Encore Fellow Spotlight: Frank Hiebel
Frank Hiebel is an Encore Fellow with the Forest Park Conservancy (FPC), where he has been instrumental in creating streamlined procedures and simplifying organizational systems to enable the organization to run smoothly.
FPC’s mission is to protect Forest Park and Marquam Nature Park’s ecological health, while also encouraging responsible recreation and access. They do a lot of this with the help of their amazing base of over 1700 volunteers. In 2023, FPC managed over 135 different events ranging from volunteer work to educational hikes and classes.
Frank has helped support the FPC’s volunteer initiatives by making it easier to use the volunteer database, creating documents and templates for consistency and ease, and developing a grants writing database and procedures for the organization to run a more efficient grant writing process. Additionally, Frank interviewed key volunteers for newsletter articles to assist with volunteer recruitment, and created an annual report that utilized volunteer summary data as well as instructions on how to gather data for future annual reports. Prior to this, FPC’s last annual report was in 2012.
Frank is so passionate about FPC’s work that he also works as a volunteer, both in the office to update and maintain processes and procedures, as well as out on the trails. Some of their tasks include hand cutting smaller trees, clearing debris, and widening and leveling trails.
Frank recognizes that park stewardship could not be done without the hard work of FPC’s dedicated volunteers. As he put it, “I am most inspired by the over 1700 local Portland volunteers that love Forest Park as much as I do and want to help the environment in so many ways. At our trail or restoration events, in Forest Park, we often have to firmly encourage the volunteers to stop working and finish to head back down the trail. They are so enthusiastic and eager to help and would continue working several more hours!” It’s clear that he’s one of their valued, skilled contributors, both within the organization as well as in the forest!
