name it, we’ll be there at some point this year.
The work itself is manual labor. Brute, sweaty toil moving heavy things from here to there, shoveling, lopping branches, building beaver dams, rolling rocks, whatever your Cross-Fit workout is, we’ll be doing it. Intelligently, with grace and dignity and a plan, outside in the fresh air, in beautiful nature, but hand work, for sure. Nobody’s on a laptop in the air conditioning out here. If you want the best chance of success, a moderate circuit workout at the gym for three months or so can make things easier.
Socially, we’re a group of hard-working goofballs, committed to repairing Earth as a joyous activity full of laughter, impromptu dance parties in waders, cooking together, and sharing story around the fire. Easygoing folks, who also have a serious allergy to interpersonal drama—there’s enough of that on reality TV, so leave it there.
We’ll post volunteer opportunities on the map (coming soon) that will have Google Map pins you can use to navigate there. The pin will either be camp, work, or our rally point, where we’re going to meet before the last few miles to the camp site. If it’s a rally point there will also be a time to arrive—if you’re going to be late please let somebody know.
The last miles to camp are frequently dirt, often crappy, and sometimes lethal to low-slung cars. If you can bring something with decent ground clearance, that’s best, and it doesn’t usually need to be a 4×4. Once on-site, expect to be out of cell service for your whole stay, and plan accordingly. It’s not always the case, but best to plan for that.
It’s basically car camping, but with more work involved. Plan to get really wet and muddy, and not have any laundry facilities beyond hand-washing by the creek. Same with showers—you’re welcome to bring a bathing suit, but everybody just wanders downstream a ways and jumps in. Bring biodegradable soap, and a small bucket for rinsing off on-land (not into the creek) We’ll have portable toilets if there are a lot of us, maybe bring a roll of TP.
You’ll need to bring your own food and water, and something to cook on/with, and we generally do meals together (not required, of course). Please leave the dogs at home, as they can be hard on the wildlife and not all landowners allow them.
The rest you’ll pick up on-site, and we look forward to having you.
So download, sign, and email the waiver form to volunteer@swiftwaterdesign.com, along with a little bit about yourself and where you’d like to join us, and somebody will get back to you soon.