The labor market in this country is tight right now, and the competition for young talent is especially keen at non-profits like the Nature Conservancy.
That’s one reason the organization started a program to interest urban kids in conservation.
Pulling and chopping weeds might not seem like the most exciting summer job, but Rachel Ware, Raven Stephens and Jasmine Lowitz were thrilled to be at the Warm Springs Nature Preserve. They were chosen for a paid internship with the Nature Conservancy – a chance to escape life in Louisville, Kentucky for something more rustic.
“Well good morning. We are here at the Bear Loop Overlook, and today we’re going to be doing some non-native invasive species removal.”
The Conservancy’s Nikole Simmons explained how to identify the aggressive outsiders. “When you find autumn olive, it’s very easy to tell, because it has this really shiny, silvery leaf, and it’s kind of fuzzy.”
In addition to removing non-native species from a trail they visited Shenandoah National Park to see how plants had come back after a controlled burn. Stephens now feels more connected to the forest. “When I was first walked into a forest it was like, Oh yeah, those are trees, and there’s a bunch of plants, but when you actually learn their names and what they’re good for medicinally, you see the forest in a whole new perspective, and I really enjoy being here now.”
They splashed in the Cowpasture River, looking under rocks for micro-invertebrates, tiny creatures that tell scientists about the quality of the water. When it’s good, there are lots of water bugs. When it’s polluted, not so much.
Each adventure taught the girls something new about themselves and sometimes offered something to write home about.
“I learned really quick that I did not like hiking. It just felt like I hiked forever just to see a pretty view, but then I had to hike back down. There was a rattlesnake where I was clearing some brush. At first I didn’t know what it was, but then I heard the rattle, and then I realized that it was a rattlesnake that I was looking for, and it was right next to me! The bugs are definitely annoying, but they’re part of nature. We saw a mama bear and her cubs right as we were coming down off the hill, and we had to turn around go all the way back up the hill, back the way we came, so it was a really long hike, and I was not enjoying it. But it was cool to see the bears? It was. It really was.”
The Nature Conservancy has hired about a thousand kids since the program began in 1995, and a third of them have ended up in jobs involving conservation. That’s great news for Allegheny Highlands Coordinator Laurel Schablein who loves sharing her passion for the environment. “I have a very strong connection with the land where I grew up in Virginia. When I started working for the Nature Conservancy I began a relationship with Warm Springs Mountain Preserve and getting to work with this crew being so enthusiastic and getting to experience so many new things is a little like getting to relive a first date with the mountain.”
And for those students who found the outdoor activity a little too challenging, the program also involved other essential parts of the operation – philanthropy, finance, marketing and media.
The program is called LEAF-- Leaders for Environmental Action for the Future.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
