On your mark…get set…FIELD SEASON!

There you are at the starting line, getting ready to run your first marathon. You’re trembling with anticipation as you wait for the gun to go off and your heart is pounding so loudly you’re pretty sure the guy standing next to you is calculating your pulse in his head. You keep asking yourself, “Did I prepare enough? Did I plan enough? Do I have what it takes to complete this journey?”

We wear waders, not running shorts. We hold clipboards, shovels, native plant seedlings, and survey markers - not water bottles. We stand in the midst of eager groups of volunteers rather than with hundreds of racers. We are Huron Pines AmeriCorps and we are excitedly toeing our own starting line, waiting for the ice to melt and flowers to bloom. Like a runner training for a race, we’ve been preparing all winter to remove invasive species, inventory small dams, and design challenging service projects to get children and adults alike out into our fields and forests, to actively participate in restoring and protecting the natural resources of northeast Michigan. Its field season and WE ARE READY!

My name is Abby and I serve with Huron Pines AmeriCorps, based in Grayling, an AmeriCorps program focused on conserving the forests, lakes, and streams of Michigan’s northeast 11 counties. AmeriCorps members help nonprofit organizations meet their goals to steward the region’s natural resources by serving in four key areas: volunteer engagement, habitat restoration, environmental stewardship, and through developing new conservation services. Through these efforts Huron Pines AmeriCorps is strengthening the organizations they serve, which in turn creates more effective natural resource conservation.

Already during the 2009-2010 term of service, our members have facilitated partnerships between natural resource professionals in the community and teachers in the classroom. Children are benefitting from hands-on education opportunities - testing the water quality of local streams and observing live salmon in their classrooms. Members have spent time seeding and transplanting hundreds of native plants that will be used in local projects reducing soil erosion and other pollutants affecting our waters. These plants will also be offered to the community through the local Conservation District, as alternatives to exotic and potentially invasive plants when designing flower gardens.

Over the next few months, Huron Pines AmeriCorps members will be spreading out, through the 11-county region of Northeast Michigan, running their race. Members are poised to protect the Lake Huron shoreline from non-native phragmities and buckthorn. Communities will learn from Huron Pines AmeriCorps how the removal of small dams can lead to water quality improvement in local streams - allowing citizens to begin making informed decisions about what is best for their community. One member is ready to help roll out a recycling program in Otsego County, a service unavailable until now. Huron Pines AmeriCorps members are set to implement brand new volunteer programs at all of their host sites that will recruit community members to become caretakers of nature preserves, a marine sanctuary, and permanently protected areas – providing a sense of ownership and investment in the preservation of Michigan’s scenic and natural spaces for current and future generations.

When you finish a marathon you usually receive a banana and a medal, but what is most rewarding is the overwhelming feeling of accomplishment and pride gained from completing what you set out to do. For Huron Pines AmeriCorps, each successful project and volunteer opportunity our members coordinate, like passing mile markers in a race, is another step toward strengthening the health of Michigan’s forests and waters for the communities we serve. Our members are ready to put our projects into action and engage local citizens. Fire that starter’s pistol – its field season!

To learn more about Huron Pines AmeriCorps please contact Program Director Casey Ressl at 989-344-0753 or visit our website: www.huronpines.org.