CPW says volunteers contribute 283,000 hours, worth $10 million annually

At North Sterling State Park outside Sterling, volunteer campground hosts helped keep one of Logan County’s most visible outdoor assets running. Colorado Parks and Wildlife said that work was part of a statewide system in which unpaid volunteers filled jobs that would otherwise fall more heavily on paid staff and public dollars.

CPW said its volunteer program engaged about 4,500 volunteers annually and represented the equivalent of 145 full-time employees, with an economic value of $10.2 million. In another agency tally, CPW said nearly 5,000 volunteers contributed more than 283,000 hours each year, work it valued at more than $10 million and roughly 136 full-time employees. The agency said the volunteer program helped it meet its mission in a financially sustainable manner.

For Logan County, the payoff showed up in everyday use of North Sterling State Park. The park said volunteer opportunities there included wildlife monitoring and campground host work. Campground hosts checked campers in, answered visitor questions and maintained the campground, duties that directly affected whether families, anglers and weekend visitors found the park organized and welcoming. North Sterling’s main attraction is its 3,000-surface-acre reservoir, and the park says anglers can find wiper, walleye, channel catfish, yellow perch, bluegill, crappie and trout there.

CPW’s volunteer page said opportunities at state parks, wildlife areas, fish hatcheries, offices and educational programs varied by season and by region. That range mattered in rural counties like Logan, where one unpaid shift could mean a cleaner campsite, a staffed visitor contact point or a habitat project that otherwise would wait for a budget cycle.

The volunteer push also fit into CPW’s broader 2024 work. The agency said it was making progress on all 10 goals in the Future Generations Act and kept investing in access, hatcheries, trail grants, hunter education and fish stocking. CPW said it awarded 24 non-motorized trail grants totaling $2.4 million, five Land and Water Conservation Fund grants totaling $5.5 million, 52 OHV grants exceeding $6.2 million and 36 snowmobile grants nearing $1.3 million. It also offered 470 hunter education courses attended by nearly 12,300 students and stocked more than 3.2 million catchable trout, nearly 14 million sub-catchable trout and more than 81 million warm-water fish.

For Logan County, the message was plain: volunteer labor was not a side note. It was part of the infrastructure that kept parks open, fishing access functional and wildlife work moving.