GraceAnn
Registered: December 2011
City/Town/Province: Sequim
Posts: 1
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If you had to put an exact time to it, my interest in the environment was sparked in the spring of last year. My biology teacher always promoted volunteering opportunities, but nothing really got through to me. That is, until one day he told my whole class about Cascades Climate Challenge. He introduced it as an amazing experience in the North Cascades. Mostly everyone dismissed it as too much work to apply, but it caught my attention. Learning more, it turned out to be a free, 3 week hiking and camping trip where you learn about the environment and climate change, while being immersed in everything that is nature. I ended up applying with 4 other people from my school who I had practically never met before. Before I knew it I was sitting in the back seat of my mom’s car with two boys I had met only once before. Little did I know I was about to have the most incredible experience of my life.
The day after we arrived at Diablo Lake, we departed the Environmental Learning Center on a twelve day backpacking and canoeing trip along the length of Ross and Hozomeen Lake. An example of a project we did while hiking is when we did about 8 hours of trail maintenance. We worked through a fog of mosquitos, cutting back vegetation on a wildly unkempt mile of the trail.
When we were canoeing, we took a day to maintain the little island we were staying on. Teaming up with a local park ranger, we pulled reed canary grass around the shores of the island. Under the hot sun, this little invasive organism wasn’t easy to take care of. But with the help of the rest of my 8 person group, we got it done.
The projects we did while at CCC was only the beginning. The instructors mentor you and help you through a much more in depth project for the rest of the following school year. My group is in the process of executing our service project. We plan to go into 5th grade science classes and do activities with them leading to their own discoveries about climate change and the environment. We will make a video of the kids and show what they learned during our crash course and show it to members of the community. We will be reaching out to diverse members of the community this way.
Although I don’t live near the cascades, the amazing area I visited this summer still has a special place in my heart, and it’s important to preserve it. I wish everyone could have the experience that I had this summer. If we don’t protect the land, and care for it, future generations won’t get to experience the beautiful places we have all experienced in our lifetimes. Whether it’s because they won’t be able to access it, or it’s because the native species we all enjoy have been choked out by invasive ones, it’s beginning to look like our natural world is in jeopardy. It’s our job to act now, to be a steward, to lead by example. This is what I’ve tried to do, by giving back.
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