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Saturday, Dec. 26, 2009

Volunteers filling budget gaps at Georgia parks

HIGH FALLS — While many people shopped for gifts in tinsel-decked stores to the tune of Musak Christmas carols, Bill Jacobs spent the week before Christmas cleaning bathrooms and picking up trash at High Falls State Park.

It’s not his job. It’s his choice.

The Christmas season is all about giving, and Jacobs is one of hundreds of volunteers who give their time and talents to keep Georgia’s parks running. Volunteers have become even more vital in the last year as state budget cuts removed about 40 percent of the state parks’ budgets.

“The field staff numbers were totally demolished,” said Lynn Barfield, volunteer services coordinator for the parks. About 90 field staffers were laid off, many of whom provided educational and interpretive programs, she said.

Damon Kirkpatrick, manager of chapter services for Friends of Georgia State Parks, said, “What I’m hearing from chapters all over the state is their roles are changing. ... It’s a mind shift for everyone because we’re so used to coming together and interacting with the public and having fun, and now we’re blowing leaves and painting buildings.”

Fortunately, Kirkpatrick said, volunteers are answering the call. Membership in the state Friends group grew 80 percent in the last year to about 13,000 people, he said. And the number of parks with their own Friends chapters jumped from 23 last year to 50 by last week.

Ironically, in a money-saving effort, the state parks division eliminated its annual volunteer appreciation day this year, Jacobs noted. (He said he understands.)

As the state parks volunteer coordinator, Barfield is now recruiting people with specialized skills, such as retired contractors and retired teachers.

Jacobs and his wife, who hail from Fayetteville, Ohio, have volunteered in various Georgia parks for the last three years (although High Falls is his favorite). Jacobs is a retired electrician, and his wife spent her career working in an office, so she helps in visitors centers while he replaces breakers and does other manual work like painting, roofing and screening in porches. The couple spends most of the year traveling from one Georgia park to another in their RV, staying for free in exchange for their labor. They get plenty of days off to paddle and hike in the parks that become their backyard.

This was Jacobs’ first six-month stint as a campground host, a job that includes keeping the camp sites clean and checking in campers.

Only eyes and ears

Several state parks, including Sprewell Bluff in Middle Georgia, have lost their staffs altogether and now function as “outdoor recreation areas.” At these sites, volunteer campground hosts may be the only eyes and ears on the ground most of the time.

But Barfield said she is most concerned about the historic sites, which rely more heavily on education and interpretation. Jarrell Plantation in Juliette has an active Friends group with the largest volunteer force of any state historic site, she said.

Even so, the plantation has cut back its hours to three days a week and canceled some annual events, such as July Fourth and Labor Day festivities.

“We don’t have the staff to do plantation house tours on a regular basis, especially when we have school groups coming in,” said Bretta Perkins, Jarrell’s interpretive ranger. “Volunteers have always been vital here, but especially so now, because with only two of us to manage a program, we need help getting it set up and conducted.”

When school groups visit, Perkins has to call volunteer Judy Comer, who is president of the Friends of Jarrell Plantation, to run the cash register.

“We were thankful we were not closed completely,” Comer said. But with the reduction in hours, “I’m afraid our visitation numbers will be down so much, it will be closed. If it were to be closed even temporarily, I’m afraid the buildings will deteriorate.”

The historic site consists not only of many home and farm outbuildings, but mill buildings and associated antique engines.

Fred and Margot Pridgen volunteer to operate the engines. “Equipment needs to be maintained,” said Fred Pridgen, who helped get an antique gas engine at the plantation running again. “Rust, dust and moss will corrupt it, and eventually it will rot or rust away.”

Dot Garrison and her husband, Paul, used to help with the sheep shearing at Jarrell every year. But she said when the park manager retired and the position was eliminated, the sheep and a donkey that lived at the plantation were given away because there was no longer anyone to care for them daily.

The Garrisons’ main contribution to Jarrell is the garden full of vegetables like the ones that would have been grown on the plantation in past centuries.

“We used to love when the children would come, because some of them had never seen stuff growing before,” said Garrison, a master gardener.

The Moyer family from Kathleen have brought along their five children to volunteer. Over the years, Leora Moyer learned to cook cornbread and more on the wood stove at the plantation. Her daughters would display toys from the period or play violin, and her husband would play the dulcimer and autoharp. This year at Christmas his performance featured musical glasses.

Pridgen summed up a sentiment also voiced by Moyer: “With all the ease we have of things nowadays, we miss the time we spent together doing hard work.”

Kirkpatrick said local volunteers are taking on a new role as park advocates in local communities. He said for every dollar spent in a state park, $29 is spent in the local community. That’s no small change in places like McRae, home to Little Ocmulgee State Park, he said.

“People think parks are great, it’s nice to get out in nature, warm fuzzies and all that — but I really need a police force,” Kirkpatrick said. “When you look at it that way, it seems like an easy decision. But when you look at it in terms of what it contributes to Georgia’s struggling economy, it’s a little different.”

To contact writer S. Heather Duncan, call 744-4225.