YouthGO.gov

More than 25 high school students from an Albuquerque school have designed, constructed, and installed visitor-viewing bridges and informational kiosks at the Rio Grande Silvery Minnow Sanctuary. This work is all part of a hands-on educational project aimed at providing students with real-life career experience in the construction field.

Some people might say that C.A.S.T. for Kids participants have fallen in love with the program “hook, line and sinker.”

At this year’s C.A.S.T. (Catch a Special Thrill) for Kids/Let’s Move Outside (LMO) event, almost 50 percent of the volunteers and participants were returnees. This included 43 anglers and 32 family members and escorts, and volunteers, which brought the total to 165 participants.

Larry Telles may be a fisheries biologist, but he can spot a great mentoring opportunity with the eyes of an eagle.

When the 32-year veteran of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service learned that National Hispanic Environmental Council President Roger Rivera needed conservation professionals to serve as youth role models during the 4th annual California Minority Youth Environmental Training Institute, Telles jumped at the chance.

"If you're a little salmon you could live under there, or live under there — even right here!"
Jeff Peterson got their attention. He guides several kids' eyes to a small plastic tree that have been strategically placed over an artificial river-course carved with fine shavings of recycled pop bottles.

By Lauren Meredith

WESTMINSTER, COLO. - While water quality parameters and testing zebra mussel DNA are topics typically reserved for the laboratory, several fourth and fifth grade classes were given a chance to dive in at the 8th Annual Youth Water Festival on Tuesday, May 15, at Front Range Community College.

"They like science, but when you give them something to play with, it’s another level," said Denise Hosler, with Reclamation’s Mussel Lab in her fifth year of attendance. "The kids love it being hands on."

By Kevin Moore, Public Affairs Specialist, Mid-Pacific Region KBAO

It’s summertime, and for college students around the country, summer represents an opportunity to chill a little and recover from the last semester. Some hang out around the water, some visit parents and let mom do their laundry, some sit around and play their favorite video games…and some, like Rachel Mitchell, hustle and secure a job for the summer to help with college expenses.

At the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge Complex in California, Environmental Education Specialist Chantel Jimenez is the first to admit hers is not the usual Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) employee story. “I didn’t spend a lot of time in the creeks by my house as a kid. The closest river was the L.A. River and you had to jump a fence to get down to it and skate boarding the cement walls was the reason to jump the fence,” said Jimenez. As a child in Burbank, California, the outdoors meant “playing in the backyard or big family picnics in Griffith Park on Sunday afternoons.”

The Federal Government recruits and hires students and recent graduates through the Student Educational Employment Program (SEEP). Kirsten Strough, who was hired by the Bureau of Reclamation in 2010, is one student who has benefited from this program. The video below highlights her experiences with the Reclamation and SEEP.Kirsten works in the Pacific Northwest Region's Public Affairs Office in Boise, Idaho. http://www.usbr.gov/pn/about/hr/student.html

My name is Shevika Bonita Mitchell. I am a Psychology major with a minor in International Studies at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2011, as a freshman in college, I was looking forward to having a great summer after my first year experience in college when I came across the most amazing description of an internship program.

Do you have a great idea for how to connect young people with the outdoors and increase outdoor participation? If so, Outdoor Nation and The North Face want to hear about it!

A hands-on exhibit demonstrates how art students can collaborate to learn about climate change and generate changes in attitudes. The exhibit, “Connecting Students to Climate Change through the Arts,” includes book arts, haunting photographs, and poignant poetry and prose—all created by middle and high school students. Book arts are three-dimensional works of art, which can include scrolls, fold-outs, or photographs fashioned into a small book.

Family Day at Acadia National Park

The sore muscles and sunburn from wetland tree-planting that I volunteered for on that first day was quickly forgotten as the experiences I shared with these amazing students continued throughout the week of August 1-5, 2011, at the Creston National Fish Hatchery Tribal YCC Program of the Salish Kootenai in northwest Montana.

“Hey, Ms. Danno, do you want to try it?” asked the crew leader.

You find yourself in an unfamiliar road sometimes, but each road you go down teaches you a different lesson. My summer at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) was one of the best summers I’ve had.

“We all have stories to tell, stories that provide wisdom about the journey of life. What more have we give one another than our truth about human adventure as honestly and as openly as we know how?” (Roubi Saul Rubbin)

A project funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) with the intent of encouraging college students to focus on conservation careers through work-study projects, convened at the National Conservation Center (NCTC) during the last weekend in October. The project, TogetherGreen Youth, selected 19 college students to work as “fellows” during the summer and fall of 2011.

This year in 2011, the Aldo Leopold Foundation partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on a new discussion program called Land Ethic Leaders. The focus of the program is to give participants tools to get people in their communities talking about their values and relationships to the land in a deeper, more meaningful way. The post below is from Anya Fayfer, one of the youth scholarship recipients sponsored by the partnership between the Aldo Leopold Foundation and the Service.

The typical refuge visitor center doesn't have wheels. Starting the spring of 2011, the visitor center at Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge in New England will.

To read more, see the attached PDF document.

Documents: 

2011_mobile_visitor_center_takes_wildlife_to_youth_kgs.pdf

Right after Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation, eloquently described the cultural significance of the traditional lacrosse stick- the wood that connects us to the forests, the leather string that connects us to the four-legged creatures, and the medicine existing in the ball- a lone Hawk started circling above the White House. It was a moment I will never forget, admiring the contrast of the beautiful bird against the bright blue sky while listening to Iroquois Confederacy Tadodaho Sid Hill’s traditional Onondaga blessing presented in his Native language.

This USGS Mendenall Fellow created a video to express what she is learning through her experience!

Title: Turbid Bay: Sediment in Motion