Winter weather may mean fewer outdoor activities for most, but that's not the case in Pennsylvania's state parks.

“Surprisingly, we have a lot more visitors than a lot of people are led to believe,” said Dale Margus, maintenance repairman at Jennings Environmental Education Center in Brady Township.

During the colder months, Jennings has seasonal employees to run education programs for a variety of groups.

“Actually, our busy time is through the school year, because we work a lot with the school,” said Brandi Miller-Parrish, an environmental education specialist.

Winter maintenance is of great importance at Jennings, especially for the prairie. Every year the park holds a Prairie Improvement Day during which volunteers pitch in.

The prairie is divided into four quadrants. Every year two of the quadrants are hand cut and burned by volunteers.

“What's happening is the prairie is trying to turn into a forest, and the trees are starting to grow on the prairie and if we allowed that to happen, we wouldn't have a prairie anymore,” said Becky Lubold, also an environmental education specialist.

The larger plants are hand cut so remaining grasses are left as fuel for the burning.

“We burn it mainly for two reasons: one, it helps to kill little small trees that don't get hand clipped; and two, it helps to rejuvenate the wildflowers,” said Miller-Parrish.

“Certain seeds need fire to geminate and then the nutrients from the burn go back into the soil to help the wildflowers.”

While prairie maintenance is a main winter objective at Jennings, sewer line maintenance is a larger focus at Moraine State Park.

“We have miles of water and sewer lines and if they break, we have staff to repair them in the winter,” said Dan Bickel, Moraine State Park and McConnells Mill manager.

Since Jennings, Moraine and McConnells Mill remain open during the winter snow removal can be a daily duty.

“We have to keep a lot of our roads open, so we have larger trucks for plowing,” Bickel said.

Volunteers are key players with various chores.

Jennings has three big maintenance events: Prairie Improvement Day, National Public Lands Day and an invasive species removal day, called Take Back the Woods.

Throughout the week there are many different volunteers opportunities.

Groups have already started working on the prairie at Jennings and in the spring, volunteers will be needed to help with maple sugar.

“We need volunteers to help us teach that program, to help us go out and lay the lines for tapping the trees, actually tapping the trees, setting up the trails for the program, splitting firewood and actually making maple syrup from the evaporator,” Miller-Parrish said.

Moraine also needs volunteers to help with larger events, such as Winter Fest on Jan. 21.

“We always need volunteers for events like that,” Bickel said. “Last year we had like 1,500 people.”

As nonprofits, the state parks are always appreciative of groups or individuals who can help with bigger events and daily maintenance.

“We would never be able to accomplish the amount of work on our own if we didn't have these volunteers and the volunteer events,” Miller-Parrish said.

“We are very, very fortunate to have that many volunteers that come to help us time and time again,” she added.

To become a conservation volunteer at Jennings Environmental Education Center, McConnells Mill and Moraine State Park, visit www.volunteers.dcnr.state.pa.us and fill out the application on the left side of the screen.On the form, applicants will be able to select parks where they would like to volunteer.Brandi Miller-Parrish, environmental education specialist at Jennings Environmental Education Center, suggests applicants think carefully about where they want to volunteer instead of selecting every park in Western Pennsylvania.Volunteers are still needed for Moraine State Park's Winter Fest Jan. 21.Those interested can contact the park at 724-368-8811.The Prairie Improvement Day at Jennings is filled, but volunteers are still needed to help with maple sugaring in the spring.Those interested can fill out the conservation volunteer application found online.