The 75,500 acre Golden Gate National Recreation Area is not just the beautiful sweeping Golden Gate National Park, in the heart of San Francisco, but it also encompasses Alcatraz Island and the Muir Woods National Park , as well as the Golden Gate Bridge. With the enormity of those properties and the draw that they have as some of the premier San Francisco attractions, it takes a large amount of man hours to keep them presentable for the visiting tourists from around the world, as well as for the enjoyment of those lucky enough to live in the San Francisco bay area. Augmenting the GGNRA’s full-time employees, is the volunteer workforce that provided 414,000 man hours between 20,000 volunteers last year; the equivalent of two hundred full-time employees. That is more than twice the number of volunteer hours of any other national park, and forty times the national average, and with such altruism, the parks have been able to restore and expand numerous programs of interest even during recent budget restricting economic climates.
Volunteerism has a been a long-standing tradition surrounding Golden Gate National Park ever since William Kent purchased and saved Muir Woods, donating it to the federal government. Volunteers are heavily involved at every level and division of the Golden Gate Park, and they have served to make the Golden Gate Park a leader and innovator with respect to engaging the community in conservancy of the properties, and it’s the only way for the Golden Gate Park, or any park, to remain viable and free for the public’s enjoyment.
