UCSC has given rise to Pulitzer Prize winners, Pew Scholars, All-American athletes, and National Academy of Sciences members.

Now the campus can also boast that it has a tree-climbing champion.

Staff tree trimmer Jessica Petrini won the women’s division of the Western Chapter International Society of Arboriculture Tree Climbing Championships, held June 13-15 in Elk Grove.

“I was totally amazed,” said Petrini, 34, of her win. “But really, it was just icing on the cake for me, because regardless of the outcome, I learned so much.”

Her interest started in high school when she joined the Student Conservation Association, a nonprofit that offers conservation internships and summer trail crew opportunities to more than 3,000 people each year. She volunteered on a wilderness trail crew, then was hired onto a crew in Idaho.

From: http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/text.asp?pid=2299

Hey everyone! I met a few alumni recently who are decidedly cool enough to deserve their own entries here, but I haven’t updated lately so I’m going throw my good-hearted commentary about them in one big post…

(more…)

Being from New England, I haven’t traveled too much ‘round Dixie, but last week I got to visit a number of beautiful colleges in Southern Virginia, and I had a great time. Highlights:

(more…)

Hey everyone, Daniel Parr back again with an update of EarthVision: On the Road.

I’ve been getting a lot of enthusiastic, positive responses from alumni and non-alumni alike about the potential that EarthVision has. I’d like you to meet an attendee I’ve had the pleasure of meeting…

(more…)

Nate Tyler wants to invite you to “the dark side.”

Tyler, an SCA alum and one-time Google spokesperson, is taking on global warming with Lights Out San Francisco, a grassroots campaign to get locals to turn off their lights between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 20. Landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the TransAmerica Tower have all agreed to pull the plug.

Will Lights Out suddenly halt melting glaciers and put Al Gore out of business? Of course not. But the energy savings and reduced emissions, however minor, will be real and the message sent by those darkened SF icons should be heard loud and clear.

In fact, Los Angeles is already listening. The city plans to turn the lights off the fabled Hollywood sign, and the response from around the US has already prompted Tyler to schedule Lights Out America for March 29, 2008.

It’s always good to see SCA alums still fighting the good fight. Nate, a Connecticut native, says his mid-80s SCA hitch at Lassen Volcanic National Park in California opened his eyes to just how large the country is. If his Lights Out campaign catches on and helps thwart rising oceans that would otherwise consume at-risk coastal regions, our nation might just remain as big as he remembers it.

By Meg Chapman, 07 FIREMON intern, Coeur D’Alene, ID

Remember the computer game “The Oregon Trail?” The one in which your wagon caravan never actually reaches the Oregon coast ‘cause everyone, including your cattle, die along the way? Well this past weekend, I actually got to walk along the same trail used by thousands of Americans who headed west in search of “greener pastures.” And although we didn’t see any dead cattle, we did have a great time revamping Boise’s stretch of the Oregon Trail.

This past Saturday, the 29^th of September, the SCA Boise office celebrated National Public Lands Day and the 50^th Anniversary of the SCA with an Oregon Trail beautification project. OK, OK, so we picked up trash…LOTS OF IT. Although I had never seen any part of the historic Oregon Trail, what I found on the outskirts of Boise was not what I had imagined. Boise’s part of the trail has been greatly misused, mostly as a landfill. We are not just talking about the usual assortment of bottles and plastic bags, but crazy things such as beds, scrap metal and wood, a motorcycle, discarded underwear, and even a headless, lion lawn ornament.

Well, someone had to pick up the trash; and who better than a diverse group of people who are devoted to making a positive change in the environment? Therefore, on a very blustery, autumn morning, 20 volunteers, including Boise office staff, Ada County Parks staff, community members, alumni, and current interns and project leaders (some of whom came all the way from Coeur D’Alene!) spent 3 hours collecting approximately 4 tons of debris…all within a mile of the trailhead.

It was nice to know that our service project marked the beginning of what will be a total Boise Oregon Trail makeover, which will include several miles of reconstructed trails, and a much-needed informational kiosk. We also got fed an incredible BBQ lunch. Nothing like hard work rewarded with a full stomach. The lunch was accompanied by some great conversation and mingling amongst the volunteers, and when it looked liked we couldn’t eat all the food, the rest was given to one of the city’s homeless shelters. All around, it was a job well done.

By Katie Myszka

August 19 - 22, 2007 — The gathering started off slowly as alumni began to fill up the campsite. We weren’t the only ones arriving at Yellow Pines, as our first black bear sighting occurred before 7pm. It meandered along a fallen tree and checked out Rob’s tent on the edge of the forest, squashing his straw hat in the process. The bears were to be an exciting part of the upcoming 3 days.

Monday morning was chilly, but alumni and interns alike were up early and eager to start the day in Yosemite. We were joined by a number of park staff as we headed to Cook’s Meadow to pull invasive Himalayan blackberries. After learning the difference between the native raspberries and those we were to dig out, we set to work with a lot of laughter, eating blackberries and getting scratched in the process.

Later that day, even more park staff joined us back at Yellow Pines to celebrate our 50th Anniversary around the picnic tables with Scott Weaver, SCA staff & 1978 crew leader, Todd Nelson, NPS staff & 1996 intern, and Natalie Mebane & Caroline Nelson, current interns, sharing their SCA stories through the past, present and future. After a delicious dinner, we spent the night playing many games of UNO and relaxing around the campfire.

After spending a few days in the Valley, we were all ready to explore more of the park on Tuesday. A large group drove up to Tuolumne Meadows and hiked to Elizabeth Lake for a frigid dip in an alpine lake. Others drove the scenic route to Mariposa grove and hiked through the Giant Sequoia trees. We were continuously amazed at the massive ancient forest that surrounded us. Although everyone was tired from their hiking adventures, we were not too tired to go swimming in the Merced River once again before the sun went down.

It was a fabulous weekend with just enough hard work, celebration and relaxation. It was amazing to be in such a beautiful setting with such wonderful people who wanted to connect with SCA again and meet others who felt the same way.

The NPS Centennial Report to the President was posted Friday at www.nps.gov/2016. We found this tribute to SCA on the last page, written by Mauricio Escobar, who among other contributions to SCA has served on our Board of Directors.

With our partners, we can change lives.
The Student Conservation Association changed my life one summer while working in a national park. So how was my life changed?

To answer this question, I need to explain my other life. I was born in a small mountainous town in civil war torn El Salvador. I emigrated to the inner city of Los Angeles at the age of 10. This drastic move had life-changing consequences, but it was not a choice I made, it was simply one I lived through.

For the next decade, I grew up in the graffiti-filled streets of South Central, where even nice guys had to front a cut-throat persona to get through the day without being beaten. You either rose to the fighting or you died. I had my own run-ins with the authorities. I was a quarrelsome Latino kid trying to justify his low-income existence and cover his own helplessness with anger.

A friend invited me to a Student Conservation Association meeting—it reached out to inner city kids to spread conservation awareness and to instill a sense of ownership toward national parks. In his words, “Yo, free pizza!” I would like to say that I attended because I believed in the mission, or that I wanted my life changed for the better, but the reality was that I went because they had food. Several pizza meetings later, I decided to spend the summer working on a trail crew at Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

I made this decision for several reasons, mainly I wanted to get away from work as a gardener. I had been working with my father since I was 12 years old, every Saturday and every school break. I also felt slightly guilty for all the pizza I had consumed on the nonprofit’s dime.

So, what was the hardest thing for an inner city youth who was used to drive-by shootings and turf-divided school zones? It was not the long hours of cutting brush, or the full-body poison oak outbreak. For me, the hardest things were the pristine silence of nature, deafening to ears accustomed to noise, and the blinding pitch-black nights with the bizarre but mesmerizing highway of stars. Facing these unknowns gave me a new way to interpret the world and my place in it. My life and world no longer needed to be defined by confusing anger. I could see new avenues.

After that summer, I realized I should and could go to a university. I attended the University of California at Santa Cruz and worked with the National Park Service and SCA during summer breaks. I became the first in my entire Salvadorian community to graduate from a university. I later worked for SCA and attended graduate school to study history. I leveraged my experience to become a ranger at Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.

I realize the choices I made long ago have come to define my life and destination; and that the turning point was not a specific event but a cumulative experience. It occurred during that one summer spent working in the National Park Service and with a youth organization committed to challenging inner city youths to see the world, and their place in it.

I hope to channel the National Park Service’s mission for future generations. I am greatly indebted to both of these organizations for the life I now have.

Mauricio Escobar
National Park Ranger
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park

We had arrived for a few days in Southern California’s Yuha Desert to celebrate SCA, to work, talk and listen, connect and remember. We had come to recognize a program that some said wouldn’t last, wouldn’t work, wasn’t worth it. After seven years in the deserts of Southern California, we were there to remind ourselves and everyone else just how far we had come. (more…)