We’ve changed! Our merry band of young conservationists are now known as the the Texas Conservation Corps. Please check out our new blog, and other sites, at the links below. But feel free to look around here too. It’s a great record of our past projects!
BLOG:
http://texasconservationcorps.wordpress.com/
WEB:
http://www.texasconservationcorps.org
FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Texas-Conservation-Corps/164306427021070
PHOTOS:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/environmentalcorps
Filed under Announcements
Our Texas Conservation Corps composite disaster crew was deployed to Baton Rouge, Louisiana on September 28th, 2012. We drove 8 hours and arrived in Louisiana eager to help any way we can. Hurricane Isaac damaged 26 parishes (counties) throughout the southeast Louisiana area, many of which were affected by Hurricane Katrina as well. We arrived at the Joint Field Office – JFO in Baton Rouge on September 29th. We were amazed as to how many people were working so hard on a Saturday! We then learned that this was normal; there was so much to do. We jumped into orientation and met our leads right away. We were given information on Hurricane Isaac and our expected projects, received FEMA training, and were issued government laptops and cell phones. It was a busy first day and we were excited to start out project. We had Sunday off so we took a drive to a local Alligator festival. We got to pet a baby alligator and Will and Molly tried alligator on a stick. The day was still young so we decided to drive over to New Orleans to visit Lisa a crew leader for TxCC and the St. Louis Emergency Response AmeriCorps team. We got to see where they are living and some members gave us a tour of the town.
Back to work on Monday! We began our week learning more about the affected parishes of Southeast Louisiana. We tried to get as much information as we could so we would be educated while calling agencies that were helping with relief efforts. Our mission was to create a Disaster Assistance Guide for the Southeast Louisiana area. We had an example that was used in Galveston, Texas but we needed to make it relevant to Louisiana. We compiled a list of agencies that could help people in need of services. Our job was to contact those agencies to see if they were still able to help and had enough resources.
We had a FEMA Corps team working with us to help make the calls and to put together the Disaster Assistance Guide. It was a great experience working with them. They loved hearing stories about the outdoors work that we do and enjoyed hearing about other AmeriCorps programs that are available across the country.
We have 1424 resources entered, we made 1356 calls to agencies, and we verified 328 of those agencies called, 170 have been entered into the Coordinated Assistance Network (CAN) and 99 of those are disaster specific resources. We also made 92 calls to re-verify the agencies’ resources and 46 of those were verified as quality resources.
We all got a taste of office work with FEMA. There is a birthday probably once a week which means cake! We were also here around Halloween so everyone has baskets of candy on their desks to share. The crew and I quickly understood what “FEMA 40” meant, there were snacks everywhere! Everyone in the office gives us FEMA hugs and their little hotel toiletries bottles because they felt bad we are sleeping on cots and all living together. Of course we are used to these living conditions, (sometimes worse!) but we never turn down free gifts and hugs. Everyone is so friendly and happy around the office. It seems like they really enjoy what they are doing.
We got to explore Louisiana and go on some adventures as well. We took a weekend and traveled to New Orleans. Some of us had never spent any significant amount of time there so we walked around the French quarter, took the ferry across the river and explored canal st. When we first arrived to our hotel a few of the girls jumped on the bed right away because we hadn’t slept on a real bed for a while at that point. Well, I decided to do the same. When I heard “jump on the bed, Anna”, I assumed it meant jump up and down, so I did. Apparently I jumped too hard and the bed split in half. In my defense, the frame was made out of particle board and it looked like it had cracked before. Leave it to me to cause a scene. This past weekend Will and I went on a 3 mile hike around Indian Bayou in the Atchafalaya Wildlife refuge area. We saw an eagle, 4 alligators and many new trees species; it was a wonderful day in nature!
Overall, we have had a wonderful experience down in the Bayou. We got to experience a different side of disaster work and see how part of FEMA works. This has been an experience we will never forget.
Anna Marini, Crew Member
Filed under Uncategorized
Let’s KaBOOM! this.
On Thursday, September 20th 6 crew members/leaders and I went to Bastrop to volunteer with the Bastrop Long Term Recovery Team as Build Captains with KaBOOM!- a non-profit organization focused on keeping play in children’s lives by constructing playgrounds in parks around the US. As Build Captains, we lead crews of 10 to 30 in constructing different parts of the playground and park area. Some leaders were in charge of bolting together pieces, cementing in all the beams, and even putting in and planting a community garden, which was my job.
The day started early for us, arriving in Bastrop at 6:30am so that we could prepare the site and get out all of the tools and supplies that would be needed. Volunteers started arriving in waves from 7:30 to 8:30 representing groups like PALS, a community service group at Bastrop High School, The ESPN Longhorn Network, HEB, Texas Forest Service, and many community members. We fueled up with breakfast tacos, got the blood flowing with an aerobics warm up, and got a pep-talk from Allie, our Building Coordinator. After our opening ceremony, the volunteers were divided up in to their crews, identified by Disney characters, and scattered around the work sites to begin their project, for we had only 6 hours to complete a whole park.
My job was to get the garden beds ready for planting and plant all the plants that were donated to the park. My group was made up of the high school students from Bastrop that were part of PALS. These young individuals were such a blast to work with. As soon as we got our crew together they were anxious to know what the directions were, where everything was, want needed to be planted… their excitement was so contagious that it made the project not only get finished smoothly, but beautifully as well. Right before we planted the vegetables and herbs, we had over 20 elementary students come in to learn how to plant. The high school members jumped right in, took a few kids, and helped them get their hands dirty. I’ve never seen a garden get planted to fast.
While working with my group, I made sure to make my rounds, check in on other ECorps members and see how the playground was progressing. What a surprise I got when I looked up and saw shade structures, a cement block pathway, and all of those scattered parts being put together. It was all coming together into one fantastic looking park. Families and children will be going to this park for years to come, to play, picnic, and enjoy the scenery, but I will always have that memory of seeing nothing in that spot, and within one day’s work, with the help of hundreds of volunteers, watching a park get put together, piece by piece.
Elaine Felten, ECorps Field Coordinator
Filed under E-Corps Crew
A few months ago, I decided to join Austin AmeriCorps Alums despite the fact that I am currently serving as a crew leader with the Environmental Corps. Prior to this position, I worked with AmeriCorps VISTA in Ithaca, NY and AmeriCorps NCCC at the Perry Point, MD campus. I was disheartened to find the Austin AmeriCorps Alums chapter floundering. I decided to become a chapter leader and infuse the group with my AmeriCorps passion. Our first big event was going to be the United Way Day of Caring on September 14th. However, the event fell on a Friday and our members were unable to attend. I saw a local event that needed volunteers and immediately thought of our SLA crews.
When I contacted Hands on Central Texas about the event, Nikki Krueger, Director of Volunteer Engagement- Hands on Central Texas, was ecstatic. She knew all about E-Corps and was excited to get us going. Later on, when it had rained heavily on the workday, she said that E-Corps was the one group of volunteers she could count on to not complain.
On the day of the event, our students attended a luncheon at The Long Center for the Performing Arts. Our members ate amazing catered food on tables with pristine white table clothes, which blew their minds, and networked with many influential community members. One of the speakers , took the time to recognize E-Corps’ work in Bastrop. She is a Bastrop resident and praised our organizations efforts.
While on site at J.J. Pickle Elementary School, members were divided into several groups. We weeded vegetable and butterfly gardens, transplanted plants, mulched trees and shrubs, built benches, weeded a Peace Garden, improved their compost system, and set up time-lapse cameras.
Our site sponsor, Judith Hutchinson, teacher at J.J. Pickle Elementary School, was welcoming and appreciative of our work. She also has received several grants for garden beds, decks, permaculture, and rain gardens. She invited us to come assist her with the rain garden and we, in turn, invited her to come to American YouthWorks.
We learned a lot while volunteering for the United Way Day of Caring but we gave even more.
Nicki Dunne, SLA Crew Leader
Filed under Service Learning Academy Crew
As we descended down the map to Lake Amistad, our first stop turned out to be the Mexico border which we managed to find by driving only a few short minutes after missing our turn in Del Rio. This was exciting for us since I don’t think anyone on our crew thought we would be that close to Mexico! Soon after our little detour, we met up with our project partner Pat Wharton, whom we first met in Oklahoma on our trip to the Black Kettle National Grasslands. It was a privilege and honor to work and learn from Pat again and we were all happy and excited to see him. Besides working with a great supervisor, we were lovingly taken under the wing of the wonderful staff of Lake Amistad who took extra measures to make sure we were fully stocked with ice and gatorade everyday. Between the invasive work, the great partners, and the awesome lake to cool off in each day, I think it’s safe to say that this was one trip that will not soon be forgotten!
Colin Trotter, ECorps Member
Filed under E-Corps Crew
As a relative rookie to the practice of cutting down a tree, it would be easy to mistake the superficial simplicity of the actual process for dishonor or disrespect. It takes no more than a second for that tree to meet the ground, yet, for me, I cannot fathom a more ineffably reverential moment in time. I joke often about getting to play lumberjack to people who want a more concrete explanation of what I do and it comes as no surprise, in a culture that is somewhat beginning to capitulate to the whims of an environment that tires of our wasteful fickleness, that I am met with disapproval for eliminating from the landscape a general embodiment of good and majesty that is a tree. Yet, from the moment I began to listen to the voices at AYW who continue to teach me the particulars about all the facets of my job, notably the tree felling, I have never met a group of people who venerate the outdoors and instill that attitude in their proteges as effectively. The acute focus and scholarly attention to detail involved in our job at Bastrop State Park is an extension of the devotion of the staff. Being the aforementioned newcomer to this arena, it is rewarding to see that a job with rough-edged connotations can inconspicuously be as technical and comprehensive as it is. At a certain point, all the little things we do to pass the time, be they as grandiose as cutting down a loblolly pine or seemingly insignificant as digging into clay-ridden soil, organically coalesce into a sense of pride, enjoyment, and esteem in my work that has been unmatched by anything else I have ever done and may ever do. Sometimes it seems so simple to others, no more and no less than manual labor, but the uninitiated have yet to stand in my shoes and see how the cumulative effects of our work are an amalgamation of a lot of passion for the environment that we live in and share with others. It combines to create an everlasting, concrete appreciation for every gear in the machinations of the natural world; both for me and hopefully for the incognizant hiker who rightfully pays little mind to a bridge built, by our crew, with wood from a tree that possibly fell at my hands. That need to perpetuate admiration for our parks and, by extension, nature itself, namely by providing an outlet for such excursions, has been fostered in me since the day I joined up and will be something I hope to impart on others indefinitely.
John Hernandez, Bastrop State Park Restoration Crew Member
Filed under Bastrop State Park Restoration Crew
We’ve had a smooth summer with only a few days over 100 degrees and even some rain in July. It’s making those 2011 chainsawing-in-the-115-degrees tales sound more mythical and less threatening to our first years! The crews have been all over the place, and as we wait for them to come back and tell their riveting tales or for our new crews to get settled in, we will direct you to Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine this month and their shout out to our all our crew members who have spent time in Bastrop State Park. Thanks TPWD, for the opportunity to be involved in the restoration and for the recognition!
Filed under Announcements
