Elizabeth Titus Putnam and her husband, Bruce, arrived at the Trinity Forest as the Dallas crews were doing their morning exercises and stretches. Liz and Bruce joined in on the stretches. Once the crews were fully warmed up Liz introduced herself and then had all the students introduce themselves and tell a little bit about their experience with SCA. We all then sat down in a large circle as Liz gave an inspiring talk on “doing your part” and why the student’s work is so important. When the student’s had the opportunity to ask questions they were very interested to know how Ms. Elizabeth founded the SCA and she gladly offered up the inspiring story. Afterwards, our apprentice crew leader, Jonathan Jackson, and a crew member, Maxine Joya, led Liz and Bruce on a tour of their outstanding work through the forest. The students gained a great deal of insight from this visit and I am certain it is something they will not soon forget.

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

to upturn stones. We set them so they
would not wiggle. We imagined what lay
below a mossy corner, a foot of dirt,

by plunging our bars and craning our ears
for the pitch of the ting. We heard muddy
earth give a parting smooch with a schwack

as they rose above ground. We learned that rocks sing
when wet—from spring thaw streams,
from brooks, from a drizzling hour—flecks

of sedimentary sound. We ordered
muddy bogs with the roundest we could find,
and stacked their flatter kin up hills

and windy paths. We cursed
the winter frost for heaving fresh
layers in our way, then laughed,

and blessed it for the crushed
fill those heavy souls would provide.
We smashed our fingers, strained

our backs, and nuzzled our frames
against granite just to move it an inch.
We chose which roots to chop

with a mattock and which to let lie.
We used the sternest stuff for walls
to channel water down a hill, below a trail,

wherever we desired. Our wills were brought
upon the forms of earth and we found
the work firming, marking who we might become.

Our partners on this project are The Phase 4 Learning Center and Steel City Biofuels.

This video made its debut at EarthVision 2008

John Muir, 1915

– from Scott Kinghorn, NPS

Nelson knows this stuff like Niels Bohr knows quantum physics.