WilCo explores park host program

Bell said the volunteers could help keep the restrooms clean, assist with litter pickup, and assist visitors with campsites and questions. Volunteers will likely be able to sign up for three-month assignments.

“[The program] is an industry standard that is used around the nation,” Bell said. “It helps supplement operations in our parks.”

Bell said he previously worked with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and became familiar with the state park host program, and he said the county program will be similar. The state department has had a park host program since 1991, said Audrey Muntz, the statewide volunteer program manager for state parks.

Muntz said the statewide program launched in Pedernales Falls State Park and Lake Mineral Wells State Park and Trailway, and it has expanded to nearly all parks throughout the state. She said the program is mutually beneficial to both the parks and the hosts.

“The benefit to us is that it’s an additional set of persons in the park to help with day-to-day operations, to help steward the park and really to be a face that’s available to park visitors to just enhance that customer service experience,” she said. “Hosts are there serving the visiting public, and they are the visiting public since they are recreating and enjoying our resources.”

Muntz said the volunteers are provided their own camping site with water and power hookups, though amenities differ at the various parks. Although all of the park hosts assist with customer service, the volunteers can also help in other ways if they can offer particular skills. Muntz said hosts have also helped with maintenance projects and education programs in the state parks.

“If they come with a special set of skills, they can put that into their volunteer work and bring whatever they’re passionate about into the work they are doing in the park,” she said.

Hosts at the state parks signup to volunteer for a minimum of one month, though most hosts serve an average of three to six months, she said. Most hosts work 25 to 30 hours per week, and they have a few days off in order to partake in the recreational activities in the parks, such as fishing, hiking and viewing local wildlife.

Muntz said she receives a few calls per week from interested parties inquiring about hosting for the first time, though she most often sees some of the same hosts returning to the program annually. It is common for some hosts to travel to Texas from northern states and host during the winter, though Muntz said the state parks have volunteers year-round.

“We have really consistent hosts—hosts that come every year and continue to work in the parks in exchange for their volunteer service,” she said.

Williamson County is currently looking to find a host for Berry Springs Park and Preserve and the upcoming River Ranch County Park, which is scheduled to open in late 2017. The staff is now working to convert a campsite at Berry Springs with water, electricity and sewer hookups to make it a host site, Bell said.

In the future, the county may also set up a park host at the Williamson County Expo Center if there are hookups for recreation vehicles, he said.