Support your local environment

Volunteering is a great way to get involved in your community and help tidy up the area you live in. Whether you're interested in litter picking, planting in a community garden or making a difference to our parks and countryside, we have a range of volunteering opportunities available.

Composter volunteer scheme

Are you crazy about compost? You can join our team of enthusiastic composting volunteers, called master composters, and promote the benefits of home composting as a way of reducing waste and helping the environment. You'd help us to give advice and tips on getting the most out of composting and even give demonstrations at local events and schools.

Parks and countryside

Durham Countryside Volunteers on Facebook

Volunteering with parks and countryside is a great way to meet new people, learn new skills, get fit and have fun! If you are passionate about nature, wildlife and the great outdoors why not join one of our opportunities. There is something for everyone. If any of our volunteering opportunities appeal to you, please go to our Culture and sport volunteering portal. 

Practical volunteering

Support the countryside rangers with conservation tasks and access works across our nature reserves and country parks. Activities include:

• habitat management, tree work, fencing and path works
• checking sites and footpaths and reporting any problems
• taking part in litter picks or balsam bashing

Woodlands

Get involved in caring for local woodlands with a community woodland group or become a woodland warden. We support many groups looking after our woodlands, which carry out a range of practical tasks including litter picking, balsam bashing, keeping footpaths clear, managing habitats and small-scale tree works. Woodland wardens regularly visit their local wood, reporting any issues and may undertake low risk tasks such as litter picking and balsam bashing.

Please visit our Culture and sport volunteering portal  and search for "woodland" to find out more about the opportunities available.

For further information, please Contact Countryside Service, or visit Durham Woodland Revival on Facebook.

Guided walks

Why not become a guided walks leader or steward and show others what the countryside has to offer. With stunning countryside, rich history and interesting geology there is all sorts of inspiration at your fingertips. More information is available on our guided walks page.

Outdoor learning

Help at our parks in our visitor centres, at our education sessions or birthday parties, or help people learn about wildlife and complete wildlife surveys.

Corporate and community volunteering

Are you an employer seeking to help your staff with a way to give back to the community? Or are you looking to put volunteering days to good use? Are you a community group wanting to get outside and gain some practical conservation skills or expand upon your knowledge of local impacts of climate change? We can create a volunteering programme specially for you to help you start your journey

Contact Countryside Service for more information.

Friends of Groups

We have three Friends of Groups which work to help look after our sites. Why not join one of the below groups and help look after your local site?

• Friends of Wharton Park
• Friends of Hardwick Park
• Friends of Witton Dene

Civic pride

Take pride in your community and help make our neighbourhoods a cleaner, greener place to live by getting involved with our Civic Pride team.

The team can connect you with like-minded people and help you or your community group organise an event.  They can loan you equipment, offer funding advice and promote your event through different networks.

Examples include: tidying up an outdoor open space, painting the fence at a local park, litter picking a cycleway, or installing some planters outside a community building.