Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published March 30, 2005

Man and nature strike a delicate balance

Theodore Roosevelt enjoyed the challenges of outdoor life and he had a deep appreciation of nature. When he became president he learned how little was being done to protect our natural resources. Instead they were being handled by private owners whose interest was in making money. Reckless waste had stripped many timber lands. The nation's water power was suffering the same fate. Roosevelt embraced the policy of conservation and in 1905 his efforts created the U.S. Forest Service.

Many years later in 1954 a Vassar College senior submitted her thesis titled "A Proposed Student Conservation Corps." Authored by Elizabeth Titus Putnam, it advocated organizing student volunteers to help "take the burden off the shoulders of the rangers" at America's underfunded national parks. She pointed out the many ways students could do dozens of jobs such as clearing trails or collecting entrance fees.

Three years later in 1957, a group of 53 student volunteers were welcomed at Grand Teton and Olympic National Parks to test the proposal. By the end of that summer, the Student Conservation Association (SCA) was established. Since then, well over a million volunteer hours a year have been given by young people in service at parks, forests, refuges and urban green spaces across the country. During those years, 40,000 volunteers have participated in the work of SCA. It has become the leading force for conservation service in the United States.

Earlier this year a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service told of their concern for reaching more young people. In 1905 when the service began this was a rural nation but today few people are really connected to the land. Youngsters living in cities are more interested in computers than nature. They are searching for ways to introduce young people to the challenge those 193 million acres of forests and grasslands across 44 states hold.

The Forest Service employs more than 30,000 workers. Carroll Schell was one of those until his recent retirement after 14 years at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and 34 years in the National Park Service. He was Branch Chief for Natural Resources at the Smokies and reintroduced elk, river otters, barn owls and several endangered fish. He also left a legacy of introducing hundreds of SCA volunteers to the park.

Schell said, "Without SCA volunteers the park would have to cut back programs. I tried to give these young people the opportunity to get involved and learn a conservation eithic." He said that half of his former branch's wildlife staff started their careers as SCA interns and nearly half of the Smokies' field program staff were SCA alumni.

One of those is Larry Hartmann, chief of resource management and science at the Great Smokies. In 1974 he was a SCA intern at Sawtooth National Recreation Area Idaho. He said, "That was an important foot in the door and helped me realize the opportunities in the natural resource field." The Smokies offer that kind of opportunity to over 50 SCA volunteers a year. That is more than any other park in the country. Larry said, "We realize that some of these young people are going to be future leaders. We try to give them the fire in belly that we have and steer them toward the right kind of career in natural resources."

The Student Conservation Association believes in "changing lives through service to nature." For more information their address is P.O. Box 550, Charlestown, NH 03603 or the Web address is www.theSCA.org.

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday.