 |
IN FOCUS: ARTICLE |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Call of the Wild
by Chris Hayhurst, 11.19.04
"It's the little things that make a big difference." |
|
If you've ever gone hiking, you know how it feels to be in a place where the air seems cleaner, the water runs clearer, and the trees look healthier. You've seen the views and enjoyed the wildlife. You've heard the silence. You've also been very lucky.
Amazingly, few people find time, or have the means, to experience the true outdoors — those places where the natural environment is the main attraction. Fewer still find opportunities to actually give back to the outdoors, to personally help the natural places they grow to love. Their reasons are simple: They don't know how. They live in a city. They have other priorities.
Back to Nature
Enter the Student Conservation Association. As its name implies, the SCA is for students in middle school, high school, or college, and its focus is environmental preservation. The organization works to match students to volunteer positions on trail construction and repair crews in the nation's national parks and forests. Students build backcountry bridges over sensitive wetlands, restore damaged fisheries and streams, and improve wildlife habitats. In the process, they learn great job skills, not to mention the value of volunteer environmental service work. SCA workers can be found hauling brush, stacking stones, and planting trees year round, everywhere from Utah's Bryce Canyon to Hawaii's Haleakala National Park.
Beyond the City
Of particular interest to students from the city is the SCA's Urban Initiatives program. Up and running since 1968, the program serves as an introduction to the environment for those who may not realize there's an entire world beyond the concrete of the city. For many students, it also becomes the first step toward a career in conservation. The Urban Initiatives program maintains base camps in New York, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Washington, DC, and the New England area (with a base in New Hampshire). While each division is slightly different from the others, all maintain the same philosophy: "It's all about changing lives through service to nature," explains SCA Vice President Flip Hagood.
In Washington, DC, for example, the SCA works with eight area schools. Throughout the academic year, students get together after classes or on weekends to do anything from planting trees in vacant lots to picking up litter in city parks. Many students come together for winter camping trips to nearby natural areas. Some enjoy the experience so much they sign on for summer programs in distant national parks and forests.
Ultimately, the biggest lesson for most is that even though they live in the city, they can still make a difference in the health of the planet. "You learn that the environment is where you live," explains Kevin Hamilton, an SCA spokesperson. "It's not necessarily a thousand miles away in the mountains."
Getting to Know Your Environment
One Urban Initiatives student, Thuy Tran, has volunteered with the SCA for three years in her hometown of Seattle. Now a senior in high school, Thuy has learned all kinds of things about her city and the surrounding area, especially the Puget Sound. "I would have never learned the things in school I've learned through the SCA," says Thuy. "It's given me a better perspective on the environmental issues facing places around Seattle. People don't realize just how polluted the Puget Sound is."
Thuy started out volunteering one Saturday each month on an "urban crew." Working in the city's parks, her team pulled out and disposed of dangerous invasive species. Then they planted new trees and shrubs native to the area. It was hard work, but according to Thuy, it was fun. Plus she managed to make new friends. "Everybody should do something like this," says Thuy. "It's the little things like this that make a big difference." |
|
|
|
Printable Version
Email this page