NUCFAC PLT Greenschools! YLINC Summer 2014 Day Three: Gardens of Organic Eatin'

The kids at the University at Houston.

Our future conservation leaders saw flocks of birds of all sizes and colors at Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge for their first stop. Canvasback Ducks, Great White Egrets, Wood Storks and Roseated Spoonbills filled the sky with a living confetti as we took the auto tour from the Discovery Center. Long-time volunteer David Brandes and Outdoor Recreation Coordinator Tim Schnider of the USFWS then brought out their fascinating alligator, corn snake, speckled king snake and hog-nosed snake for a touch and feel experiential learning program. Y-LINC kids learned about the important functions and characteristics of snakes.

NUCFAC PLT Greenschools! Y-LINC Spring Break 2014: Day one

Luis Cruz, Emerson Hernandez and Nestor Vazquez pitch their tent by the calm waters of Lake Stubblefield.

Our kids arrived safe and sound at Stubblefield Lake Recreation Area in the Sam Houston National Forest, to kick off our journey into nature. They pitched their tents fairly quickly for frist time campers, working together to figure out which pole went where. Tomorrow we will be boldly going into the Little Lake Creek Wilderness to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act and learn more about how the National Wilderness Preservation System secures access to true natural solitude for all Americans.  

PLT GreenSchools! YLINC 2014 Day Three

Day Three was filled with adventure in the National Forest. We met with many awesome professionals of a cross section of disciplines from the U.S. Forest Service who introduced our kids to the very real possibility that they could have a great career working in the outdoors.

The U.S Forest Service and the Friends of the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas is dedicated to helping our students stay safe, and shows that dedication by requiring them to wear hard hats when traveling in the forest. John Boyette gave everyone a safety lesson on being in the forest, first thing in the morning before we loaded up into the vans.

John Boyette discusses safety in the forest with our campers.

 When we arrived at the Angelina National Forest Work Center, Operations Team Leader, Jim Crooks , Acting Angelina and Sabine National Forest District Ranger, Rachel Smith and Angelina and Sabine National Forest Assistant Fire Management Officer, Dale Snyder talked about safety and using fire as a forest management tool. Rachel said that, compared to east Texas, not as much prescribed burning happens in the west due to the complexity of the terrain, longer fire regimes and public attitudes in the west. According to Dale, cost is also a limiting factor: the U.S. Forest Service can burn for about $17 an acre in East Texas compared to $200-400 per acre in the western part of the country. Rachel, Dale and Jim also discussed the considerations involved in determining whether conditions that are best for burning: risk of losing control of the fire, risk to the health of the fire crews, risk presented to the public by smoke, and the effectiveness of the burn.

Rachel Smith, Jim Crooks and Dale Snyder talk about managing forest with fire.

From the USFS Work Center, we traveled to Upland Island Wilderness, one of the natural areas in Texas Congressionally designated as Wilderness. Federal protected Wilderness Areas are lands that are protected from future human development where motorized vehicles are prohibited and are managed to be, according to the text of the Wilderness Act, as "untrammeled by man" as possible.

Upland Island Wilderness, so named because it was an Island of trees spared from clearing from the "cut out and get out" period of the 1930s, was bought from Temple Inland in 1984. Temple Inland removed all merchantable timber 6 months before ownership was transferred. It took the Forest Service 15 years to go through the protocols of the National Environmental Policy Act. Remnants of human activity remain in Upland Island, including culverts, road signs, and the Rushing Place historic home site.

In 1994, a wildfire threatened dozens of homes, nearly destroyed Rushing Place, and burned 3,500 acres overnight. The U.S. Forest Services Wildland firefighting crews got the fire under control, thankfully, with no loss of life or structures. The fire was so dangerous due to 40 years of undergrowth, in an ecosystem that generally experiences natural fires every four years. That danger, and the loss of habitat for the endangered Red Cockaded Woodpecker, led the U.S. Forest Service to develop burn plans for the Wilderness, which was recently approved by Congress.

The campers explore Upland Island Wilderness

Dale explained his duties as a fire boss in the field. As the topmost officer in an incident command, it's his job to make sure that everyone stays safe, knows what to do and stays aware of changes in the blaze's behavior.

After a short walk through Upland Island Wilderness, we visited a site on private land that was involved in the County Road 32 wildfire in August 2011, a fire that endangered around 350 homes in the Ebenezer community. The man who was convicted for setting the fire is currently serving a 23 year sentence.

But, as Tamberly told the campers, a lot of good came out of the fire. The landowner cleared the burned forest a few weeks after the fire and shortly thereafter, the landowner replanted longleaf pine through a cost share program supported by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The fire had also allowed the underlying seedbank to respond with healthy tufts of native Bluestem grass and other lush native plants and grasses.

At Boykin Springs Recreation Area, Rachel and Dale told the tragic story of the Yarnell Fire and the Granite Mountain Hotshot crew that perished in the blaze. Rachel said that hotshot crews are much like a Swiss army knife for fire: they are self sufficient, highly experienced, in great shape and have many skills. Dale emphasized the importance of fuels mitigation with that story, since only one landowner complied with a fuels mitigation plan that was in place in the City of Yarnell many years before the fire.

Clarissa Trevino is so zen on the dam at Boykin Springs Recreation Area in
the Angelina National Forest

U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer Chris Crain explained the duties of his job, keeping the law in the forest and making sure that people stay safe. He also gave the kids a primer on how to survive in the wilderness, since the possibility of getting lost in the woods is a job hazard for a U.S. Forest Service officer. He explained how to get the three things you need have to survive: water, shelter and fire. Captain Crain showed the students how to build a fire, how to build a quick shelter by leaning sticks on a large log and how to harvest water by tying a plastic bag around green vegetation. The most important rule, according to Captain Crain, is not to panic.

Campers build a fire to stay warm with Chris Crain at Boykin Springs

It may not be Holiday Inn, but this shelter made from sticks and a poncho
might keep you alive on a cold night.

Dr. Warren Conway, a professor at Stephen F. Austin State University who will soon be moving over to his alma-mater Texas Tech, asked the  campers to share some of their perceptions regarding their learning adventure and asked them about their interests in education and careers.  He matched the students’ interests with viable career options to help the youth better understand their potential career pathways.  Dr. Conway gave them a lesson on owl biology and natural history and then played several recordings of various owl species. The group heard a couple of owls in the far distance and soon, everyone began to try their own mouth calls as they hooted and whistled, trying to mimic the recorded owls.  Tomorrow will be their last day here, and we are sure that this journey is one that they shall remember for a long time.

Be sure to check out our Twitter feed, #YLINC2014, for live tweets and exclusive photos of our Youth Leadership in Nature Challenge journey! There are exclusive photos of the PNPC and more on our Flickr page as well!

PLT GreenSchools! YLINC 2014 Day One

It's like a holiday present to the high school pupils of Houston! The U.S Forest Service, the National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council (NUCFAC), the Friends of the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas-Latino Legacy (FNFGT), Stephen F. Austin State University – Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture, the Texas A&M Forest Service, Houston Independent School District and the Natural Resources Conservation Service were proud to give the gift of the outdoors to 12 Stephen F. Austin High School students. They got to start 2014 off right with a very special Project Learning Tree GreenSchools! Youth Leadership in Nature Challenge (Y-LINC)! 

Y-LINC has been a FNFGT program for 5 years, in which high school students that otherwise may never have a chance to go out in nature, have an opportunity to spend a week in the middle of the great outdoors. The adventurers camp, talk to experts in the fields of natural resource management, learn how to build fires, cook s'mores, help the community with service learning projects and much more. This year, however, FNFGT has integrated our work with Project Learning Tree GreenSchools!, a program that helps students devise projects that reduce their school's impact on the environment. FNFGT is currently engaged in an multi-year partnership with the NUCFAC to create networks of GreenSchools! that improve not just the school’s environment, but also their surrounding community, while emphasizing the importance of urban forests. Our partnership, called GreenSchools!: a Model for Green Communities will develop techniques and models that will help other communities across the nation to grow their own GreenSchools! networks, which are being titled, GreenSchool! Greenbelts.

Our twelve kids, all over-achievers and big believers, come from Stephen F. Austin High School, one of our most active schools in the Houston ISD East End GreenSchools! GreenBelt. We have offered them Y-LINC as a way for them to gain more outdoor and leadership skills, build professional networks, and make them aware of the possibilities that nature offers them in their careers. This fresh perspective may help them do bigger and more impactful GreenSchools! projects back at their campus!

The first stop was the Stephen F. Austin Experimental Forest near Nacogdoches, Texas. Stephen F. Austin State University and the U.S. Forest Service cooperatively manage the forest as a place to conduct research in the fields of forestry and conservation. The Experimental Forest makes a perfect home for the Natural Resource Conservation Service's (NRCS) East Texas Plant Materials Center (PMC).

Camper Emerson Hernandez plants wildflower 

seed in a transplanter pot at the NRCS

Our kids learned from Alan Shadow, NRCS Agronomist and East Texas PMC Manager, that the East Texas PMC determines the plant species best able to solve local conservation issues, such as declining wildlife habitat, energy demands and the recent honeybee colony collapse disorder crisis. Their exhaustive research creates a library of knowledge that wildlife managers, foresters, environmental scientists and private landowners can access in order to pick the right plant for the job. Mr. Shadow gave the Y-LINC campers the ten-dollar tour, showing them the NRCS's specialized planter, a massive combine, a crop roller, transplanter and other muscular machines that let the NRCS do their valuable work on a picayune budget.

After the tour, Samuel Camarillo, a Graduate Student in the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture at Stephen F. Austin State University, led the caravan on a dendrology stroll through the meandering interpretive trails of the Experimental Forest. If they didn't know before, our kids now know that Yaupon Holly was a Native American medicine, Carolina Basswood twigs can be made into tough rope, burning Poison Ivy can create a deadly smoke, Hercules Club (Toothache Tree) can numb the mouth, American Black Elderberry makes a rich jam, White Oak acorns are edible when carefully prepared, Devil's walking-stick was used to make a prickly fence, Blackberries are plentiful in March and Sassafras was the traditional flavoring of root beer. Sam's thesis at ATCOFA involves creating a model to predict where the Chinese Tallow tree grows best, in order to know where best to combat the invasive tree. We wish him luck with his crucial work.

Sam Camarillo, SFA Forestry Grad Student, 

owns the basswood twig as he turns wood into rope.

The student adventurers beat a path, via automobile, to SFASU, to hear from Ryan Horn from SFA's Admissions Office. Ryan encouraged the students to pursue a degree at a university, and pointed them to information on the SAT scores they need to achieve to be accepted to SFA and the financial aid resources that help them pay for their degree. Horn said that SFA provides a very personalized educational experience to its students, due to its small classes and stand-alone nature. Members of the Stephen F. Austin High Cheer team, Austin Pride, many of whom were participating in the Winter Y-LINC, gave Horn and Mr. John Sperry a cheer straight from their school.

Mr. John Sperry, ATCOFA's Undergraduate Adviser and Recruiter, introduced the campers to the dozens of career paths and degrees available at ATCOFA, including (but not limited to) Wildlife Management, Forestry, Environmental Science, Horticulture and Spatial Science.

Dr. I-Kuai Hung, Professor of Geographic Information Systems, prefaced to students the high-tech field of Spatial Science: the computer-based discipline that develops map products like Google Earth, crime density maps, optimal Black Bear habitat maps, etc. Spatial Science also has everything to do with GPS, satellites, and meteorology. Its one of the fastest growing fields and ATCOFA is a well-recognized training center for the GIS experts of the future.

Campers shot more lasers at Dr. I-Kaui Hung's Spatial Science presentation than your average space opera

Stephen F. Austin High School gives a cheer at Stephen F. Austin State University.

The campers returned to camp for hot venison chili and rice, cooked with love by Lyndi Long, a former FNFGT program presenter, who now educates hundreds of children at a museum in San Antonio. Lyndi comes back each year to Y-LINC as a volunteer. They then met with their team leaders: Sam Camarillo, Arianna Berdote (a SFA Wildlife Management Undergrad), Charlie Jordan (a SFA Forest Recreation Management Undergrad) and Andre Saenz (a SFA Wildlife Management Undergrad and employee of the Texas A&M Forest Service), and split up into their groups. Texas A&M Forest Service District Forester III, Texas Project Learning Tree Co-Coordinator and our long-time friend, John Boyette, provided presentations on the growing (literally) field of urban forestry and taught kids the great mystery of how trees work!

Tomorrow, we will return to SFASU to hear from more SFASU forestry giants! Be sure to check FNFGT out on Facebook, on Twitter (@FriendsNFGT, #YLINC2014) and our photo albums on Flickr and our new Google+ page !

Y-LINC Day Five - Conservation

One of the biggest concerns of the Friends of the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas is that we inform people about the natural resources that have been made available to them. Y-LINC campers go to see one of the most important resources offered to them and to landowners: expertise.

The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) operates the East Texas Plant Materials Center (ETPMC) just outside of Nacogdoches, on the Stephen F. Austin Experimental Forest. SFASU partners with the Forest Service to manage the Experimental Forest as a living laboratory, in which discoveries that help use conserve our resources can germinate. The ETPMC spends every day finding, evaluating, and growing plants that solve conservation issues, like finding native grasses that can reduce the erosion caused by road construction, or developing techniques that can remove or stymie the spread of invasive species into Texas lakes. Alan Shadow, a conservationist at the ETPMC showed the students around his plant solutions lab, demonstrating seed sorters and explaining the purpose of some otherwise alien looking equipment, including super specialized seed planters and harvest customized for research plots.

Harvesting Clasping Coneflower, very carefully...

Students also harvested and planted Clasping Coneflower seeds right from a ETPMC research plot, preparing plugs that will grow in the humid greenhouse at the ETPMC, burst from the fecund dirt, and become transplants to be used in the many Greenschools that FNFGT is "planting" in Houston, including Lantrip Elementary. So even as we are exposing these teens to opportunities and new knowledge, their service learning projects are impacting students back at home, through the connections between FNFGT programs.

MMM... seeds

Tamberly Conway, Conservation Educator with the USFS, and John Boyette of the Texas Forest Service led the students on a short hike into the SFA Experimental Forest, then demonstrated the use of one the most important tool in a forester's vest: the increment borer. The students got to see first hand how a forester collects data on growth rates, which is of vital importance to making wise decisions about how to manage a forest.

Look at our new friend! Tamberly found this _____ under
the equipment at the NRCS, prompting a
spontaneous lesson on the importance of snakes!

The Stephen F. Austin Experimental Forest.

In closing out the day, Della ______ introduced the PLT Greenschools program to the students, and they began to do impact investigations on the Youth-LINC headquarters, acting as if it were a school they were going to help improve. FNFGT has established many Greenschools in the Houston area, and you can read about our success on the FNFGT main page (click the FNFGT logo in the upper right). PLT Greenschools is a student engaging program that challenges the student body to investigate how their school impacts the environment, develop a plan to change that impact, and write a grant to request funds to preform their project.

Naielli thinks that using an increment borers is hardcore. 

Our campers also got to learn an even more important skill than fire building from John Boyette: orienteering. Our students mastered the compass, learned their pace, and  practiced these skills on a course. Even if it took a few tries, all the groups managed to find their way.

Orienteering with John Boyette.

Tomorrow will be a free day for our kids, a time to absorb and reflect on what adventures they have had during the week. We invite all the campers, former and current, to comment on these blogs about what they thought about their times here, and to connect with FNFGT on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIN to stay informed!

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Y-LINC Day Four: Lumberjacks

"I'm going to study ornithology" said Alberto Gomez on the van ride early in the morning.

Mind you, many of our Y-LINC campers were going to go to college, but it is always so amazing when someone comes into a program like Y-LINC, and keeps coming back, and now they know they want to have a life that has everything to do with outdoors, and they know how to get and where to get it.

Dr. Warren Conway explains telemetry.

Y-LINC had the first time ever opportunity this year to attend a bird-walk, hosted by Dr. Warren Conway of the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture at +Stephen F. Austin State University. Dr. Conway lent our participants binoculars and taught the nuts and bolts basics of bird calls and using the binoculars to spot birds. He told us there were thousands of bird species in the world and that some people spend their whole lives looking for the next one on their lists. He hid stuffed animal birds for the campers to find, and they did in fact find them. He also showed us the use of telemetry equipment, which SFASU scientists such as himself use to track animal movements.

Dr. Tamberly Conway, Conservation Educator with the USFS
and Dr. I-Kaui Hung, Professor of Spatial Science at
The Arthur Temple College of Forestry and
Agriculture at SFASU.

Wildlife research is not the only ambition that can be fulfilled at SFASU. Dr. I-Kuai Hung told us about the burgeoning field of Spatial Science and Geographic Technologies, which are the research and development behind the latest in map making technology and include powerful Geographic Information Systems which help us understand our world and our spaces better. This career feild is very important to the natural sciences, especially when it comes to creating plans that help us coexist with nature.

Then it was time to loosen up and get active at the Health and Physical Education Building, where a Campus Recreation expert invited us to play some team building games. The campers had a ball as they raced around playing elbow tag, working together to lower a tent pole to the ground, tying themselves in knots, and many others. All the games had the common theme of creating bonds with each other, turning strangers into friends. It was all great preparation for our last activity at SFASU: climbing the rock wall. Fears of awkwardness and heights were conqured simultaneously on Thursday.

Elbow Tag at the Health Science building.

Rock wall at the SFASU Rec Center

Once we returned home, John Boyette of the +Texas A&M Forest Service taught  a bit of Texas history with a tree cookie from the famous, one-of-a-kind Marshall Oak tree. John wove history into biology together as he showed the students how wider rings indicate faster growth, which may indicate more favorable growing conditions, such as a lack of competition. John illustrated the competion concept through the PLT lesson "Every Tree for Itself".

Alberto Gomez with a tree
cookie from the Sam Houston
Campaign Tree.

The next day would be another National Forest adventure, out to the land where nature helps to conserve itself...

Don't forget to check out more photos of today's events at our Flickr Photostream!

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Y-LINC Day Three: "The lake is calling and I must go"

Pretending to be beached walruses.

First thing in the morning after a warm pancake breakfast cooked by +Alberto Gomez and his team, our campers headed out the Ratcliff Lake Recreation Area in the Davy Crockett National Forest. They were briefed about alligator safety and swimming safety beforehand, and had a safe and fun time.

Group Photo!

Captain Chris Crane manages the law enforcement officers of the National Forests in Texas and Louisiana, and blessed us with his wisdom that afternoon. He shared what it was like to be a FS law enforcement officer and showed us his multiple survival kits that he carries with him on the job on a daily basis. The campers learned that the seeming disparate worlds of law enforcement in a city and law enforcement in the forest were not so different.

Treetops in the Forest

Mike Ross then spoke with us after lunch about what he does for the Forest Service: he manages the fleet for the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas. It's his job to make sure everyone has a vehicle, that every vehicle is maintained, that there is enough money for fuel, and that old vehicles are replaced in a timely manner. This sparked a lively discussion about how the Forest Service as well as the Texas Forest Service are doing research to develop alternative energy sources for vehicles.

Happy to serve!

The campers then traveled over to one of our favorite destinations for Y-LINC, a little environmental learning center called Treetops in the Forest. Founded and ran by Dr. Christine Kallstrom, the center has been teaching children about the environment for decades. The participants threw themselves into the task of cleaning up the lawn and the inside as best as they could. We then played Animal Charades from the Project WILD curriculum and walked a labyrinth constructed on the property, releasing our stress and personal problems to the healing, absorptive ground.

Then it was back to HQ, for swimming, quesadillas, and S'mores. As part of our leadership skills training, Dave Clipson started a truly thought provoking discussion on ethics, asking the students "How do you tell the difference between right and wrong." Dave gave them the body test to illustrate there are many factors at work in determining right versus wrong: including perhaps our own bodies. Dave had a few students hold one arm out straight, and the other hand held an object close to their chest. Dave pushed down on the free hand, while the student tried hard to push against it: when they held a cup water to their chest (something healthy), their arm was strong. When they held a cigarette to their chests, their arms couldn't resist Dave' s force, as if the body knew that cigarettes were bad for them. 

Tomorrow, we will be exploring a school that our kids may soon be calling their alma mater: Stephen F. Austin State University.

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Y-LINC Day Two: Fire and Water

Early birds put worms on hooks to go fishing on the Sam Rayburn Reservoir. Dave Clipson took several anglers out into the water to learn how to bait and cast.

Yum!

Anabelle, Jessica, Michele, and Tiffany (left to right)

Taking the bore out of chore, one spritz at a time...

Two of our campers made breakfast for everyone: Huevos Rancheros, out on the open fire. Teams were assigned to wash dishes, and they did it without complaint (one might even say they had fun doing it).

"Paddle faster! I hear banjos!"

Island life...

Then we explored a small island within Lake Sam Rayburn. Our campers went there by kayak and canoe, wearing life jackets and looking out for each other. Even when a pair of campers in a two-seater kayak were struggling to keep up, two of their fellow campers went back and helped them make it the rest of the way. They swam in the shallow waters around the island, with an osprey nest not too far in the distance. We left the island as clean we found it.

Julio made it to the island first, though he had the hardest
time with his kayak.

Swimming in Sam Rayburn

Over lunch, Dale Snyder, the Fire Management Supervisor for the Angelina and Sabine National Forests discussed fire management, the rigors of being a wildland firefighter for 22 years, how to stay safe and hydrated in an outdoor setting, and many other topics. Our campers showed their interest with nearly an hour's worth of questions.

"We match!"

Later, our campers learned another valuable outdoor skill: fire-building. The participants were broken into four teams, each led by a Y-LINC alum. Each team did their best to gather kindling, twigs, and small branches, and when they had finished, they were given a single match. The team who could light a fire that would last 5 minutes with that one match was the winner; Tracy, Tiffany, and Michele won first prize, a magnesium fire starter.

Dave took some of the campers on a tour of the surrounding area and they saw an albino doe that had been reported in the area. When they got back to camp, our students colored and cut-out their own "Flat Woodsy" (like the famous Flat Stanley educator tool). They will be posing with these Flat Woodsy's at various points in their journeys tomorrow, and each night we will celebrate the most creative pose.

To finish off the evening, John Boyette, a District Forester with the Texas Forest Service, taught our campers how to do one of the more popular Project Learning Tree activities: Tree Factory. Tommorow they will rise early to go to Ratcliff State Park and Treetops Learning center.

Of course Superman and Batman would be the cambium.

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Y-LINC 2013: Day One

Bienvenidos Amigoes! Welcome Friends!

Working in the idyllic SFA High Gardens, providing a green
break in the scenery for its students as well as food.

Our kids began the journey today with a service-learning project at Stephen F. Austin High School in Houston, where they worked on their school garden. That garden is part of a Project Learning Tree Greenschools! program. Greenschools! in a nutshell is a project in which a team of students investigates how their school impacts the environment, develops a plan to mitigate that impact, and implement their plan with grant funds from Project Learning Tree, thus making their school that much more environmentally friendly.

FNFGT has spurred similar efforts at Lantrip Elementary, as part of our "Greenschools Grapevine Initiative", which enables a student attending the schools in that Grapevine to get multiple chances to participate in impacting their school in meaningful ways. Y-LINC campers planted seedlings at Lantrip's garden. which again was part of a Greenschool project.

Then the students toured Nature's Way Biofuel plant, priming their minds for recycling and showing them how waste does not have to be wasted. Then, the +Texas A&M Forest Service gave them a tour of the +Red Cockaded Woodpecker habitat at the W.G. Jones State Forest in Conroe. Thanks goes out to Alex Schlueter and Ezequiel Villa for their expertise!

The kids still had energy even when
they arrived at HQ, around 7:00pm.

While they were on their trips this morning, Lyndi and Dave were getting some finishing touches ready at HQ, including filling 7+ water containers. Texas is hot, and we want are kids to be safely hydrated for their adventure. 

Our kids are learning real life skills here at Y-LINC: some helped to set the tables, brought down chairs and cleaned the dishes! Tomorrow, they will be assigned to the chores that make an event like this run smoothly by their youth leaders; everyone will get a chance to help with cooking food and cleaning up.

+Tracy Sanchez and +Naielli Hidalgo had their tents up first!

Though the light was waning, our Y-LINC campers pitched their tents and got settled in for the night, ready for what tomorrow has in store. They will be hiking, fishing, getting organized, and will get to meet Dale Synder, a FS wildland firefighter.

Dinner under starry strings of lights and solar lanterns.

We now got a photo album on Flickr! Check it out here! We also have convenient links all our social media sites in the top left, and visit our main page for more info! Like us, Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, and subscribe to this blog for more updates!

Orientation provided by +David Clipson,
+Tamberly Conway and +John Boyette

Special thanks to our donors! Without you, Y-LINC would be alot less fun!

+Stephen Kob - Supporter

+David Clipson - Supporter

+Tamberly Conway - Supporter and Donor

+Warren Conway - Supporter and Donor

+Ed McClure - Supporter 

+Tracy Sanchez - Supporter, Donor and Fundraiser

+Alma D. Garcia - Supporter and Donor

+Anthony Gonzalez - Supporter

+Lorraine Gibson - Supporter and Donor

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Y-Linc 2013: Preparation Day

We are preppers on this day.

Our Magnificent Headquarters. 

We are breaking out the tents, getting out sleeping mats from storage, digging the fire pit, watching the osprey fly over the awesome lake view and listening for campers that are not quite here yet, but will be soon.

Tomorrow, our 10 campers and 5 Y-Linc alums will arrive at our home base.  Their first task will be to choose their tents and assemble them on the shores of the Sam Rayburn Reservoir, where they will spend their first night of the week under the stars. Some will be sleeping in tents for the very first time. 

We have been told there are hogs in the area, so we will see what adventures await us; hopefully none involving them, or skunks, our outdoor friends from afar.

Thus begins our Y-LINC adventure! Check out our photo album on our Facebook page, and be sure to click that "Like" button to get updates! Connect to our Twitter and LinkedIn pages too!

So in closing, we make this introductory wish, based on an old Irish blessing, on behalf of our campers:  

Our Youth will be camping here, along the shores of
Lake Sam Rayburn (no sleeping indoors for them!)

"May your troubles be less, 

and your blessings be more, 

and nothing but happiness 

come through your tent door!"

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Youth-LINC 2012 - Day Five

We have left the places we went better than we found them.

Youth-LINC 2012's theme is service learning, and consistent to our theme, the campers have planted gardens in the Sam Houston National Forest, weeded gardens at the Stephen F. Austin High School, and built signs celebrating a environmentally friendly, multi-school project. Friday, the camper left an impact at Stephen F. Austin State Park buy painting three signs for their park. Lisa Reznicek advised the campers on proper technique and thanked them for helping TPWD keep up with sign maintenance. Lisa also showed them the soon-to-open nature center at Stephen F. Austin State Park.

Youth-LINC 2012 painted 3 signs for TPWD.

Ivan Lara checking out the Rat Snake (behind glass) at the new Nature Center at Stephen F. Austin State Park.

We left Stephen F. Austin State Park early in the morning, on our way to the Austin area to discover the beauty of McKinney Falls State Park. Campers took a hike after pitching our tents over the limestone escarpment that covers the park. The waters of Onion Creek sliding over the rocks and leaping over the falls called the campers to go swim, and they answered at the Lower Falls. We spent most of the day there, absorbing the water and the sounds.

Franco Gonzales fishing at the Upper Falls...

... and everyone swimming at the Lower Falls at McKinney Falls State Park.

The rain-engorged Lower Falls. Nalleli and Blanca carefully stroll over the limestone escarpment.

Playful Nalleli posing with her butterfly compadre as she sits in the cool flow of Onion Creek at the Lower Falls.

After drying off, the campers were told of their great opportunity. Saturday, they are going to Outdoor Nation's Signature Summit at the University of Texas at Austin. Outdoor Nation is a non-profit focused on empowering young people to develop and sustain outdoor recreation among their own generation. Outdoor Nation believes that the future of outdoor recreation lies in young people like the Youth-LINC campers. They will spend 3-4 hours planning a project that will encourage more people to go outdoors. They will propose their project on Sunday along with a dozen other groups, and the best among them will be decided through a vote. The top 5 projects will win a some seed funding for their project.

Good luck at Outdoor Nation Austin Texas Youth-LINC 2012!!!

Youth-LINC 2012 - Day One

While rain fell on East Texas, Youth-LINC had its first nature walk.

At 7:00am, our four participants from KIPP High School and 4 from Stephen  F. Austin High School arrived at the W. Goodrich Jones State Forest. The morning was cool, and the weather favorable.

Monday was a day of preparation, getting our charges ready to travel safely through the forest, interact with each other, and absorb as much information as we can give them. To start making those bonds ,Tamberly Conway and Dave Clipson lead the group in naming games, trust falls, and willow in the wind throughout the day. Jim Crooks, Safety Officer at the USDA Forest Service Supervisor's Office (USFS SO) and Dr. Ken Kramm, Texas Master Naturalist (Heartwood Chapter) and professor emeritus of Forestry from Michigan State talked about safety: snakes, drowning, and getting lost were among the subjects.

(Left to right) Julio Bedolla, Nalleli Hidalgo, Ivan Lara, Andre Saenz (purple shirt), Paola Silva, Alberto Gomez, and Eric Lopez braving trust falls.

To make his lesson stick, Dr. Kramm got all the campers "lost". After Ken explained the S.T.O.P acronym (Sit down, Think, Observe, Plan) and how to use their senses to memorize their path, he sent pairs of campers onto the Sweetleaf Nature Trail. One camper in each pair kept their eyes closed while the other guided them off the trail. Then the "blindfolded" camper was left alone to find their way back. Using the S.T.O.P. acronym, the "lost" camper reoriented themselves and got back to the trail in record time. While none of the campers were truly lost (several people knew where each camper was at all times), some of them expressed that they felt a little nervous before the sat down to think about their situation. Right after the lesson was done, we were blessed with a little bit rain, which gave the campers an opportunity to use their trash bag rain ponchos.

Jovana, Jasmine, Naelli, and Abby "getting lost" under close supervision.

After the rain, and after a nutritious wrap lunch, Paola Silva of the Texas Forest Service taught the campers about the trees in the forest and how their managed. She gave them a short dendrology lesson, teaching them how to tell tree apart by differences in leaf shape, buds, and arrangement. She told them about how the Texas Forest Service gathers information about the Jones State Forest through sampling, then sent them off to do their own smaller version of a timber cruise.

Paola Silva showing everyone an ariel photo of the Jones State Forest. 

For dinner, we grilled fajitas with our long-time friends, the Chikawa Dance Group. We invited them to join us tomorrow at Scott's Ridge, hopefully they will be joining us (and maybe showing the campers one of their dances).

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Eating fajitas in the workshop at the Jones State Forest. 

The end of the day was a time for reflection and relaxation. At the end of the day, we made camp in a light drizzle at Cagle Recreation Area. Campers had such a blast setting up their tents that some of them were inspired to exercise, running around the track and doing push ups with tree stumps left over from last year's drought. We met together in a circle and discussed what leadership meant to each of the campers, and they wrote in their journals for the first time that night.

Working out...

... pitching tents...

... and learning leadership at Cagle Campground in the Sam Houston National Forest. 

The campers camped under the overcast moon for the first time as well. Tomorrow, they will have their first service learning project, and their first swim at Scott's Ridge.

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