SCA releases 2010 Mount Rainier report

Just as I departed for the holidays last month, the Student Conservation Association released its 2010 report on its partnership at Mount Rainier National Park. The full report, in PDF format, is available here, and is good reading for anyone interested in understanding what a vital role this partnership plays at our park.

A few statistics:

• Three conservation crews, 21 members, 2 crew leaders, 3,240 hours served.
• Ten interns, 7,120 hours served.
• Dollar value of volunteer work completed: $216,006

It's worth expanding on that last figure. SCA interns aren't free, but they don't cost $216K, either, and in addition to the work, we also made an excellent investment in a diverse sampling of the next generation of youth leaders and conservationists--some of them, hopefully, in the National Park Service.

I particularly like this clip, the "participant profile" of Conservation Crew member Mohib Kohi:

Mohib spent the first half of his summer working on one of SCA's Community Conservation Crews in Seattle. For 5 weeks, he performed invasive species removal and trail restoration at Thornton Creek park. Mohib enjoyed his experience so much that when a spot opened up on the Mount Rainier National Conservation Crew, he agreed to fill the space. One of the highlights of Mohib's time on the crew was the visit from Congressman Reichert. The Congressman had recently traveled near Mohib's birthplace in Afghanistan, and the two were able to connect over the state of the country there.

Follow the link above to download and read the whole report.