Resources
Volunteer Service
Following the completion of the training course, Wyoming Naturalist Volunteers will be expected to complete 40 hours of volunteer service and 8 hours of advanced training per year to be considered an active Naturalist. The kinds of projects that qualify for service hours are described on the Service page.
How to record service hours
In order for your volunteer hours to count towards certification, you must record them on the Wyoming Naturalist Program page at Volunteer Wyoming. You are responsible for tracking your hours through Volunteer Wyoming. To use Volunteer Wyoming, you must:
- Create and register a Volunteer Wyoming account.
- Certify your hours of service through our Volunteer Wyoming’s page “Needs.” You have to register for each “Need” listed that you volunteered for in order to properly track your hours.
- If the project you volunteered for does not have a “Need” on our Volunteer Wyoming page, or you missed registering for one of the listed “Needs”, then you must register any hours as “Unlisted.” Please use this link to track your “Unlisted” hours.
- If you are volunteering for a project that is not listed as one of the Wyoming Naturalist “Needs” or is not on the below “Volunteer Opportunities” page, then please use this document as guidance on if that project will qualify for certification hours. Then, follow the above instructions for tracking “Unlisted” volunteer opportunities.
Some organizations and projects require training. Required training hours can be included in your volunteer hours, as can travel. Some projects may be open-ended (such as caterpillar monitoring), and are subject to limitations on hours.
Looking for opportunities? Visit Volunteer Opportunities
Share Your Story
Despite being spread throughout different communities in Wyoming, we've all come together with one common goal: learn more about Wyoming's natural history so that we may become stewards of our great state. We want to share your story as a Wyoming Naturalist through pictures and words to highlight your incredible dedication to preserving Wyoming's biodiversity and to inspire others to follow in your path. Your stories will populate a Story Map that will be displayed on the this website, and may be used with attribution, through e-mail, print, and social media WNP promotion.
2021 Class - Wyoming Naturalist Program
Wyoming Naturalist Program on iNaturalist
Wyoming Naturalist Program participants are required to contribute at least one observation to the online database, iNaturalist, as part of their training curriculum. iNaturalist uses artificial intelligence and community experts to identify observations of plants and animals to species. Once an observation’s identification has been confirmed by multiple community experts, it becomes Research Quality. Scientists utilize these Research Quality observations in their datasets to answer a variety of science questions.
Check out the observations our Wyoming Naturalist Program participants have contributed through our iNaturalist project below. WNP participants may refer to the two training videos below if they need help uploading their observations to iNaturalist.