EARTH TEAM VOLUNTEER PROGRAM HISTORY IN SANTA CRUZ COUNTY
By Rich Casale, CPESC #3, District Conservationist
Capitola NRCS/RCDSCC Local Partnership Office, Santa Cruz County, California
Rich Casale, NRCS District Conservationist, Santa Cruz County, California signed up the first 3 SoilConservation Service (SCS)/NRCS Volunteers in the Nation in May 1981. They were Christine Hirsch, Kathryn “Kate” Lyster, and Eileen Hastings.
Rich started his career with SCS (now NRCS) in the spring of 1974, 38 years ago. He has always found a need for extra help because since 1976 Rich has worked in a one person office or in an office that never had more than 3 full time equivalent NRCS employees. In 1977, he convinced his conservation district to allow students and other individuals looking for work experience to help him under a district sponsored volunteer program called “Grassroots”. Rich assisted the district over the next four years by hiring more than a dozen volunteer employees including: Laura Strohm, Terry Butler, Bill Lechner, and the first three volunteers mentioned above. When the California SCS state office heard the news that Rich was using volunteers to get the job done the word quickly spread to the National SCS Headquarters in Washington DC. When Headquarters decided to unveil a national volunteer program in 1981 Rich was contacted to see if the three volunteers working for him at the time would be interested in becoming the first three SCS volunteers in the nation. Of course they all said yes and became the subject of a story that appeared in an issue of the SCS Soil and Water Conservation Magazine (no longer in circulation).
Rich’s volunteers helped him achieve things in his career that would not have been possible without their invaluable assistance. In return a high proportion of his volunteers have gone on to careers in natural resource and agricultural related fields. Christine Hirsch the first official volunteer still works as an Administrator for the County of Santa Cruz. She was first hired by the County in 1982 shortly after the County Board of Supervisors adopted the first county-wide Erosion Control Ordinance in California of which Christine became the principal outreach coordinator. Terry Butler was hired from his volunteer position to work for the County’s Watershed Department and Laura Strohm went on to become the first officer of the County’s Erosion Control Ordinance. Laura later returned to school for her doctorate degree and now teaches at the Monterey Institute of International Studies teaching about natural resources issues.
Rich has lost count of the number of Earth Team volunteers he hired over the years. In 2010 alone Rich had 8 different volunteers (male and female) representing 3 different ethnicities working in his office. These 8 individuals contributed more than 600 volunteer hours to the conservation effort. In 2008, Brooke Schneider, BJ Dericco, and Joanna Bremser made national news with their work at Rich’s NRCS office in Capitola, CA when they were featured on the NRCS national web site home page with a volunteer story part ofthe “Conservation: Our Purpose, Our Passion ” campaign (see attached). Brooke now works for NRCS full time in her home town in Minnesota while Joanna went to work for the Resource Conservation District (RCD) of Santa Cruz County.
Other Santa Cruz County Earth Team Volunteers that made successful leaps into related natural resource careers include:
Dr. Robert Sirrine, Extension Director of Cooperative Extension, Traverse City, Michigan;
John McCullah, CPESC, President of Salix, Inc. Erosion and Sediment Control Services and workshop instructor for the International Erosion Control Association, Redding, CA;
Serge Gluskoff, CA Department of Fish & Game, Yountville, CA;
Reggie Knox, State Executive Director with CA FarmLink, Santa Cruz, CA:
Kevin Cullinen, Sotoyome Resource Conservation District, Sonoma, CA;
Matt Zelin, UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center, Davis, CA;
Morpheus Anima, Soil Conservationist, NRCS, Livermore, CA;
Beth Dyer, City of Santa Cruz Planning Department, Santa Cruz, CA;
Karen Christensen, Executive Director, RCD of Santa Cruz County;
Brad Kisner, first manager of the Natural Resources and Employment Program, Santa Cruz, CA;
Stephanie Bishop Americorp Wildlife Intern on Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, CA;
Kristen Swanson, Operations Coordinator, Network of Oregon Watershed Councils, Eugene, Or;
Barry Baker, Land Trust of Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA;
Malia Nanbara, Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, Hawaii;
Faye Litzinger, Export Specialist, California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), Santa Cruz, CA; and the list goes on.
Faye Litzinger (Capitola LPO Earth Team Volunteer May2006 - May 2007) writes: “….Anyways, I’m still here at CCOF (will be 2 years next month). I work in the USDA organic certification of facilities and post-harvest/value added and processed products more than the actual farms/growing crops. So what I wanted to say was that natural resource conservation and protection has always been my passion and your mentoring me through my USDA internship was invaluable in getting me to where I am today. Though obviously not the solution for all our problems, organic production is a great way to conserve and even improve soil resources and water quality, so to me, it all comes full circle. So basically I just wanted to thank you for helping jumpstart a fulfilling career in protecting the earth and its resources which sustain us.”
Malia Nanbara (Earth Team Volunteer 2011) writes, “Just wanted to drop an email by letting you know that I found a job…. I am working for the Hawaii Dept. of Land and Natural Resources under the Forestry and Wildlife division, working for the Forestry Section on Oahu. They really liked the work I did while at the NRCS and are hoping I can also assist with finding funding for better conservation practices on private land. I will also be doing some outreach material and GIS maps, so similar work as the NRCS. I just wanted to keep you updated and say once again how thankful I am for my time at the NRCS.
Kristen Swanson (Earth Team Volunteer, 2009) writes, “….I finally got the job I was looking for. I’m now working in Eugene for a nonprofit that assists watershed councils across the state of Oregon…..I know your reference helped me get my job, and I am very grateful to have worked with you.”
Alex Clark (Earth Team Volunteer, 2011) writes,”…I still consider that summer internship as perhaps the most influential time of my life to date…”
Projects, products, and accomplishments of Rich’s Earth Team Volunteers are many. Volunteers at the Capitola NRCS/RCD Local Partnership Office have done it all. They have: written publications such as cover crop and road drainage improvement guides; coordinated workshops and training sessions; prepared and/or assisted with conservation plans and Farm Bill contracts; completed highly erodible land determinations; conducted research projects; written letters and reports; assisted with engineering surveys and mapping projects; provided soils information for land use decision makers; conducted field and stream surveys; assisted with outreach and educational efforts; represented NRCS at local events and at partnership meetings; gathered resource data for plans and reports; conducted follow-up surveys to capture conservation accomplishments; provided administrative assistance; and so on.
Rich developed a power point slide show on the Earth Team volunteer program that is available on the California NRCS share point web site. Over the years Rich has given many presentations to groups of NRCS and conservation district officials on his experiences recruiting and using Earth Team Volunteers to get the job done. He has also has an agreement with the University of California, Santa Cruz, under the Environmental Studies Internship Program, that gives students an opportunity to volunteer/intern in the local NRCS office and receive 5 quarter units of credit. Each senior student must also write a 10-page paper regarding their internship experience and produce a senior project. Consequently, there is rarely a quarter when Rich doesn’t have at least one student intern, and sometimes as many as three, working beside him.
Rich says when he was going to school at a local community college and thinking of careers in forestry and natural resources he thought if he got some relative work experience it would eventually help him get a job in a related field some day. So he walked into the local U.S. Forest Service office in his home town and asked if they had any summer jobs. The lady working the desk on that particular day asked Rich if he had any experience. Rich said, “No” but that he was looking for a job to get experience in a natural resource related field. The lady said she wouldn’t take his application unless he had experience. So Rich asked the lady if he could volunteer to get work experience. She said that the Forest Service did not hire volunteers and had no way of letting Rich work for free. When Rich left the Forest Service office that day he was thoroughly discouraged, but vowed, if he was ever in a position to allow a student or anyone else interested in volunteering that he would do everything possible to give them that opportunity. Since 1977, Rich has kept his promise to himself by hiring scores of volunteers over the course of his career and continues his commitment to helping and working with Earth Team volunteers to this day.
Christine Hirsch, firstvolunteer, and Rich Casale, NRCS Christine Hirsch and Rich Casale 25 years later
District Conservationist, review a conservation plan in1981.Photo appeared in Volunteer Voice 2005
Photo from Soil and Water Conservation Magazine 1982
Featured Earth Team Volunteer Vignette
Date: May 2008
UC Santa Cruz Students to the Rescue
Rich Casale, District Conservationist for the very busy USDA Local Partnership Office in Capitola, is the only NRCS employee stationed there. Co-located with the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County, this office serves land users and the general public in Santa Cruz County, California. So when Brooke Schneider, who had been a student intern with NRCS, offered to help in December of 2007, Rich welcomed the chance to sign her up as an Earth Team volunteer.
Brooke will graduate this year with a degree in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz and part of her graduate requirement is to complete a senior project while serving as a volunteer soil conservationist aid. Her project consists of working with a local nurseryman in developing a streambank restoration plan and submitting it through the Santa Cruz County Permit Coordination Program. “Being a student intern and Earth Team volunteer with NRCS has provided me valuable experience with the agency as well as a chance to apply my skills and knowledge for the benefit of the community and the environment,” said Brooke, “I feel good doing what I do here.”
Still there is much work to be done with land owners in Santa Cruz County. Enter Robert “B.J.” Dericco and Joanna Bremser - like Brooke they are also seniors at U.C. Santa Cruz majoring in Environmental Studies. Like Brooke they also signed up as Earth Team volunteers and both B.J. and Joanna have been an enormous help to NRCS and the staff of the Resource Conservation District.
B.J.’s senior project involves the development of a “sample” conservation plan that will be given to new farmers and ranchers wishing to develop a plan or that intend to apply for farm bill programs requiring that a plan be developed. Joanna’s help with every day office and field activities has been invaluable. Her volunteer work with NRCS has also landed her a part time position with the Conservation District but she still finds time to volunteer for NRCS.