Volunteers for Outdoor California

A big thanks to all of our volunteers for a GREAT 2023 season - see you in Spring 2024!! We started planning the 2023 season with the drought in mind and moved the first project date forward to mid-March instead of our typical mid-April start. Our hope was that we would be able to get in 3 or 4 projects before the ground turned to baked clay in some of the areas that are typically very dry in the summer. Record rains literally changed the landscape, but not the project schedule, so we had a lot of fun at the beginning of the season and continued the fun all the way through mid-October. Check out the list of past projects below to see what you have to look forward to next year.

Who are we? Volunteers for Outdoor California (V-O-Cal) is a volunteer workforce for large-scale trail maintenance and construction projects, habitat restoration, and related land stewardship activities on public lands in partnership with public agencies and other nonprofit organizations.

2023 Season Sponsor Special Thanks to Bay Area Barns and Trails for their generous grant supporting the 2023 V-O-Cal Project Season. BABT assists landowners and land managers with preservation and maintenance of publicly accessible Bay Area barns, stables, pastures, staging areas, horse camps, and trails.

Check out our upcoming projects:

There are no upcoming projects at this time. Please check back in early Spring of 2024 for updates!

Check out recent events:

Pescadero - Memorial County Park

Friday, October 13, 2023

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Sunday, October 15, 2023

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Tilden Regional Park

Friday, September 15, 2023

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Sunday, September 17, 2023

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East Bay Hills Benefit 2023

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

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Monday, September 4, 2023

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Coyote Lake - Harvey Bear Ranch

Friday, August 11, 2023

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Sunday, August 13, 2023

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Sanborn Park 2023

Friday, May 19, 2023

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Sunday, May 21, 2023

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Yip Trip Trail - Moore Creek

Friday, April 14, 2023

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Sunday, April 16, 2023

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Lynch Canyon Open Space

Friday, March 24, 2023

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Sunday, March 26, 2023

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Season Kickoff Party 2023

Saturday, March 4, 2023

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Saturday, March 4, 2023

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O'Tool Day 2023

Saturday, February 25, 2023

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Saturday, February 25, 2023

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Why volunteer with V-O-Cal? While there are many great Bay Area organizations that do some form of land stewardship, the V-O-Cal approach is a little different, and it is designed to complement the work of those other groups, extending the reach of other agencies and organizations while enlarging the overall pool of skilled volunteers. We work all over the region, from Monterey to the Trinity Mountains and from the coast to the western Sierra, offering volunteers a broad range of project types in a consistently well-organized fashion. The difference between V-O-Cal and our fellow land stewardship groups can be summed up in four categories: Scale, Duration, Planning, and Resource Focus.

Scale The average V-O-Cal project puts 125-150 volunteers to work on a single project.

Duration V-O-Cal projects are a full weekend long, starting on Friday and going through Sunday afternoon.

Planning Because of the scale of our projects, the logistics are important to assure that each volunteer has a satisfying experience and that the land manager is thrilled with the result.

Resource Focus Rather than focus on a single park, area, or land manager partner, V-O-Cal moves around Northern California and works with a broad range of partners throughout the region.

Become part of a volunteer workforce. Skilled and unskilled volunteers welcome.

Volunteers for Outdoor California believes that the quality of the experience is the most important part of any of its efforts. As a result, everything about the organization and our projects is designed to make sure that every volunteer has a great time and leaves with a genuine sense of accomplishment.

Camp in the most beautiful parks in California. No making a reservation or worrying about food necessary.

Because we are doing work in these parks, we get special permission to camp in areas that often do not allow camping. We supply the meals on Saturday and Sunday, all you need to do is show up and pitch your tent!

Want to see some of our past work?

Check out V-o-cal's Past projects

Volunteers for Outdoor California is made possible through generous in-kind donations from our sponsors:

Excited to start trailblazing?

Signup Now. We will keep you informed of upcoming project and opportunities!