Nicodemus Wilderness Project
Nicodemus Wilderness Project
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Nicodemus Wilderness Project

 
 

NWP Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists - Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA

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Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA
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rlankford24



Registered: March 2008
City/Town/Province: Las Cruces
Posts: 1
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Plant-a-Tree Project



Who, What, When, and Where:
For the course Management 454 in the spring semester of 2008 at New Mexico State University, we were assigned a group project to complete a community service of our choice. The group members are as follows: Rebekah Lankford, Heather Williams, Stephen Crespin, Kendall Bukowski, and Mitsumi Herrera.
The community service project we chose to participate in is called, The Apprentice Ecologist Initiative. We found this organization, Nicodemus Wilderness Project, on the World Wide Web. (http://www.wildernessproject.org/volunteer_apprentice_ecologist). This organization’s mission is, “To protect wildlife and our environment and to build future conservation leaders by engaging youth in environmental stewardship projects worldwide”. (Project) We chose to accomplish option II, which is to plant a Native Tree to Stop Global Warming. We decided to plant a native tree at New Mexico State University (NMSU).
Heather was able to contact Brett Woywood from NMSU, who allowed us to plant the tree here on campus. We decided to try to get the tree donated and we were successful! Stephen contacted the manager from Wal-Mart, Curtis Rosemond. He was able to accommodate us, and donated a Fan Tex Ash tree. After the donation, we were to set a date and time to plant the tree. On Friday, April 11th, 2008, we were able to meet with Brett Woywood in front of the Vista Del Monte Apartments. This is where we dug a hole and planted our tree. We were able to take photos of the group during this process as well.
(See appendix for Photos)
We are meeting on Sunday April 27, 2008 at 6:00 pm to finalize our paper at Zuhl library and put together our presentation. We will submit a copy of the paper we are currently completing about our project along with the photos, to the Nicodemus Wilderness Project organization so that we can get our services certified. On May 2nd, 2008 we will present our community service project to the class.


Why:
After discussing and exploring a lot of different options, we finally came to the decision to plant a tree. We felt that planting a tree would be the best way not only to give back to the community, but it would be a way to take action in the “Going Green” movement. We decided that since this is a team project, we did not want to limit the team to five members whose goal was to complete a school assignment. If we acknowledged the organization’s efforts by joining their project, we are now joining a larger team working towards the goal of protecting and restoring the environment. Instead of buying a tree or seeds, we wanted to ask for a tree donation from somewhere in the community, this way, one more person was involved in working for a better cause.


WOW:
From one single organization, it inspired five of us in a group to do one simple task; plant a tree. However, the tree planting did not only involve the five members of our group. Several other people were involved in completing this project. This shows why working in teams is so important. Teamwork is better than working alone.


We knew planting a tree was a good thing. What impact does one tree really make? What we discovered was it is not about what the tree will do, it is the statement it makes.


“Tree planting takes the simple act of an individual and elevates it, revealing the truth about where true power rests in the world.” (Lipkis)


The task of planting a tree is something simple but makes a huge statement. The power to change this planet lies in each one of us. By us planting a tree, even though it was something small, we took action instead of just talking about “Going Green”. We made more of a commitment to actually changing and restoring the environment. It just takes one small commitment to make a difference.


“The result of a single person's planting can be monumental, and when
individual acts are added up, the result is powerful evidence of what
one can do for the world.” (Lipkis)






Bibliography:


Lipkis, TreePeople with Andy and Katie. Treepeople. 1990. 25 April 2008 <http://www.treelink.org/books/simpleact/introduction.htm>.



Project, Nicodemus Wilderness. The Apprentice Ecologist Initiative. 2008. <http://www.Wildernessproject.org/volunteer_apprentice_ecologist>.
Date: May 2, 2008 Views: 8932 File size: 59.8kb, 296.9kb : 1500 x 1125
Hours Volunteered: 15
Volunteers: 5
Authors Age & Age Range of Volunteers: 18 to 23
Area Restored for Native Wildlife (hectares): 1
Native Trees Planted: 1
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