Fall 2009 Issue Click on the titles below to read more articles from this edition of Headwaters: From the Executive Director's Desk Water Won't Wash Away Valley's Recession Bringing the Stan Back to Life: An Interview with Christian Kallen Today's Youth, Tomorrow's Conservationists Rafting Program - A Labor of River Love Q & A with FOR Volunteers The Campaign to Save the Stanislaus River Protecting and Restoring California Rivers: Reports from the Front Lines Join Us: On the River Guide Training Give a Gift Membership To receive the next issue of Headwaters in your mailbox.  Become an FOR Member (or renew your membership) before May 2010. Click here to download a pdf version of Headwaters.

Today’s Youth, Tomorrow’s Conservationists

By Alyse Weyman

Alyse has a B.S. in conservation & resource studies from UC Berkeley and will soon hold a M.S. of environmental science from Monash University. For the last ten years, Alyse has been working as a naturalist and outdoor educator

The river is a powerful storyteller, reminding us all that we are connected to one another through our dependence upon the same watersheds that provide us with natural resources and opportunities for recreation. I have found no better classroom than the river to begin a discussion about community and how we are stewards of the biological world.

Encouraging others to foster their own connection to the natural world has long been my inspiration for working as an outdoor educator. After going through guide school with Friends of the River this spring, I was offered an opportunity to help facilitate that connection for underserved urban youth by assisting in the coordination of the River Quest program.

My role as the River Quest intern was to facilitate team building and environmental education activities for the kids taking part in River Quest, and to help make their journey down the river magical. The activities were often met with hesitation or obvious disinterest, which is understandable given that many of these youth have had their childhood interrupted with gang activity or domestic violence. For others, it may simply be the first time they have even seen a river!

One day, after introductions to one another, I encouraged the group to introduce themselves to the river. Some of the kids took notice of me picking blackberries along the shore of Camp Lotus.With a gathering of inquisitive eyes surrounding me, one girl examined me with special curiosity.

“Umm…is it okay to eat those?” she asked. “Yeah! They’re delicious!” I responded and put my hand out for others to try. Her next remark solidified, for me, why it’s so important to provide outdoor opportunities to urban youth. “But, don’t they need to go through a factory to get cleaned first and stuff?”

It was a fair question. The genius of what happened next was a confirmation for me of what the River Quest program aims to provide through extending tangible environmental education to urban youth groups: the kids all started picking berries and calling their friends over too.

And from there the door was wide open to teaching this group about the flora and fauna of the area, the history of the native peoples, and how much the river had been changed and returned to itself again.

In a closing circle in the Skunk Hollow parking lot, a young man shared his insight with his peers: “This experience has taught me that anything can be achieved if you put your mind to it.”

This sense of accomplishment— and community—can be achieved through a day of rafting with River Quest. River Quest provides a life-changing experience these youths can take home with them.We strive to inspire in the youth a reverence for nature and cultivate investment as stewards of the environment. Some participants even return to be guides, sharing the effect FOR has had on their lives with others.

“Is there anything else that you can eat out here?”

Return to River Quest home page.