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Hundreds of SCA volunteers, members, alumni and staff from across the country headed outdoors on Saturday, April 21st to get their hands dirty working for the planet Volunteers planted trees, removed invasive species, cleared trails, picked up trash and did a number of other tasks contributing to the preservation of parks and green spaces in their local communities. 

SCA DC Earth Day

In coordination with the National Park Service and the Kenilworth Aquatic Garden Friends group, SCA Earth Day in DC rallied 110 volunteers, plus an additional 60 with the Kenilworth Friends Group. Volunteers planted 20 trees, removed close to 750 sq ft of invasive species, picked up tons of trash and helped maintain trails in honor of Earth Day 2012. Alumni, current students, summer conservation crew applicants, families and friends came out on a beautiful day to help serve and make a difference in their community! SCA DC’s event was a huge success.

SCA Detroit Earth Day

SCA Detroit and the Belle Isle Conservancy joined forces for an Earth Day event on Belle Isle Park. Over 100 volunteers of all ages took to the forest along Oakway Blvd to remove invasive honeysuckle plants from the beautiful old growth forest. Volunteers worked in teams using hand saws and loppers to remove the invasive plants and pick up garbage. Returning crew members from SCA’s Detroit Conservation Leadership Corps lead the work groups and really stepped up to showcase the skills and the expertise they’d cultivated over the past years with the SCA in Detroit.

SCA Houston Earth Day

SCA Houston had a diverse group of about 45 volunteers at Sheldon Lake State Park, including SCA School Year Crew members and alumni, current and former interns, ARAMARK and Southwest Airline partners, Houston Community College students and members of the Sharpstown High School Ecology Club. Volunteers got to work in the coastal prairie, planting over 2,000 native prairie plants covering about 4 acres of prairie with little and big bluestem, grama grass and Texas coneflower. After the volunteer event, the School Year Crews stuck around the park, learned and practiced archery, were led on an interpretive tour of the park, and even camped out overnight.

SCA Oakland Earth Day

Sixty SCA Oakland volunteers joined the Friends of Sausal Creek at Dimond Park along with about 150 others including Oakland's Mayor Jean Quan. Volunteers fanned out along the creek to remove invasive plants, mostly Himalayan blackberry. At one site above the creek, a group cleared out over 350 sqft of blackberry in order to help restore the bank from erosion. Other volunteers picked up trash along the creek, spread mulch and planted native plants in the forest. It was the warmest day of the season yet, but volunteers didn't mind getting dirty and sweaty at work for the planet.

SCA Philadelphia Earth Day:

About 200 community volunteers showed up to the SCA Philly Earth Day event, including alumni, potential new students and Aramark volunteers. Everyone participated in collecting trash and debris from Darby Creek and surrounding areas. Two-hundred and fifty (250) cubic yards of cleanup were collected. This equates to about 9 tons of trash and 3 full dumpsters of random trash items, including pieces of metal, bottles, cans, tires, a toy big wheels, bowling balls and many other random trash items not typically found at local community parks.

SCA Pittsburgh Earth Day

Despite rain and cold, 47 volunteers, high school crew members, crew leaders, and staff attended SCA Pittsburgh’s 2012 Earth Day event in the North Side’s Riverview Park. They focused on removing invasive garlic mustard, knotweed, and litter from the trails and hill sides around Riverview Park’s Valley Refuge area. After 141 collective service hours, the crews removed 134 bags of invasive plants and litter, as well as 4 tires. Afterward, they enjoyed good food and a warm fire at the park’s Valley Refuge Picnic Shelter.

Can't make it to one of our Earth Day events? Or perhaps you are attending an event but you still want other ways to support SCA. Thanks to our partners American Eagle Outfitters and Zipcar, now you can. Both partners have special Earth Week promotions to benefit SCA. So, go ahead buy jeans or sign up for a Zipcar, you'll be supporting the planet!

For every pair of jeans sold between 4.20-4.22, American Eagle Outfitters will donate $1 to The Student Conservation Association to help plant trees in National Parks & Forests (up to $25,000). You can buy jeans online or at the stores. Buy jeans. Plant a tree!

The grass can be greener everywhere. Sign up for a Zipcar between 4.16 - 4.23 and Zipcar will donate $5 to SCA. You will become a Zipcar member for $50 and automatically receive a $5 Driving Credit. Plus, you'll be minimizing your carbon footprint and support youth in conservation. Make sure to use the promo code: EARTH2012PITT. So go ahead, drive a (Zip)car.

Support Earth Week and SCA, thanks to our partners:

Hundreds of college-aged students spent their spring breaks making a difference this April. Instead of spending their Spring Breaks sitting by the beaches, they spent their vacations working for the planet and making a difference in National Parks across the country. The videos we are watching this week, capture the impact that NPS Academy had on 60 college-aged students. Check 'em out.

NPS Academy @ Great Smoky Mountains:
As part of the first phase of the NPS Academy, 30 diverse college-aged students from across the country came together at Great Smoky Mountains to learn about career opportunities with the National Parks Service. This is their story.

NPS Academy @ Grand Tetons:
Another 30 students came together at Grand Tetons National Park. They gained first-hand knowledge about the park, potential career development opportunties and concrete next steps they can take to promote their future.

SCA’s Earth Day kick off events in Seattle and Manchester were huge successes. Hundreds of people came to engage in hands on conservation work in community parks. These hands-on service events were led by SCA members who engaged the local community in giving back to Mother Nature in celebration of Earth Day.

SCA Earth Day events are still underway. Join us for events on Sat, April 21st in communities across the country. RSVP today at www.thesca.org/events. Can't attend an event? Check out other ways to support SCA and celebrate Earth Week.

SCA Seattle Earth Day

SCA Seattle Earth Day kicked off its event with a rally and motivating speeches from local SCA members and local parks enthusiast including Acting Superintendent of Seattle Parks & Recreation Christopher Williams and former Congressman and Gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee. The youth led event was attended largely by young volunteers from high schools and colleges in the area. Nearly 200 volunteers completed 800 hours of conservation work at the UW Arboretum in Seattle. Volunteers were able to remove 15,000 sq ft of invasives; they salvaged 6.5 trailer loads of ferns, repotted 118 ferns and mulched 150 ft of trail. Check out the great work!

SCA Manchester Earth Day

Over 300 people attended the Earth Day event at the Massabesic Audubon. The SCA high school community program, SCA Manchester, led the planning and work projects for this beautiful sunny day in April. The SCA NH members spread out throughout the community gardens, sifting compost, turning beds, planting garlic bulbs, laying mulch and much more. Two of the high school students put on a public presentation about the program and why it is so special to them. The public rolled in and out throughout the day, pitching in at the gardens, building bird house, enjoying live music, storytelling, and engaging the SCA NH Corps in demonstrations of the service learning projects that have been completed in the Manchester elementary schools.

SCA’s Earth Day kick off events in Seattle and Manchester were huge successes. Hundreds of people came to engage in hands on conservation work in community parks. These hands-on service events were led by SCA members who engaged the local community in giving back to Mother Nature in celebration of Earth Day.

SCA Earth Day events are still underway. Join us for events on Sat, April 21st in communities across the country. RSVP today at www.thesca.org/events.

SCA Seattle Earth Day

SCA Seattle Earth Day kicked off its event with a rally and motivating speeches from local SCA members and local parks enthusiast including Acting Superintendent of Seattle Parks & Recreation Christopher Williams and former Congressman and Gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee. The youth led event was attended largely by young volunteers from high schools and colleges in the area. Nearly 200 volunteers completed 800 hours of conservation work at the UW Arboretum in Seattle. Volunteers were able to remove 15,000 sq ft of invasives; they salvaged 6.5 trailer loads of ferns, repotted 118 ferns and mulched 150 ft of trail. Check out the great work!

SCA Manchester Earth Day

Over 300 people attended the Earth Day event at the Massabesic Audubon. The SCA high school community program, SCA Manchester, led the planning and work projects for this beautiful sunny day in April. The SCA NH members spread out throughout the community gardens, sifting compost, turning beds, planting garlic bulbs, laying mulch and much more. Two of the high school students put on a public presentation about the program and why it is so special to them. The public rolled in and out throughout the day, pitching in at the gardens, building bird house, enjoying live music, storytelling, and engaging the SCA NH Corps in demonstrations of the service learning projects that have been completed in the Manchester elementary schools.

By SCA intern Stephanie Wright, an SCA environmental education intern with the Kenai Fish & Wildlife Field Office. This blog post was originally featured on March 2, 2012 on Refuge Notebook, a blog from the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

My pants, socks, and boots are soaked. I’m tired and slightly embarrassed. I don’t think I could scream ‘Cheechako’ any more than I already do.

I successfully got the government vehicle stuck in the snow which didn’t appear nearly as deep as it was first driving into the abandoned parking lot. Can it be any more obvious this is my first Alaskan winter? Luckily my coworkers come to my aid, and though their rescue was not flawless, eventually the third vehicle freed us both, and I was on my way.

You probably wonder how a Cheechako like me ends up in a place like Soldotna, Alaska. I’ve come here from northeast Ohio, a place that knows nasty winters and extreme weather changes in minutes (or so I thought), but this is not my first visit to Alaska. Ever since I can remember, we had been taking family summer vacations in Seward where my great-grandmother Wilma Lind and her family lived from 1926 until her death in 2006. Some of my relatives have moved away, but others still remain. At times we would pack 15 people into her little house on 3rd avenue and call it a vacation. We’d never think to miss a Mt. Marathon race on the 4th of July (a race in which I now participate in) and I have many fond memories of hiking nonstop all around the peninsula. All those summers spent enjoying the unspeakable beauty that Alaska contains made a decision of where to live easy.

In 2008, I graduated from Kent State University with a degree in early childhood education and I taught environmental education at a local youth camp in Ohio for 5 years. It was the love of the outdoors and teaching our youth and communities about conservation and ecology that made me pursue a job with the park system.

Coming to Alaska to pursue this sort of employment only made sense as it was here that my eyes as a young child were opened to the endless beauty of nature. However, acquiring that type of employment was not as easy as I had envisioned. I was lucky to have come across the Student Conservation Association, or SCA. SCA is essentially the modern day Civilian Conservation Corps. High school students through recent college graduates like me protect and restore national parks, marine sanctuaries, cultural landmarks, and community green spaces in all 50 states. Many of us are searching for more experience in conservation and stewardship of our environment in order to further our careers. SCA has more internships available in Alaska than any other state, and the diversity of options is unparalleled.

Finding several positions that matched my desire was not difficult and I was lucky to be placed here in Soldotna, 5000 miles from home, where I serve as an Environmental Education Intern with the Kenai Fish and Wildlife Field Office. My main focus is to assist with teaching students, ranging from kindergarten to grade 6, enrolled in the Adopt-A-Stream Program. This program focuses on the organisms (including humans) and environment that live in and around the Kenai River watershed.

You may have seen a class walking down to Soldotna or Slikok Creek even on cold winter days. Throughout the entire school year, my partner-in-crime Dan Pascucci, from the Kenai Watershed Forum, and I brave the elements inside and outside the classroom to teach students about fish, habitat, water quality monitoring, invasive species, and so much more. With Dan's musical creativity put to good use, we sing songs, educate with PowerPoint presentations, and make use of puppets and props, all while presenting important scientific concepts.

It's delightful to see the students excited about science and taking care of their stream. At the end of the school year, we have school-wide stream cleanups to continue fostering the nature of conservation and protection of our natural areas. One of my favorite parts is entering each classroom and seeing the students' faces light up when they know it's another day with Mr. Dan and Miss Stephanie.

Through my internship I have been able to learn so much more about the ecological diversity that constantly surrounds us. I realize why many brave the harsh winters and extreme weather changes just to call this stellar place home. I’ve also learned how to get a car unstuck from 2 feet of snow, a lesson my coworkers are happy to pass along.

Stephanie Wright is a SCA Environmental Education Intern with the Kenai Fish & Wildlife Field Office (907) 262-9863. Check out the Kenai's website.