Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

Working in the UCC
Kaitlyn

First of all, what is the UCC? It is an acronym that stands for the Urban Conservation Corps. This institution is a small, benevolent program designed to help underprivileged youth stay out of trouble and restore natural habitats to their former glory. Their center of operation is located in San Bernardino and their close partner is the San Bernardino National Forest.
I am an enthusiastic environmentalist and I also enjoy helping people less fortunate than me. Not only that, but I was doing a high school project on Sustainability and required an Independent Task for a part of it. Seeing as conservation is part of Sustainability, I decided to look for a local volunteer job that involved these aspects. After hours of phone calls and web surfing, I came up with the UCC. One anxious phone call and application form later, I had officially become a volunteer.
When I arrived, I was greeted by the head of the UCC; Bobby. He presented me with a uniform and safety equipment and bade me to try it on. It was a manâ€™s uniform and I swam in it. I exited the changing room and grabbed a smaller uniform that fit. Soon, the kids arrived and I stood beside them, awaiting instructions. After we received our assignment of the day, we all got into the vans and were off to the forest.
When we arrived, we all stepped out and selected our tools after a quick safety speech. Then the mass of around 27 kids were split into groups of 3 and we all hiked roughly a half mile to the burn site on Sheep Mountain we were supposed to replant trees in. Each group had a bag of 10 baby Jeffery Pine trees and we got to work.
To plant the trees, we had to make sure each tree was about 18 feet away from the others and planted in soft soil. The roots had to be covered along with a little part of the small trunk. Then, we had to place a stone on the southwest side of each tree to shade the root area to retain its moisture. After working for 8 hours, we finally stopped. My group had planted a total of 30 trees, others had planted quite a few too. In fact, all of our workers had planted more than 100 trees together!
Dirty and exhausted, we all put down our tools and made our way back to the vans and went to our base. As I left the building to go home, I felt that I had accomplished something more than just planting some trees. I had helped restore a damaged habitat and helped a group of folks who needed it.