Take Action:

Conservation and Stewardship

We need nature and nature needs us. When you are ready to take action to care for nature, there are so many ways to help. And, as John Muir Laws says, “Nature will restore you as you restore nature.” 

How to Begin 

Conservation and stewardship are two terms often used that simply mean taking action to protect and care for the natural world. One good way to begin is this—use this helpful diagram (which we adapted from Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson), and ask yourself three questions: What brings you joy? What are you good at? What does nature need? Where these three circles overlap is a beautiful place for you to take action. 

Diagram adapted from @climatevenn

Once you know what you want to do, a great way to start is to find a local organization that is doing that work and offer to volunteer for them. One plus of this approach is that they will often train you for free, and you can learn from others who are already working in that space. You can also start by learning about your local nature conservation groups and attending meetings or volunteer work days. 

Below are some stories about what other members of the nature journaling community are doing, and lots of ways you can get involved in nature stewardship and conservation. Also, we want to expand this page, so if you have ideas to include, please let us know! 

“Keeping a nature journal is one of the most powerful ways to fall in love with the natural world, and when we love something, we want to take care of it.”
— John Muir Laws

Take Action and Get Involved!

Thanks to Yvea Moore for sharing the framework she developed for her 2022 class at the Wild Wonder Conference. We will add to this list as we get more ideas–and we welcome yours! Email us here.

  • Physical tasks:

    • Trash pickup (such as a birthday beach cleanup!)

    • Habitat restoration

    • Trail maintenance

    • Response to environmental emergencies (i.e. saving birds during an oil spill)

    • Collaborative controlled burns

    Data collection:

    • Species monitoring

    • Monitoring a natural area

    • BioBlitz

    • Christmas Bird Counts

    • Line-point transect or quadrat monitoring

    • Taking field photos and adding them to iNaturalist (community science)

    • Work with school groups on stewardship and conservation projects.

    • Check with your local library and/or community college to see if they have any environmental programs where you can volunteer.

    • Attend community and/or town hall meetings about ecological concerns.

    • Volunteer or fundraise for local and national nonprofit conservation organizations–local Audubon chapters, National Park Service, State Parks Agency, The Nature Conservancy, Point Blue Conservation Science, and others.

    • Gardening:

      • Transform your yard or garden into a native plant haven (see homegrownnationalpark.org for ideas).

      • Plant a pollinator garden in your yard.

      • Start or volunteer in a community, school, or sidewalk garden.

    • Community science (aka citizen science). These are things that anyone can do (no experience required) and share your observations and findings with the scientific community. It is fun AND it helps us all learn more about nature.

      • Backyard bird count – a national event each February

      • Christmas Bird Count–a national event held each year from approx Dec 10-Jan 10. You can help even if you are a beginning birder! In fact, it is a great way to improve your birding skills!

      • BioBlitz

      • Zooniverse

      • iNaturalist

      • Check out citizenscience.gov for a searchable list of science projects in the US that you can support.

  • Maybe you don’t have time or capacity to work for nature in person. That’s ok! You can still help by using online tools to help take care of nature.

    Add your nature observations to iNaturalist. This helps educate others and helps scientists track trends in nature.

    • Take and upload nature photos

    • Record and upload nature sounds

    • Help others identify organisms

    • Written observations with photos

    • Get involved with projects

    • Document loss of life

    • Community science

    • Check out Zooniverse and explore the many options for online community science projects.

    • Help with online community science (aka citizen science) projects (see list in the In Community section above)

    • Increase awareness of global issues

    • Share with others

  • Here are some websites with more information and inspiration:

    • Regeneration.org —On this site you can estimate your carbon footprint and also make a punch list of actions you will do for the environment, such as always carry a refillable water bottle, start a garden, compost, and more.

    • Drawdown.org —This website is a leading source of climate solutions.

    • Wildhope.tv —This includes a list of inspiring ways to get involved and “join the community of changemakers”

    • Check out Volunteer.gov (a program of the federal government), where you can search by location, interest, and dates and discover volunteer opportunities with the National Parks, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and many other federal agencies.

    • From Get the Kids Outside is this fantastic list of community science (aka citizen science) projects that are especially good for children who want to get involved.

Community Stories of Conservation and Stewardship

We are so inspired by the many members of the global nature journaling community who help care for nature through a huge variety of conservation and stewardship projects. Thanks to the folks shown below who shared their stories with us! We want to share more community conservation stories like this—so if you have a story we should know about, please let us know here.

Amy Schleser is a volunteer with a local organization that tracks bird window strikes. “Every spring and fall I walk around the same building to see if any birds have hit its windows,” she says. “I like knowing that my nature observations can actuall

Amy Schleser is a volunteer with a local organization that tracks bird window strikes. “Every spring and fall I walk around the same building to see if any birds have hit its windows,” she says. “I like knowing that my nature observations can actually help scientists.. It’s part of a citizen science project. I use my nature journal to write down the data for the project, and also sketch the birds and scrawl out my questions. I love sketching my theories, making maps, and trying to find patterns in the data. It’s sad to find dead birds, but getting to sketch them is a way to remember them and learn about them. The data that you gather serves as evidence—it’s what organizations need to argue for new ordinances and laws that can protect wildlife,” says Amy.

Yvea Moore volunteers her time working in habitat restoration in the San Francisco Bay Area. She also has a “Birthday Cleanup” tradition, where on her birthday each year, she chooses a natural area and invites others to help her clean it up. Other fo

Yvea Moore volunteers her time working in habitat restoration in the San Francisco Bay Area. She also has a “Birthday Cleanup” tradition, where on her birthday each year, she chooses a natural area and invites others to help her clean it up. Other folks in the nature journaling community have now adopted this tradition! This is a nature journal page she did after a Birthday Cleanup for John Muir Laws’ birthday in 2023.

“A world of infinite beauty and discovery waits just beyond the point where we usually stop paying attention. Nature journaling is the best tool I know of for helping us pay attention, and through that attention, we develop a deep personal connection with the natural world. This connection brings us a sense of peace and it inspires us to protect this wonderful world around us.”
— John Muir Laws