> By the 80s, I had done my bio-techhing for long enough and was ready to
> settle down a bit. By that time, the Carter and Reagan administrations
> had emphasized *volunteering* as the Great American Way. Volunteering
> was institutionalized in the Forest Service, Park Service, Fish and
> Wildlife, etc etc. The Student Conservation Assn, among others, picked up
> the federal contract monies to organize this effort. Thousands of people
> volunteered their time to the Federal natural resources agencies.

> The result. A lot of good folks gave of themselves in a 'cause' they
> believed in, and the government got a lot of work (biol. surveys, stream
> and trail rehablitation, fences mended, and such) that probably wouldn't
> have happened if they hadn't been able to volunteer. And all of that was
> praised as Good. And it might have been.

> However, instead of now hiring a college student or whomever to do the
> work as a GS-3 or 4 Biological Aid or Technician, the agencies have
> totally sliced the "Temporary Positions" out of their budgets, and rely
> on their annual crop of volunteers to get their field work done.



Thanks, Jon, for pointing out an unexpected side-effect of the worthy
effort to increase the opportunities for folks to volunteer for
agencies they "believe in".


Just to put this whole conversation of volunteering for govt agencies
in perspective: At the National Park Service there are approx. 14,700
permanent employees, approx. 4,700 temporary employees. However there
are 80,000 volunteers in parks doing everything from interpretation to
biological research. (check out the NPS homepage http://www.nps.gov)

Is it good? Is it bad? either way, that's the way it is. We can
debate all day how we got to this point. But NPS would shut down today
if we didn't have volunteers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joe Dunstan
NPS, Seattle, Washington
email: joe_dunstan at nps.gov
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~