As Wilderness Areas Attract More People, Volunteer Rangers Hit The Trail

As a way to raise funds and awareness for stormwater education, some cities are turning rain barrels into an art exhibit. Rain barrels catch water as it runs off rooftops, which can be used later for watering plants. It also reduces the amount of water that picks up pollutants and is carried into waterways. The Ashland Soil and Water Conservancy District in Ohio featured 10 rain barrels painted by local artists, allowing residents to vote and bid on their favorite design. Their efforts were inspired by a similar event in Indiana where they’ve auctioned 100 barrels for residents to use at home.

Pennsylvania’s Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy has built a grassroots base of volunteers that help clean up the local environment. Through education at schools and summer workshops, outreach projects, and asking volunteers to recruit new people, the Conservancy saw over 1,000 volunteers at its annual stream cleanup event. While the organization is still trying to figure out how to retain volunteers for long-term projects, the response to immediate projects has been overwhelming.

A Mongolian man named Ulziitogtork transformed a former granite mine that was filled with rubbish into a park/community center for children that sits on top of an artificial lake. Children used to play in the mine, which presented a real health risk, but now they can use the park to boat, ice skate, watch movies over the lake, and learn about Mongolian culture. Ulziitogtork considers it a work in progress and is counting on the local government to address the pollution and infrastructure problems that led to the park's creation, but already provides fun for over 6,000 children a year.

Urban areas that have more trees tend to have lower crime rates, attracting more investment and have higher income levels. They also make neighborhoods nicer places to live so that’s why Blacks in Green, a community group in Chicago, is focused on building more gardens, planting orchards and trees with the help of the Morton Arboretum, which works with community groups around the city. Blacks in Green has combined the initiative with efforts to provide more jobs for the community’s young people as well.

As tourism activity increases on the trails throughout Colorado and crowds of mountain bikers flock to the Gunnison Valley area, a group born out of the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association has formed to act as a boots on the ground type of coalition. From trail maintenance to educating newcomers on proper trail etiquette, the Crested Butte Conservation Corps have taken matters into their own hands.

In Michigan, the organization Friends of Grand Rapids Parks is working to increase shade in the city by planting trees. With permission from landowners, they will plant and care for trees on the property.

In the North Luangwa National Park in Zambia, a conservation team worked with local communities to bring the rate of elephant poaching in the area down to zero in 2018. Poaching had surged in the Luangwa Valley in 2014, and since then the group has protected the elephants by placing the decision-making and benefit-reaping in the hands of the community members. They use financial incentives to stir the economy without depending on poaching money, work with the government to revise policies that redirect any income for the area to benefit the residents, and they patrol the park for any poachers.

It is often hard to build up cities when they are filled with blight. Three cities in Ohio are benefitting from America in Bloom, a program that gives awards based on community improvement initiatives. Already in Mansfield, Logan, and Gallipolis, America in Bloom awards encourage volunteerism and garner enthusiasm around community beautification initiatives.

For years, campaigns to clean Nepal's polluted Bagmati River resulted in failure. Now with police and government backing, the organization Safai Abhiyaan is in its third year, attracting hundreds of volunteers who are willing to brave the polluted waters to collect trash. The program's unique approach to organizing community volunteers has been a success, but the problem will not subside until greater perceptions about litter and water pollution are tackled.

A secular community of volunteers formed the NYC Plover Project to watch over a group of the in-danger shorebird species that nests in sand dunes at a local beach. Volunteers scan the nesting ground for threats with binoculars and educate beachgoers about the problem at hand.