Volunteerism and the Budget Crunch

Over the holiday weekend, 100 volunteers patrolled the bosque in Corrales, checking for fires. It’s a program that runs all summer, and has been in place since 2010. As a town firefighter told KRQE, “We can’t be everywhere at once. It’s just that increased presence, there’s only so many of us.”

Volunteerism does a lot to preserve the bosque throughout the region. Last year, the Metro Rotary Club collected more than 50 bags of trash from a one-acre site near the I-40 overpass.

State parks also benefit from folks contributing their time. Earlier this month, the Albuquerque Journal reported that hundreds of volunteers “support … paid park rangers, playing a critical role in assisting campers, performing routine maintenance, staffing visitor centers and acting as educators.”

With tax revenue stagnant and costs always rising, government at every level in the Land of Enchantment should look for more ways to involve the public in “public” services.