Volunteer at Mission: Wolf
This is a job description for volunteer staff at Mission: Wolf. For short-term volunteering or day visits, click here. For information on group visits, click here.
Mission: Wolf seeks motivated and capable volunteers to live at our sanctuary. Our volunteer staff come from all over the world and contribute a wide range of skills and knowledge. While we do not require prior experience working with wolves, we prefer applicants who are comfortable around animals. Mission: Wolf is very isolated and your success here will depend largely on your comfort living outdoors and your ability to work in a self-sustaining community.
Mission: Wolf seeks motivated and capable volunteers to live at our sanctuary. Our volunteer staff come from all over the world and contribute a wide range of skills and knowledge. While we do not require prior experience working with wolves, we prefer applicants who are comfortable around animals. Mission: Wolf is very isolated and your success here will depend largely on your comfort living outdoors and your ability to work in a self-sustaining community.
Due to our remote location and need for 24-hour wolf care, all of our staff live on-site. Our facilities are off-grid, run entirely by solar and wind power. Mission: Wolf has three major components. First, we provide resident wolves a lifelong home where they can be healthy, safe, and isolated from heavy human influence. Second, we offer experiential education for visiting groups and individuals. Finally, we are an example of sustainable living through solar and wind energy, use of recycled building materials, passive solar heating, composting, recycling, and growing our own food.
Volunteer Qualifications
At Mission: Wolf, we do not have any specific requirements for volunteers except a commitment to live for the wolves and the community here. There is no age limit; we judge applicants on ability, motivation, and maturity. We value applicants that demonstrate the following traits:
-Leadership experience
-Good communication skills
-Strong environmental ethics
-Strong work ethic
-Willingness to teach and learn
-Flexibility and ability to work in a community
-Ability to respond to the unexpected
-Ability to work independently
-Foreign language experience (especially in summer when we host many international volunteers)
-Foreign language experience (especially in summer when we host many international volunteers)
-Diverse skills (we always have need for mechanical skills, carpentry, woodworking, metalworking, gardening, composting, veterinary skills, cooking, teaching, computer maintenance, electrical maintenance, writing, and many more)
-Physical strength and endurance
-Sense of humor
What to Expect (for Volunteer Staff)
Working with People
Mission: Wolf is isolated physically, but we are by no means an escape from society. Our primary work is not with wolves, but with humans. The wolves attract a wide variety of people and personalities. People who have little in common with each other find themselves living and working in close quarters here. You will be expected to integrate into a diverse community of volunteers who share a kitchen building and bathroom. We all interact with and lead work projects for visitors who come to the sanctuary every day.
A Variety of Tasks
Mission: Wolf has an informal, unstructured work environment. You will be expected to oversee and complete projects independently. Everybody needs to be flexible and help with all aspects of our operation. In a single day, you might be expected to cut meat, help with data entry in the office, haul water and firewood, plant seedlings, cook dinner, and greet visitors. Much of the work we do involves heavy lifting and hauling.
Responsibilities for All Staff:
1. Community Living: Mission: Wolf is not an escape from everyday chores. We wash dishes, take out the trash, recycling, and compost, sweep indoors and outdoors, shovel snow, etc.
2. Cleaning: We clean community spaces at least once a week.
3. Watering the Wolves: When our pipes freeze during colder months, we haul water to the wolf enclosures and greenhouses in five-gallon buckets.
4. Processing Meat: Food for our wolves comes in the form of donated horses and other livestock that have died naturally or need to be put down. Several times a week, we butcher deceased livestock to feed the wolves.
5. Big Feed: On Wednesdays and Saturdays, we feed large buckets of raw meat to our wolves, hauling meat and throwing it to the animals.
6. Daily Feed: Every morning, staff members prepare and feed a small meal to the wolves that includes medications and supplements.
7. Teaching Groups and Visitors: We interact with visiting groups of youth and adults daily. This includes people how to use hand tools, explaining appropriate behavior around the wolves, and guiding groups on projects.
Very Little Direct Contact with Wolves
Although we live with wolves, our contact with them is limited. Mission: Wolf strives to offer wolves a peaceful life with limited human interaction. Some of our wolves are social, but do not expect to interact with them often. We do have several resident dogs that staff can walk and play with.
Living Outdoors With Limited Facilities
Our facilities are powered by solar panels with a battery bank for nighttime power use. Our water is pumped from a well by solar power. We have limited electricity and water available for personal use, especially on cloudy days. Staff members shower once a week and wash clothes infrequently. We cannot offer shower or laundry facilities for short-term volunteers (less than two months), but they are available at your own expense in the town of Westcliffe (about 45 minutes away).
Most volunteers live in tents. We also have six staff tipis. Depending on availability, we may be able to offer you a tipi as personal sleeping space. Tipis are generally reserved for long-term core staff, and a tipi will sometimes open up as time goes on. Most volunteers start their time at Mission: Wolf in a tent.
Some Internet and Phone Access
Mission: Wolf is not completely out of touch; we have a phone with long distance and international calling, wireless internet, and a few community laptops available for our support staff. The weather can affect our phone and internet connections, so volunteers should not expect communication to be totally reliable.
Hiking Opportunities
Mission: Wolf is surrounded on two sides by National Forest land offering miles and miles of wilderness walks and hikes. We are only minutes away from the picturesque grandeur of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and less than a days travel to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. We try to arrange several staff camping trips each season, and you are welcome to take a few days to do your own trips. HYPERLINK "http://www.missionwolf.com/page/local-attractions/"Click here for more about our area.
Weather:
Mission: Wolf is located at 9,300 feet of elevation. Mountain weather is unpredictable and changes quickly. No matter the season, be prepared for anything. It's not unusual for it to be 75°F in winter or snow in summer. In general, summer is hot and sunny with afternoon thunderstorms and cool nights. Fall has a mix of cold and warm days with cold nights. Our first snow typically falls in early October. Winter is sunny but extremely cold with the potential to be snowed-in.
What to bring:
Sleeping bag, sleeping pad, tent, water bottle, hiking/work boots, inside shoes, work clothes, warm clothes, bathing suit, sunglasses, sunscreen, hat
For late fall and winter/spring: winter boots, heavy winter layers, long underwear, warm wool socks, winter hat, face mask
It is not necessary to have a car, but we've found that it is best not to be dependent on others for your transportation needs.
What not to bring:
Dogs, desktop computers, curling irons, hair dryers, heaters, anything that uses lots of power, drugs, alcohol
Apply:
Click here to apply for a volunteer position at Mission: Wolf.
Mission: Wolf is isolated physically, but we are by no means an escape from society. Our primary work is not with wolves, but with humans. The wolves attract a wide variety of people and personalities. People who have little in common with each other find themselves living and working in close quarters here. You will be expected to integrate into a diverse community of volunteers who share a kitchen building and bathroom. We all interact with and lead work projects for visitors who come to the sanctuary every day.
A Variety of Tasks
Mission: Wolf has an informal, unstructured work environment. You will be expected to oversee and complete projects independently. Everybody needs to be flexible and help with all aspects of our operation. In a single day, you might be expected to cut meat, help with data entry in the office, haul water and firewood, plant seedlings, cook dinner, and greet visitors. Much of the work we do involves heavy lifting and hauling.
Responsibilities for All Staff:
1. Community Living: Mission: Wolf is not an escape from everyday chores. We wash dishes, take out the trash, recycling, and compost, sweep indoors and outdoors, shovel snow, etc.
2. Cleaning: We clean community spaces at least once a week.
3. Watering the Wolves: When our pipes freeze during colder months, we haul water to the wolf enclosures and greenhouses in five-gallon buckets.
4. Processing Meat: Food for our wolves comes in the form of donated horses and other livestock that have died naturally or need to be put down. Several times a week, we butcher deceased livestock to feed the wolves.
5. Big Feed: On Wednesdays and Saturdays, we feed large buckets of raw meat to our wolves, hauling meat and throwing it to the animals.
6. Daily Feed: Every morning, staff members prepare and feed a small meal to the wolves that includes medications and supplements.
7. Teaching Groups and Visitors: We interact with visiting groups of youth and adults daily. This includes people how to use hand tools, explaining appropriate behavior around the wolves, and guiding groups on projects.
Very Little Direct Contact with Wolves
Although we live with wolves, our contact with them is limited. Mission: Wolf strives to offer wolves a peaceful life with limited human interaction. Some of our wolves are social, but do not expect to interact with them often. We do have several resident dogs that staff can walk and play with.
Living Outdoors With Limited Facilities
Our facilities are powered by solar panels with a battery bank for nighttime power use. Our water is pumped from a well by solar power. We have limited electricity and water available for personal use, especially on cloudy days. Staff members shower once a week and wash clothes infrequently. We cannot offer shower or laundry facilities for short-term volunteers (less than two months), but they are available at your own expense in the town of Westcliffe (about 45 minutes away).
Most volunteers live in tents. We also have six staff tipis. Depending on availability, we may be able to offer you a tipi as personal sleeping space. Tipis are generally reserved for long-term core staff, and a tipi will sometimes open up as time goes on. Most volunteers start their time at Mission: Wolf in a tent.
Some Internet and Phone Access
Mission: Wolf is not completely out of touch; we have a phone with long distance and international calling, wireless internet, and a few community laptops available for our support staff. The weather can affect our phone and internet connections, so volunteers should not expect communication to be totally reliable.
Hiking Opportunities
Mission: Wolf is surrounded on two sides by National Forest land offering miles and miles of wilderness walks and hikes. We are only minutes away from the picturesque grandeur of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and less than a days travel to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. We try to arrange several staff camping trips each season, and you are welcome to take a few days to do your own trips. HYPERLINK "http://www.missionwolf.com/page/local-attractions/"Click here for more about our area.
Weather:
Mission: Wolf is located at 9,300 feet of elevation. Mountain weather is unpredictable and changes quickly. No matter the season, be prepared for anything. It's not unusual for it to be 75°F in winter or snow in summer. In general, summer is hot and sunny with afternoon thunderstorms and cool nights. Fall has a mix of cold and warm days with cold nights. Our first snow typically falls in early October. Winter is sunny but extremely cold with the potential to be snowed-in.
What to bring:
Sleeping bag, sleeping pad, tent, water bottle, hiking/work boots, inside shoes, work clothes, warm clothes, bathing suit, sunglasses, sunscreen, hat
For late fall and winter/spring: winter boots, heavy winter layers, long underwear, warm wool socks, winter hat, face mask
It is not necessary to have a car, but we've found that it is best not to be dependent on others for your transportation needs.
What not to bring:
Dogs, desktop computers, curling irons, hair dryers, heaters, anything that uses lots of power, drugs, alcohol
Apply:
Click here to apply for a volunteer position at Mission: Wolf.
Positions at Mission: Wolf
We recommend that everybody visit us for a few weeks before committing to a longer stay. The rigors of life here are not for everybody, even if you think they are. Most of our successful long-term staff first visited Mission: Wolf as short-term volunteers. Click here for more information about short-term visits and volunteering.
Support Staff: Two months to one year
Provisions provided:
Support staff are provided a warm place to sleep in the winter (either a tipi or cabin) and live in tents in the summer. They have access to our facilities, food, bedding and towels, use of our outdoor equipment, transportation to and from a local airport, bus, or train station, potential use of our vehicles (based on driving record and M:W needs). A weekly expense reimbursement of fifteen dollars is available for up to six support staff and is distributed based on availability and length of stay.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Assist with animal care, refuge maintenance, education, office, and sustainability. You may be asked to lead groups of visitors, give tours of the sanctuary, feed and water the animals, help with pen maintenance, assist with construction projects, help with office tasks, work in the garden, and assist with community living. As time goes on, support staff can choose to specialize in areas of interest and take on one or more of the following roles:
Assistant Animal Caretaker
Assistant Refuge Caretaker
Office Assistant
Assistant Educator
Sustainability Assistant
Core Teaching Staff: One year+
We have five core staff positions. For these positions, we seek applicants who demonstrate outstanding leadership. All new staff members begin as support staff. Usually, we promote current support staff when a core staff positions become vacant.
Positions:
Animal Caretaker (animal feeding/watering, animal safety, vet care)
Refuge Caretaker (construction, vehicle maintenance, etc.)
Office Caretaker (finances, correspondence, paperwork, etc.)
Education Caretaker (tours, groups, experiential ed, publications)
Sustainability Caretaker (gardening, landscaping, solar power, etc.)
Provisions provided:
Core staff receive the same provisions as support staff and are offered housing upgrades when available. Core staff weekly expense reimbursement is twenty-five dollars after one year. Because of the stress of living and working in an isolated community for months on end, we encourage all core staff to take at least one month off each year. This is an opportunity to make money, gain perspective, and become refreshed and better able to contribute.
Support Staff: Two months to one year
Provisions provided:
Support staff are provided a warm place to sleep in the winter (either a tipi or cabin) and live in tents in the summer. They have access to our facilities, food, bedding and towels, use of our outdoor equipment, transportation to and from a local airport, bus, or train station, potential use of our vehicles (based on driving record and M:W needs). A weekly expense reimbursement of fifteen dollars is available for up to six support staff and is distributed based on availability and length of stay.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Assist with animal care, refuge maintenance, education, office, and sustainability. You may be asked to lead groups of visitors, give tours of the sanctuary, feed and water the animals, help with pen maintenance, assist with construction projects, help with office tasks, work in the garden, and assist with community living. As time goes on, support staff can choose to specialize in areas of interest and take on one or more of the following roles:
Assistant Animal Caretaker
Assistant Refuge Caretaker
Office Assistant
Assistant Educator
Sustainability Assistant
Core Teaching Staff: One year+
We have five core staff positions. For these positions, we seek applicants who demonstrate outstanding leadership. All new staff members begin as support staff. Usually, we promote current support staff when a core staff positions become vacant.
Positions:
Animal Caretaker (animal feeding/watering, animal safety, vet care)
Refuge Caretaker (construction, vehicle maintenance, etc.)
Office Caretaker (finances, correspondence, paperwork, etc.)
Education Caretaker (tours, groups, experiential ed, publications)
Sustainability Caretaker (gardening, landscaping, solar power, etc.)
Provisions provided:
Core staff receive the same provisions as support staff and are offered housing upgrades when available. Core staff weekly expense reimbursement is twenty-five dollars after one year. Because of the stress of living and working in an isolated community for months on end, we encourage all core staff to take at least one month off each year. This is an opportunity to make money, gain perspective, and become refreshed and better able to contribute.
Scheduling and Logistics
Mission: Wolf operates on three main seasons based on weather and activities here. We prefer you choose whole seasons to volunteer here, but you are welcome to create your own adventure and schedule if ours doesn’t work for you.
Summer (Mid-May through Mid-September):
Summer is the best time for new volunteers. Our summer staff is large (15-18 people), the weather is great, and the sanctuary is busy with visitors and all sorts of projects. Work in the summer tends to be outside.
Most summer staff live in their own tents, but the earlier you arrive and the longer you commit to staying, the better your chances of being provided a tipi.
Autumn (September through Mid-December):
We encourage staff to arrive in August in order to be trained to run the refuge before our large summer staff departs. Our autumn staff is usually 8-10 people.
Winter/Spring (Mid-December through Mid-May):
This is the most challenging time to live and work in the mountains. Mission: Wolf is very isolated during Winter and Spring. Few visitors come to the sanctuary and the wolves are less social (it’s their mating season). We need some staff that can commit to working this whole time period, training new summer staff in May and June. We usually have 6-8 staff in the Winter and 8-10 staff in the Spring.
Weather:
Mission: Wolf is located at 9,300 feet of elevation. Mountain weather is unpredictable and changes quickly. No matter the season, be prepared for anything. It's not unusual for it to be 75°F in winter or snow in summer. In general, summer is hot and sunny with afternoon thunderstorms and cool nights. Fall has a mix of cold and warm days with cold nights. Our first snow typically falls in early October. Winter is sunny but extremely cold with the potential to be snowed-in.
What to bring:
Sleeping bag, sleeping pad, tent, water bottle, hiking/work boots, inside shoes, work clothes, warm clothes, bathing suit, sunglasses, backpacking equipment for staff trips
For late fall and winter/spring: winter boots, heavy winter layers, long underwear, warm wool socks, winter hat, face mask
It is not necessary to have a car, but we've found that it is best not to be dependent on others for your transportation needs.