Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of what's important.

Answering emails or listening to conference calls is important, but not always inspiring. Recently, I had a chance to get out on a rare sunny Seattle day and visit some SCA members in North Cascades National Park.

Although North Cascades is the least-visited national park in the lower 48, it's hard to imagine why with glacier-carved valleys, old-growth forests, and towering granite peaks I dropped in on five interns performing a range of projects from fire monitoring to habitat restoration, and also checked in with a trail crew. Between visits, I explored a section of Cascade Pass where the crew had been the previous day.



Almost immediately, a black bear lumbered across the path just in front of me. I watched him scamper up a slope and disappear into the thick forest, both of us undoubtedly buzzing with excitement. I proceeded further up the trail, climbing through the dense cedar forest into open alpine slopes of wildflowers, talus and snow.

At the pass, two mountain goats cavorted in the snowfield above me, and I played interpreter for a few delighted but curious families. All too soon, it was time to race down the switchbacks to meet the SCA crew and Mike Brondi, their park supervisor.

Mike is a local legend as he has been working alongside SCA crews for many years. When I mentioned my bear sighting, he grew still for a moment, though genuinely happy. "When you see a bear," he said, "it means that you're living your life in a good way because you're putting yourself in the right kind of places."

Mike went on to explain "how much my own life is enriched by the opportunity to work with the young people from SCA."

It occurred to me that this day had captured many of the reasons why I am part of the SCA community: partnerships with land managers, camaraderie borne through trail work in a wild and remote place, close encounters with the natural world, and seeing communities (both human and animal) benefitting from the direct work that SCA is doing to conserve wild places.

That is what I will try to remember when the phone rings for my next conference call.

Have you ever tried to clean up a forest floor? On September 28th approximately 80 volunteers had that opportunity!

Houston marked the final stop of the Conservation in Action Tour where Southwest employees, and SCA staff removed leaf litter and debris around Memorial Park Forest at the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center. High humidity and heat were no match for the volunteers who cheerfully worked up a sweat while creating a "defensible zone" to protect the beautiful nature center in the event of a wildfire.

This project was a fitting end for the SCA Tour40 crew who traveled more than 11,000 miles this summer on a custom bio-diesel RV to engage thousands of volunteers in over 6,000 hours of conservation service work ranging from invasives species removal to trail building and maintenance.

Big thanks to Southwest Airlines (Tour40 sponsor and the official airline of SCA) and contributing sponsors American Eagle Outfitters and Sony for an amazing summer of service. For more Tour40 fun facts watch the video, read the crew's blogs and view photos at Tour40.thesca.org.

By Max Bearak - This article originally appeared on the NY Times Green blog."I'm a senior in college, which means that everyone I meet feels entitled to ask me, "So, what are you planning to do after you graduate?" But I'm at a liberal arts school, so I always respond with an "I'm not sure yet" or an "I'm going to take what comes my way." The truth is, over the last couple of summers I've been scratching a few itches - a few jobs that I probably won't pursue after college but that were nonetheless appealing. Two of the most overwhelming urges were to use my hands for some physical labor and to work outdoors, preferably somewhere stunningly beautiful. So this summer I packed up an old Chevy Impala till it was almost bursting and drove out to Ely, Nev., to work in Humboldt National Forest as a wilderness ranger. ...continue reading

Original Article From Daily News LA, By C.J. Lin, Staff Writer

When a group of young conservationists set foot in the blackened landscape of the Angeles National Forest more than a year ago, many were daunted by the sheer scope of their task.

The 2009 Station Fire -- which started two years ago Friday -- had ravaged nearly 161,000 acres, leaving blackened trees, burned buildings, shells of incinerated cars and in some places, more than two feet of ash and mud that had sloughed off the mountainsides.

Some of the group -- made up of about 90 high school and college-age students from all over the U.S. with the Student Conservation Association -- doubted they could help restore the damage over the 2 -month program.

"A lot of the kids thought, `How are we going to make an impact on this when everything around is dead, everything around us is a disaster?"' said Melissa Madrid, a 31-year-old crew leader from Rancho Cucamonga who had often hiked and fished in the forest with her family.

But after two summers of building trails and removing invasive species, the group has already been rewarded with some signs of success.

"Now, it's green. It looks more lively," Madrid said. "It doesn't look like we're walking into something dead anymore. It's starting to look more like a forest." ... continue

More Coverage of SCA and the 2009 Station Fire Recovery

• Daily News LA Article
• Daily News LA photos
• VIDEO Station Fire Restoration KTLA-CW5
• Burbank Leader
• KPCC, Southern California Public Radio
• LA Times
• ABC7 LA