Volunteering green on vacation: in our first in a series exploring the boom in volunteer vacations, we explore how travelers are donating their holiday time for the good of the environment.

Vacations are a time to escape from work, whether by spending all day on the beach or all night at the clubs. So you might think the last thing that busy people would do with their precious time off is volunteer their labor. But every year thousands take off to wild and exotic locales to join small groups of volunteers (around six to 20 people) to build trails, rescue seabirds, or dig up Precambrian fossils. "Green vacations" give environmentally conscious travelers a literal hands-on experience, and they are rewarded with a deep satisfaction rarely found on a mere pleasure trip.

The variety, of green volunteer opportunities is staggering. Want to maintain hiking trails in the Rockies? Track global warming in Austrlia? Remove nonnative plant species in Hawaii? Help orphaned elephants in Sri Lanka? Study the effects of tourist pollution in the Bahamas? Although there are no formal all-gay green volunteer trips yet, most secular-based ones are extremely gay-friendly. Some volunteer stints are as short as a week; others require a commitment of weeks or months. Fees range from a share of communal groceries on backcountry trips (the American Hiking Society and Wilderness Volunteers offer dozens of weeklong trips for $120 and $219-$239, respectively) to more deluxe lodgings in hotels or condos. Some international trips run into the thousands, but generally the costs are far lower than, say, a stay, at a beach resort. (Travelers are responsible for getting to and from a departure site, so remember to factor in airfare.)

Tony Rango is national outings director of the Sierra Club, which started offering "service trips" in 1957. Last year over 1,000 volunteers signed up for 90 different green work projects, and Rango reports a bump up in environmental volunteerism after the events of 9/11--which is especially striking considering most other areas of travel showed a sharp drop. The Earthwatch Institute (which sent over 4,000 volunteers on such trips in 2004) saw a similar upswing. Brad Bailey joined an Earthwatch group tracking the endangered fossa cat in Madagascar, making a 30-minute film based on his experience. "In a place like Madagascar, a little help goes a long way. I'm gay and African-American, so it was also interesting to see local people become more tolerant of differences."

Gay costume designer Daniel Lalande, who has volunteered for several projects in Bali, observes, "There seems to be a swing in the moods. I'm seeing more and more gay men interested in this sort of travel, realizing that life is not just having beautiful things: Do I really need that Versace jacket?"

Verle Waters Clark of Los Gatos, Calif., a retired nursing instructor, spends a week every summer working on trail crews in Yosemite. "All of us today are aware of the fact that due to political issues and overcrowding, the natural environment is under assault," Clark says. "So to do something that holds up the barricades for a moment is very gratifying."

There's also the gratification of being an insider. Blue Magruder of Earthwatch Institute says, "People find it magical to travel as a nontourist. You're not just looking at things; you're part of a team with one of the leading wildlife experts in the country. It's really addictive."

Tony Rango agrees: "People really enjoy the ability to give back, and to give directly, not just donating money. There's something to be said for sweating alongside someone and seeing the fruits of your labor make a difference."

GREEN VOLUNTEER VACATION ORGANIZATIONS

American Hiking Society, 800-972-8608

Earthwatch Institute, 800-776-0188

Global Volunteers, 800-487-1074

Sierra Club, 415-977-5500

Volunteers for Peace, 802-259-2759

Wilderness Volunteers, 928-556-0038