Volunteers for Outdoor California

Happy people. Happy trails.

And that's a wrap! We had perfect trail building weather at Memorial County Park and built some wonderful new steps. Unfortunately, the project we'd been planning for October at Sibley Volcanic Preserve has been canceled for reasons out of our control. See you next spring! Have fun out on the trails in the mean time.

Help us take V-O-Cal to the next level by contributing to our GoFundMe From our current Executive Director, Cathy Moyer: After 18 years(!) as the Exec Director, it is well past time that V-O-Cal has real, paid staff to support the amazing volunteer efforts that has been the heart of the organization and to move the V-O-Cal into a more robust future. I have been saying this for years, with the holdup being the need to have a healthy enough bank account to give that new staff member a little financial runway. Thanks to an amazing volunteer, we have set up a GoFundMe to make it all happen. Thank you, Brittany! Another volunteer (who has asked to remain anonymous) has made a $50,000 contribution to get the fundraising started. Our goal is to match his contribution with another $50,000 from the GoFundMe. Help make that incredibly generous donation just the beginning and enable V-O-Cal to start a formal search for a new E.D. The planning team is finalizing the job description and we will post it soon. Please check out the GoFundMe page and share it with all your friends.

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.

2024 Season Sponsor Special Thanks to Bay Area Barns and Trails for their generous grant supporting the 2024 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 2025 for updates!

Check out recent events:

Pescadero - Memorial County Park 2024

Friday, September 13, 2024
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Sunday, September 15, 2024
Sign Up Coming Soon

East Bay Hills Benefit 2024

Wednesday, August 28, 2024
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Monday, September 2, 2024
Sign Up Coming Soon

Fernandez Ranch

Friday, May 17, 2024
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Sunday, May 19, 2024
Sign Up Coming Soon

Mt Madonna County Park

Friday, April 19, 2024
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Sunday, April 21, 2024
Sign Up Coming Soon

O'Tool Day 2024

Sunday, March 17, 2024
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Sunday, March 17, 2024
Sign Up Coming Soon

Season Kickoff Party 2024

Sunday, March 10, 2024
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Sunday, March 10, 2024
Sign Up Coming Soon

Pescadero - Memorial County Park

Friday, October 13, 2023
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Sunday, October 15, 2023
Sign Up Coming Soon


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!