Although I have been volunteering with Youth Central for almost three years, and I’ve been to a variety of different volunteer projects ranging from summer camps to Stampede breakfasts and local festivals, I had never been super enthusiastic to try out the environment-related projects. Who wants to spend three hours first thing in the morning, pulling out weeds, getting your shoes dirty, and slowly being eaten alive by those relentless mosquitoes despite spraying loads of greasy bug spray on your arms? (but seriously, those bug sprays NEVER work, at least for me)
This was precisely the reason why I hesitated to sign up for volunteer projects that had anything to do with working outside and touching grass. This summer, however, I noticed that there were several shifts open for volunteering at Fish Creek Park and Weaselhead Park through Youth Central, and I finally decided to give it a try and find out for myself whether these environment-related projects were as bad as I had imagined.
Turns out, my initial doubts about these projects were proven wrong, or at least partially wrong. Sure, it’s no fun being devoured by bugs, and the projects are definitely physically demanding. Despite this, I really enjoyed being surrounded by nature and knowing that even my small actions, like removing invasive species, help with the conservation efforts.
Top 5 Reasons why Youth Central’s Environment Related Projects are my favourite:
They feel rewarding
Whether it’s on the news or in biology lessons, we are always hearing about the numerous issues with our environment. And oftentimes, hearing stats and numbers about how we’re slowly losing many wildlife habitats like coral reefs or the Amazon Rainforest can feel depressing. What’s worse is that it can also make us feel helpless and anxious about the future.
However, when I volunteer at either Weaselhead Park or Fish Creek Park, at the end of each shift, I feel satisfied with myself. I feel grateful that I had the opportunity to contribute to the local fight against the rapid loss of biodiversity, either by removing invasive species or planting native species. Provincial parks like Fish Creek Park do an amazing job of preserving the beautiful wildlife that surrounds Alberta, and as youth, we can also contribute to our local community by volunteering at these conservation areas.
Building awareness in your family for invasive species
I was very surprised to learn when volunteering at Weaselhead Park’s Building Roots program that many of the flowers that people plant in their gardens are actually invasive species. While these might seem like beautiful additions to our garden, they actually deplete the soil of nutrients and prevent the growth of native species in Calgary.
Plant identification and invasive plant handling skills that volunteers build in environmental projects can be used even at home, in our own gardens. This way, the impact of volunteering is not just localized at the conservation areas, but can also be spread around the city and in our own households.
It’s good exercise!
Some of those weeds are HUGE, and it takes a lot of effort to uproot them with shovels, and it involves a lot of digging. So yeah, it’s a good opportunity to tune out of technology, TV, and social media, and focus on your physical health.
And along with all of these reasons unique to environment-related projects, there are so many more reasons as to why you should volunteer – you meet lots of awesome people, make new friends, and build many soft skills like communication and collaboration.
TL;DR
Try volunteering at a local conservation area either through Youth Central or directly. Like me, you might have pre-held biases against working in the midst of the trees might be challenged!