Tag Archives: Sierra Club

environmental volunteers, Robert Barossi, trail stewards, Uncategorized, wilderness volunteers

Volunteers in the Wilderness

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IMG_0847_1(Photo by Robert Barossi)

by Robert Barossi

Environmental volunteers do their work in every kind of natural setting. Some are on boats out on the open seas. Others are in canoes on tiny lakes and ponds. Some are in wide open fields and meadows. While still others are deep in the heart of dense wilderness, like the volunteers who participated in this effort to clear trails in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. This enormous area of wilderness, 1.3 million acres of land, spans parts of Idaho and Montana, with roughly 1,800 miles of trails winding through it. Two different groups of volunteers were brought in for the trail work, one led by the American Hiking Society and the other by the Sierra Club, both hosted by the Selway-Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation. The article quotes the Foundation’s program director, Coby Gierke, who says, in part, “The issues that we face here are not that much different from other wilderness areas. After experiencing it for themselves, they [the volunteers] become great stewards and help tell this story nationally.” Hopefully, they will do just that and continue to do this kind of work in whatever wilderness surrounds them, no matter where they live.

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environmental volulnteers, Northwestern University, Robert Barossi

Environmental Volunteers on Campus

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IMG_1108(Photo by Robert Barossi)

by Robert Barossi

Many of tomorrow’s environmental leaders, thinkers and volunteers are today’s college students. At colleges and universities around the world, young people are getting together and getting involved. At the recent climate change march in New York City, the “Student Section” of the assembled crowd was enormous and very vocal. Many colleges have begun to implement or increase environmental stewardship programs on their campuses. And student groups are getting involved on campus and, perhaps more importantly, in their surrounding communities. At Northwestern University, the Associated Student Government’s Sustainability Committee recently held its first-ever Environmental Day of Service. A number of campus groups were invited or involved, including fraternities and sororities. While students did participate in activities to clean up their campus, they got out into the surrounding area, taking part in tasks such as removing invasive species.

For more information about colleges that are very environmentally friendly and at the forefront of campus sustainability, The Princeton Review has a Green Honor Roll that lists 24 schools. Every year, the Sierra Club puts out a list of America’s Greenest Colleges, here is there most recent list. (Proud to say that mine is on both of those lists) There’s also this list of 50 affordable eco-friendly colleges. And this one that breaks it down into greenest college by state.