Volunteer Opportunity
Category Path Little Cities of the Forest Chapter (LCOF) / Chapter Opportunities & Leadership
What is a Work Party?
Work parties are a great opportunity to learn from our highly skilled BTA volunteer trail building crew. Scheduled weekend and week-long work parties around the 1,400+ miles of the Buckeye Trail take place throughout the year. The main purpose is to build new sustainable BT to National Park Service (NPS) standards to replace existing on-road routes of the BT. The Buckeye Trail Crew employs the latest techniques in trail building relying mainly on the use of hand tools and good old fashioned hard work to create the level tread and primitive trail structures necessary for a positive hiking experience.
Buckeye Trail Crew Work Parties try to emphasize both words: Work and Party. Volunteers can spend up to five continuous days at work, building and improving sections of trail, while the evenings are spent gathered together in camp, enjoying the camaraderie of fellow volunteers.
Feel free to stop by for a few hours, or stay the whole time.
New Straitsville Section Work Party Details
When: August 8 - August 12, 2026.
Typical work days are 8am-4pm with a mid-day field lunch, and breaks as needed. Feel free to arrive late or leave early as your schedule allows!
Where: if you would like to join for one day or a few hours, meet the crew at the Burr Oak Cove Group Camp around 7:30am before they head out for the day, or email Ann at newstraitsville@buckeyetrail.org to coordinate and meet on site.
What: Help us work on trail building and maintenance at the Wayne National Forest in the New Straitsville Section. We will be rough clearing (chainsaw, lop, grub saplings, backpack leaf blower a 4x8 ft trail corridor) about 2 miles of trail in the AMLER project in preparation for a contracted crew to build the trail bed starting later in August. Other potential projects include Gabion baskets to protect a bridge abutment in Burr Oak, maybe a bog bridge, maybe some trail building in the Wayne National Forest.
What to bring: bring long sleeves and long pants recommended, closed toe shoes, gloves, tick and insect repellent, water bottles. Tools provided.
Camping: Burr Oak Cove Group Camp (Burr Oak Rd, Glouster, OH 45732). Pit toilets, water available, and showers are at the Burr Oak campground.
Meals: This is a chuckwagon event, meaning meals will be provided free of cost. Please register by Wednesday, August 5th if you would like to sign up for the Chuckwagon meals.
Click here to sign up on the volgistics calendar. You may be prompted to log in.
To create an account, click here.
Questions?
Contact us at newstraitsville@buckeyetrail.org or volunteer@buckeyetrail.org
