Volunteer

The Seed Bank depends on people like you! Over 50 wonderful volunteers gave us nearly 2500 hours of their precious time in 2019.

Are you interested in learning about regional native plants and their conservation, while also providing your energy and skills to a worthy program? The Rae Selling Berry Seed Bank & Plant Conservation Program is looking for assistance with a variety of projects.

• Collect seeds from wild plant populations
• Process seeds (clean, count, package and document) in preparation for long-term storage
• Run germination trials on native plants
• Enter data
• Photograph seeds

Join us in making a contribution to this region’s native plants! Volunteer a few days with us, or commit to a regular schedule (we love folks working on their class requirements!). We are interested in people who can work one hour or longer on weekdays. For field work assignments (spring-fall), we usually work long days, often in remote areas and sometimes on difficult terrain or in difficult weather.

Training and Development: Training for seed cleaning and all other steps in the seed banking process will be provided by Seed Bank staff.

Citizen's Rare Plant Watch

Search for little visited populations of rare species 
Describe their status and extent 
Contribute to their conservation

The Citizen's Rare Plant Watch is a "citizen science" program that has the goal of increasing understanding of the status and extent of rare species throughout Oregon, while promoting direct involvement of volunteers in conservation. We are coordinating small groups of volunteers in visiting historical sites of rare plant populations on public lands throughout Oregon and updating population data. We are collaborating with federal and state agencies, the Oregon Biodiversity Information Center (ORBIC) and the Oregon Flora Project (OFP) to determine which rare plant species are in need of critical conservation research and monitoring efforts. 

Data is submitted directly to ORBIC, OFP and land managers to aid in the conservation of these rare species. We will also use the data collected to guide us in future collection of seeds for our seed bank. Let us know if you would like to contribute to the conservation of Oregon’s rare plant species by leading or participating in an outing or being on the email list for future outings. 

If you would like to volunteer:  Call or write Kris Freitag, (503) 725-2468 or kfreitag@pdx.edu.