My daughter works for an organization called SCA, it stands for Student Conservation Association. She is working in Yucca Valley doing desert restoration work. You can read about it on her blog
Yucca brevafolia. This impressive organization has been around for 50 years now. It all began when Elizabeth Titus Putnam was a junior at Vassar College and read about the serious crisis facing the national parks due to the lack of adequate funding. Several parks were facing closure until when and if sufficient funds could be found to keep them. She wrote her senior thesis on the idea that young people, if offered the opportunity would answer the call to help the national parks, in return for their service they would gain invaluable experiences. Today SCA has become our country's largest conservation service program for youth.
Ms. Putnam's belief that the very survival of humans of all ages, from all walks of life, if given the opportunity of having their eyes opened to the natural world around them -- would realize, feel, sense what an experience like this could do for one's soul, I might add for the soul of their families and their friends. Through my daughter, this connection with the SCA has deepened my passion to do what I can do to preserve the magnificence of this earth, this planet. I have a deep and abiding respect for all the young people who are engaged in this work. Who work to keep wild places wild, to clean up the messes of humans, who keep going even when it must be terribly discouraging -- witness the photo of the mountain of trash the group set about to clean up. A heart felt Thank You to all of you. Read more on thesca.org website.
