by Mary Cortese, Special Areas Director
For a lot of people the concept of conservation is distant and disconnected. There are the obvious ways we can do our part for the environment: recycling, taking shorter showers, or for some driving a hybrid car.
After I graduated from college I took a year off to apply for graduate school. I have always had a passion for being outside, and during college I had the opportunity to explore many National and State Parks. I knew I wanted to contribute to the places that had given me so much over the years. While searching for ways I could spend my time I learned about the American Conservation Experience. ACE is a nonprofit 21st Century Conservation Corps based out of Arizona with branches throughout the country. ACE works on conservation projects in public lands and nonprofit land conservancy groups all over the country. I joined the ACE Southeast branch with the hopes of getting to do some conservation work beyond the typical. In ACE I worked on projects including planting trees, historic preservation, invasive species removal, trail building, and even some carpentry work. I traveled to four different states and was able to bring conservation much closer to home. Here’s a bit of my story!