Come One, Come All
For 16 years the Northwest Service Academy—Mt. Adams Center has created a place of potential through a partnership with AmeriCorps. And for 16 years young minds and inquisitive souls have come to the center to provide environmental service to the Northwest.
2010 will be an exciting year as 67 AmeriCorps members serving as interns and field team members will engage their minds to advocate for, and strain their bodies to improve, our environment.
I want to welcome the first to serve in 2010, our 24 Environmental Interns. The interns arrived at their sites January 21 and are serving as far north as Port Townsend, WA and as far south as Coos Bay, OR, where they are advocating for bicyclists, saving our fish, purifying our water and restoring our lands. Through partnerships with individual organizations, these individuals will be cultivating skills and harnessing passions that will better prepare them for a lifetime of service.
2010 Environmental Interns
Would you like Fries with that?
by Heather Aboud
“You’re going where?” That’s the phrase I heard many times over when I told my family and friends I’d be heading to Othello, Washington. When I accepted this Americorps position as an Environmental Education Coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, I knew the work would be familiar, but not the locale. This town of 6,500 in Eastern Washington will now become my “home” for the next ten months.
Columbia National Wildlife Refuge
In the few weeks that I have been working at the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, I’ve heard and read quite a bit about agriculture and birds. About half of the nation’s French Fries come from potatoes grown in the area, as the smell reminds me every day driving home past the potato processing plant. It’s estimated about 60 different crops are grown in this region of Washington, a fact that amazes me when I walk through the arid shrub-steppe landscape on the Refuge.
One of my goals for my ten-month stay (other than avoiding those French Fries) is to become a passable birder. As spring approaches in the midst of the Pacific Flyway, I will have many opportunities to spot winged travelers.
Lazuli Bunting--Tom Munson
However, my ability to distinguish a raptor from a songbird might not cut it with the curious 3rd and 4th graders I’ll be taking out on the Refuge. Needless to say, binoculars and a field guide are likely to become my new best friends during my time spent here in Eastern Washington.
Who knows what else the coming seasons will bring here in Othello, but I’m excited to find out.
Conservation on the East Side
by Jenni Remillard
I have called Portland my home for the past 4 years. It’s green, beautiful, rainy, and a great city. People recycle, ride bikes, and are excited about eating local and being “green.” I think that is probably what most people’s perception is of the Northwest: environmentally friendly, rainy, and beautiful. There is quite a divide however, between the rainy west side of Oregon and Washington, and the dry east side. Mt Rainier and Mt Hood, the jewels of Seattle and Portland, are part of the Cascade Range which divides the two states. Two thirds of both states are quite dry. The east side is the land of cattle ranches, wheat farms and orchards. The climate is not the only thing that is different either. Political views are much more conservative on the east side. In some circles, “Environmentalist” is a dirty word.
- Winter in Okanogan
So I have come from Portland and its green bubble to the east side, taking an AmeriCorps position as a Conservation Educator with the Okanogan Conservation District. I have come from a large city to a small town of 2,500; from rabid vegan bikers to 5th generation ranchers; from 37 inches of rain a year to 13. It’s a big change. I do however, think I have an advantage in that I grew up on the east side. I hope I can use my experience from both sides of the mountains to help foster stewardship here. The Conservation District I have joined seems to be doing a good job already. They work with landowners, offering advice and finding grant money to help the landowners make improvements. They are not a regulatory body; landowners can take their advice or leave it. The Conservation District also tries to help improve the landowner’s bottom line as they improve their land. If it’s a win win situation, landowners are more likely to be receptive to these ideas. I know it will be challenging, but I am excited to be a part of it. I am looking forward to a good year, learning a lot, and hopefully helping to make a connection between conservation, working the land, and loving the land.
It Takes a Community to Build a Program
The Seattle Bikestation
by Katie Ferguson
If I had to sum up my first week as an AmeriCorps intern with the Bicycle Alliance of Washington in one word, I’d have to choose “exhausting” – in the best possible sense, of course. I attribute part of that to the challenge of my 40-mile-a-day bicycle commute, but starting my new job really exhausted me emotionally.
Do you remember beginning your job? The first few months felt tumultuous, confusing, and disjointed; you wondered if you’d ever fit in, let alone be productive. I overcome the difficulty of that initial start-up period by working harder than ever, pushing over the painful learning curve like it’s a big but surmountable hill, even if the crest remains out of sight for now.
As a result, this first week I threw myself into working with Bicycle Alliance staff to determine what my job will entail, what will work and what to avoid, and, most of all, I started contacting people around the country already doing the same thing I’m doing now. I spoke with Charlie at Mayor Daley’s Bicycle Ambassadors in Chicago, with Breen at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, and with Shane at MassBike. I met a number of other wonderful AmeriCorps interns at Transportation Advocacy Day in Olympia. A librarian with the Corporation for National and Community Service’s Resource Center Lending Library recommended a number of invaluable resources for starting a volunteer program. In addition to receiving all sorts of valuable advice, the generosity of spirit all these people exhibited, their willingness to share their time and interests with me, a complete stranger, overwhelmed me. They will prove invaluable allies throughout the following months.
Secure bike storage at the Bikestation
As a result of all this generosity, I find myself finishing my first full week with the Bicycle Alliance brimming with ideas. Some may prove too big to implement in my short AmeriCorps tenure at the Bicycle Alliance, but I’m confident that some will come to fruition. It’s that hope for the future that keeps me pushing through the exhaustion, both physical and emotional, of this first week.