SCA NH Corps

A few Spring Hitches under our belts, more weeks of conservation season training, Interpretive training, and the joys of enrolling busy high school students for the summer; the SCA NH corps is launching into a busy summer.  Rigging with Jed; timber work with Sean; rock'n it with Karl; tread and drainage with Jeremy; corridors and mores (rhymes better) with Hana; painting in the Park; trailer training with Mike; Interpretive with Rebecca; shall I go on?  Point is, this is one of the best trained crews in the country!  Ready to take on they myriad of projects and programs lined up this summer.
Come on out and say hello!

Trainings in Wilderness First Responder, canoe safety, Leave No Trace, chainsaw, Interpretive program delivery, and more conservation skills have already finished.  Even more skills trainings will be up and coming but first, the NH Corps is jumping into the field for hands-on experience and service work.
As you may have read preiviously, rain or shine, Manchester and Allenstown youth are pouring into Bear Brook by the bus load this and next week.  Meanwhile the Leadership High School (CLC) team, SCA Manchester, is enrolling for the summer hitches and preparing overnight camping trips in Bear Brook.  And the conservation teams are not only busting out three spring 10-day hitches but also running simultaneous volunteer days.
1. Spring Hitch at St. Guadens helping them get the site ready for Memorial Day Weekend.
2. Spring Hitch at Belmont pulling glossy buckthorn, and pulling glossy buckthorn, and pulling...you get the idea. Hosted a grade school volunteer team one day, a highschool team on another, and general community groups today.
3. Spring Hitch at Pawtuckaway getting the site ready for big summer.  Painting picnic benches, brushing and clearing camps site, and moving a hill (really, sort of.)
4. Volunteer day lead by SCA with CityYear under the guidance of Sue and three of the corps members.  Brushing and clearing, spreading wood chips, building shelves, and getting the NH Children and Family Services Camp Spaulding ready for summer.
If a picture paints a thousand words then I'll stop typing here and let attach thousands here...
(P.S. If anyone outside the SCA currently reads this: the first to send me (Mike V) an email I'll ship you an SCA water bottle. Just seeing if anyone is out there :-)...

Barely days into conservation season we are obliged to let everyone know about opportunities for volunteering or events we are collaborating with volunteer efforts.
May 18th is going to be a big Volunteer Day with the SCA.  Some of our crews will be leading a project with CityYear of Manchester up at Camp Spaulding in Penacook, NH.  Spaulding is the summer camp for NH youth provided by NH Children and Families Services.  We'll be doing some brushing and clearing to help them get ready for another big summer.  We are also continuing a multi-hitch project with the Belmont Conservation Commission; they are partnering with SCA and getting support of NHLA and others to clear glossy buckthorn from a sensative wildlife watershed.  This volunteer day will bring in Boy Scouts and High School students to help remove more of the tenacious invasive.  Then on Saturday, May 19th the general public and Belmont Con. Comm. supporters will be in to assist.
 
Winnisquam Echo article - NHLA helps SCA eradicate invasive Glossy Buckthorn in Tioga River Conservation Area
http://www.newhampshirelakesandmountains.com/pdf/ECH.2011.06.30.pdf
 
Stay tuned for more and

April 14th marked the SCA New Hampshire Corps' Annual Earth Day Celebration in Manchester. For the second year in a row, SCA NH Corps partnered with the Massabesic Audubon Center to celebrate Earth Day and for the second year in a row, the Center got its highest turnout for the event. Over 300 people came to the Earth Day Celebration for a variety of activities, crafts, volunteer efforts, and music.
Fun was had by all as the Corps' Service Learning Projects were on display. This year the projects ranged from building pollinator gardens and enhancing outdoor classrooms, to creating compost and recycling programs for entire schools. The SCA NH Corps brought in some of their work in the form of log benches, hand painted recycle bins, and video interviews of students presenting their work. Visitors participated in recycling relay races, tree cookie painting, and a special fireside story reading of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (marshmallows included). It is also an opportunity for the students of Manchester to see their SCA teachers outside of school. "I built a bird house with my SCA teacher Max," said 4th grade student Matthew, "we learned to put mesh wire at the bottom so larvae don't hurt the eggs."
Also taking place was a volunteer project conducted by SCA Manchester. The four crew leaders led ten high school volunteers in an effort to prepare the 4H community gardens located at the Audubon Center for another growing season. The high school students worked hard to prepare the 4H beds by weeding, tilling soil, and planting seedlings. They also built new fencing along the perimeters of the beds to keep deer and other critters out. The community gardens at Massabesic Audubon Center serve both as a living classroom for 4H lessons, and a source of food for the New Hampshire Food Bank, which last year produced over 6,000 lbs of produce for underserved citizens of New Hampshire. The volunteer efforts here do not go unnoticed. "Most of the events here at the [Massabesic] Audubon are volunteer run," said one visitor, "and they're always fantastic."
Our Earth Day Celebration may be over, but our work is definitely not as SCA NH Corps begins to prepare for its season of conservation and interpretive programming. For a moment though, we'll have to stop and enjoy the amazing spring weather this April has been giving us and take some time to enjoy the beauty unfolding all around. Stop, take a deep breath, feel the warm sun again, and remember, every day is Earth Day.
Check out over 100 photos at www.manchesterearthday.com
(P.S. Ok, so they didn't need hard hats in the garden but it made it more fun and stylin')

As members of the SCA New Hampshire corps, we’re all about service. It’s why we chose to live here in Bear Brook State Park, and it’s what we do everyday. So it should come as no surprise that, as we prepare to host the Manchester Earth Day celebration, there’s one theme that keeps coming up over and over again: service.

The event is set for Saturday, April 14, the first day in a week of Earth Day events hosted around the country by the SCA.  From Seattle to Houston to our town of Manchester, SCA members, staff, alumni, and community members will be taking part in conservation events such as tree plantings, park clean ups, and trail maintenance. It’s our way of celebrating the earth and all it provides – by giving back and working to improve the environment in our local communities.

The theme for Manchester Earth Day is “Tread Lightly,” but this only provides a glimpse of what the day will offer. A variety of activities, including recycled craft making, live bluegrass music, and nature walks will provide attendees of all ages with opportunities to have fun, learn something new, and make a difference.

Our SCA NH corps is hosting the event in partnership with New Hampshire Audubon, and as you might expect, we’re also making service a big part of the day’s activities. High schoolers working as part of the SCA Manchester Conservation Leadership Corps will be preparing garden beds that support the New Hampshire Food Bank, putting in the hard work that will provide food for families in need. Additionally, schools from across Manchester will be presenting the Service Learning Projects they worked on with their SCA teachers over the past ten weeks. These projects include pollinator gardens, murals, and outdoor classrooms that give students the chance to learn directly from nature.

Manchester Earth Day will take place from 10am-3pm on Saturday, April 14 at the Massabesic Audubon Center, located at 26 Audubon Way in Auburn. Admission is $5 for individuals and $10 for the whole family.  (no charge to students of the SCA’s service learning program.) To learn more, call (603) 668-2045, or visit our websites at www.thesca.org/events and www.manchesterearthday.com. We hope to see you there! 

Members of our SCA NH crew recently discovered a new way to make the most of a weekend – by volunteering at ski resorts around New England to spread the word about conservation and sustainability. At three IZSTYLE Winter Concert Series events, corps members have educated skiers, snowboarders, and music fans about the services provided by SCA crews around the country, while also getting the chance to take advantage of live music and snowy slopes at some of the region’s premier mountains.
The events, featuring an interactive Eco-Village put together by the non-profit group Reverb, have brought together a variety of outdoor gear companies, natural and organic foods producers, and bands – including names such as Guster and the Barenaked Ladies – to encourage winter athletes to take action for sustainability. Volunteers, including our SCA crew, provided visitors with information on event sponsors and the services they provide.
When we were first asked to volunteer at the Cranmore Mountain Resort on February 11, many in our jumped at the opportunity. As corps member Tyler Lau puts it, “It was a great way to get information about conservation and sustainability out to the public.” We set up an informational booth, outreaching for our program and the many other services provided by the SCA, and even helped out at booths sponsored by other vendors.
Chris Olsen, one of four SCA NH members who coordinate the Manchester Conservation Leadership Corps, was happy to have the chance to talk about the ways that the program engages high school students in conservation work. “A lot of people were interested in learning how they could get involved with the SCA,” he notes. “It was great to get to help them out.”
But it didn’t stop there. After having a great time during that first weekend, our group was invited back to subsequent events at Okemo Mountain Resort and the Stratton Mountain Ski Resort, both located in Vermont. Even more crewmembers headed out to these events, continuing to work hard and inform the public about the importance of conservation.
Lau, who has so far spent five days volunteering at the IZSTYLE events, plans to help out on at least one more occasion, this time at the Mount Sunapee Resort in New Hampshire. As he puts it, “Reverb is putting on some really great events. We’re getting a lot of traffic at our SCA booths, and we’re providing useful information about groups who are doing good things for the planet. The attractions draw people in, but then they learn about all these ways that they can do their part.” 

Ed Season
Education season is in full swing here in Manchester!  Our nine teaching teams are spending their days in various Manchester and Allenstown fourth and fifth grade classrooms incorporating environmental education into the existing science curriculum.  By the end of the 10 week education program, our corps members will have developed and implemented environmental education curriculum for over 800 students! Our goal is to create lifelong learners and we try to do that by utilizing inquiry-based learning.  By creating lessons that require the students to answer questions, create hypotheses and theories, and test their questions we help the students become owners of the questions and the knowledge they gain from answering those questions.  Another part of our programming is to integrate as much place-based learning into our lessons as possible.  Our corps members have created lessons focused on topics such as New Hampshire geology, native flora and fauna, and habitats of New England.  Our education season culminates in a series of Service Learning Projects (SLP), with at least one being completed at each school we are stationed in.  The SLP’s are a chance for the students to practice Earth Stewardship by applying what they have learned into a project that benefits their school or community.  These projects oftentimes have long-lasting impact in the school and become a beacon and reminder for the students, teachers, and staff that being an Earth Steward is as rewarding as it is beneficial for everyone.

You may smell that sweet scent of wood smoke before you see them coming, but they are making an impact in Manchester - and it's not their smell!
Momentum has started and shows no signs of slowing down for the four new leaders of the Manchester high school program. After arriving January 8th, these four have hit the ground running contacting organizations, heading into the schools, and planning.
The program kicked off with tremendous turn out motivating the four leaders to explore the possibility of doing more than biweekly meetings. Anticipate new and unique opportunities to come as the summer approaches.Excitement surrounds the new connections and projects in Manchester. Some organizations we will be working with this year are: Manchester Parks and Recreation, Massebesic Audubon Center, the New Hampshire River Council, Manchester Urban Pond Restoration, the Department of Environmental Services and the Nature Conservancy. Be on the lookout for the blue coats on the coast this weekend! The Seacoast Science Center is the next stop for this group.
As always, keep up with their regular posts in the community program section at  www.thesca.org/manchester
 

Last week SCA NH corps had a wonderful visit from Robert E.  He is working for NH Parks writing a blog about all the wonderful opportunities and activities in New Hampshire Parks.
http://blog.nhstateparks.org/?p=1855
Check it out!