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Eco-Serve During Your Spring Break

“Everthing would be great and everything would be good, if everybody gave like everybody could…” ~My Morning Jacket~

As we all know, we have got to change our world. And it won’t be one person changing the world; it has to be a collective action. If we all do a little, the result will be a domino effect of positive change, the quintessential butterfly effect.

So where can you begin? With spring break just around the corner, I think this week-long vacation is a perfect opportunity for some community work. I don’t mean you have to devote your entire, valuable and rare vacation time to service. But maybe an afternoon of that free week? Or even a day? Imagine the change that could happen if all the university students across the country did a little service work during their spring break. The results would be uncountable.

Okay, so what are your options? Well there are service trips, such as Enchanting Challenge’s Educational Ecological Service Trip to Tulum, Mexico. There are also wonderful service trip opportunities through your university, Break Away, Sierra Club, and Habitat for Humanity.

And if you can’t give your whole break to service? Don’t worry–there are PLENTY of shorter-term options. In yesterday’s post we talked about Leave No Trace eco-service projects you can get involved with, such as educational workshops and/or partnership initiatives with hiking groups and state park services. Leave No Trace focuses on natural restoration, placing nature as the highest priority on our to-do list. On their website they have the beautiful Frank Loyd Wright quote: “I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.” If Mother-Earth is your bag, I recommend contacting Leave No Trace today!

(photo taken from the Leave No Trace website)

Another great place to go for eco-service is your state’s department of conservation! Most of the 50 states have a Department of Conservation, and most of those departments ask for service work to help them accomplish their environmental goals. For example, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources asks its citizens to help them in their forest clean-up efforts. On their website they give their residents the following message:

We can only return our forests to their natural state if we work together to combine our time, energy, and resources to remove existing trash and stop the dumping in our forests.

(photo taken from the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources site)

Once again, a call to collective action. No one can do it alone. If you think you would like to help your state in its wildlife restoration efforts, I encourage you to visit your state’s department of conservation website and notify them of your desire to help!

Even if you feel that Leave No Trace and/or your state’s department of conservation do not offer programs just right for you, they may be able to point you in the right direction. Another great resource to check out is the Sierra Club, as the organization has chapters in all 50 states and all of those chapters have lots of local opportunities for you to devote as little or as much of your time as you please.

Below is a list of some great eco-service initiatives in the US. Unfortunately, they are state-specific, so are not applicable to all of our readers, but it can help give you an idea of what is out there.

Get Outdoors Nevada (NV)