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The Goggio Foundation Interpretive Garden is located at the Great Basin Institute’s international volunteer facility at 1341 North Virginia Street, directly across from the student center at the University of Nevada-Reno campus.  Through the generous support and interest from Melissa and Tim Clover, local Reno philanthropists, the Goggio Foundation Interpretove Garden provides learning opportunities to understand and appreciate our native flora.  Environmental volunteers, both domestic and international, have a unique place to learn about the importance of habitat conservation and the preservation of native habitat.  The Goggio Foudnation, who have provided to date  not only funding for the garden but a generous grant for learning equipment and supplies that help volunteers and students understand science and the outdoor learning environment.  Below are a few images of the garden and its diverse species richness.  Much graditude to the Goggio Foundation and the Clover family for their continued support of the Great Basin Institute’s regional ecological literacy outreach efforts.

View of the the Goggio Foundation Interpretive Garden

GBI's International Volunteer Facility

Late July 2009, Nogales, Arizona. A hundred meters from the US-Mexico border, in the sweltering, early morning hours of this dusty border town, three Great Basin Institute staff members are gathered at McDonald’s. They haven’t come for breakfast burritos or hash browns. Nor is this a pit stop en route to the next town. This fast food landmark is the destination of a two-day road trip that began at the Institute’s headquarters, in Reno, Nevada. The purpose of the trip? Sixteen Universidad de Guadalajara biology students will soon arrive, eager to catch a lift north to the Great Basin and the University of Nevada, Reno. There, these students from central Mexico will embark on a fourteen week internship, sponsored by the Institute’s International Conservation Volunteer Exchange (ICVE). The internship program will immerse these apprentice biologists in ecological restoration projects, field classes, intensive English classes, and the Great Basin Institute family.

ICVE-Mexico grew out of GBI’s long-standing restoration and education projects on Mexico’s central Pacific coast. GBI founder and Executive Director, Jerry Kier, describes his motive for the program: “In 2001, on behalf of the Institute, I developed an international field course for the Costa Alegre area, on Mexico’s central Pacific coast. With support from the University of Nevada, Reno, this course explored issues related to Mexico’s coastal environment and natural resources.”

From 2001–2004, GBI’s Mexico field courses engaged over 70 students in international conservation theory and practice. Students from a range of disciplines studied at various conservation sites, in partnership with the Universidad de Guadalajara, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, as well as regional conservation nonprofits and local school districts. Since then, more than 180 international students and volunteers have joined GBI and its network of faculty researchers from the University of Nevada, along with partnering institutions, including the University of South Florida, California State Channel Islands, and Chico State University.

Long term, Keir envisioned field studies in Mexico as a cultural exchange of conservation practices, one that linked the ecological restoration courses in Mexico with the conservation efforts of the Nevada Conservation Corps—GBI’s largest, long-standing program. He explains, “Based on our success with universities in Mexico, in 2004 we founded the ICVE. This program answers the need for greater global ecological literacy. It makes sense, from a conservation standpoint, to use environmental service as a means to achieve this ecological literacy.”

Now, in the July heat of Nogales’ overcrowded McDonald’s parking lot, excitement and anxiety mounts. All sixteen Guadalajara students have checked in. After a round of friendly greetings, the group loads backpacks, sleeping bags, and suitcases into the camper-covered bed of a large, white, GBI truck, careful to retrieve their iPods before finding a seat for the long journey ahead. After so much planning, the ICVE-Mexico program is ready to roll.

Two days later and some 760 miles north, GBI staff and the biologist interns arrive in Reno. The road-weary interns settle into a furnished brick house with a large, landscaped yard, across the street from the University of Nevada campus. Before heading into the field, the interns will attend a two-day, bilingual orientation designed to introduce them to a range of conservation projects, techniques, and theories. They’ll also complete six hours of training dedicated to project safety.

On the first Monday of August, at dawn, the newly trained ICVE-Mexico interns gather in the University of Nevada-Reno’s northern parking lot to meet the rest of the Corps, 250 strong this summer. This parking lot has been the staging area of the Nevada Conservation Corps for the better part of ten years. NCC and ICVE members gather here between six and six-thirty every Monday morning to load up gear, get project details, and fan out across Nevada, restoring and conserving our public lands. Corps members “spike camp” close to their project site, in the forest and in the desert, twelve months a year. After spending up to eight days in the field, the crews return to the near vacant parking lot in the late afternoon, where they debrief with GBI staff and unwind ahead of their three-day weekend. For ICVE-Mexico interns, however, these weekends seem short.

While all sixteen ICVE-Mexico interns receive academic credit from the Universidad de Guadalajara, ten are also enrolled in full-time course work at Guadalajara’s sister school, located in Melaque, on Jalisco’s Pacific coast. This means that on top of forty hours a week in the field, and four hours a week in intensive English classes, these Melaque students also put in about fifteen hours every week completing on-line tests and homework from their home university. Now that’s dedication!

Throughout the 14 week course, the ICVE-Mexico interns receive cross-disciplinary conservation training and education. To gain first-hand knowledge of Nevada’s varied ecosystems, the interns support a range of ongoing NCC projects. They apply techniques they learn in the classroom to removing noxious weeds along the Truckee River corridor, rehabilitating wetland areas in the Jarbidge Wilderness, reducing forest fuels in the Lake Tahoe Basin, and constructing a new trail system in the high, remote, deserts near Hickison Summit. The course curriculum also focuses on erosion control projects in sensitive wetlands and watersheds. This applied education will prepare these biologists to work on environmental issues facing them at home, on central Mexico’s Pacific coast.

October is nearly over. ICVE-Mexico’s first field season is drawing to a close. Our sixteen biologist interns have become seasoned field conservationists. In fourteen short weeks, they have treated and restored over 22 acres of forest and wetland habitat and built 1.5 miles of new trail for Nevadans to enjoy. They have submitted final research papers and completed field evaluations. As they load their belongings into the back of the large, white, GBI truck— once more retrieving their iPods for the long drive ahead—the gregarious, fun-loving group falls silent. This journey has come to an end. The time has come for the interns to say goodbye to their adopted GBI family, their new found friends in the NCC, and the Nevada wilderness they know so well. As the interns head home to the state of Jalisco, back to their studies, they are, perhaps, carrying with them the summer experience of a lifetime.

It’s the last week of July and one-hundred meters from the U.S.-Mexico border, three of the Great Basin Institute’s staff has gathered in the sweltering early morning hours at a McDonalds in the dusty border town of Nogales, Arizona.  They are not here for breakfast burritos or hash browns, nor a general pit-stop on the way to the next town.  This fast food landmark is the destination of a two day road trip from the Institute’s headquarters, in Reno, with one purpose:  to greet sixteen biology students from the Universidad de Guadalajara, of Mexico, and return them to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada where they will be enveloped in ecological restoration projects and field classes, intensive English classes, and the Great Basin Institute family.  These sixteen biology students have made their way to Nogales to set out on a fourteen week internship fully sponsored by the Institute’s International Conservation Volunteer Exchange (ICVE).

ICVE-Mexico, as the course has been dubbed, is the product of GBI’s long-standing leadership in restoration efforts and education on Mexico’s central pacific coast.  Great Basin Institute founder and Executive Director Jerry Keir describes his motive behind the program: “In 2001, on behalf of the Institute, I developed an international field course located on the central pacific coast of Mexico. With accredited support from the University of Nevada, Reno, this course explored issues and problems related to Mexico’s coastal environment and natural resources.”

From 2001-2004, GBI’s field courses in Mexico engaged over 70 students across disciplines in furthering their understanding of international conservation theory and practice.  Students studied at various conservation sites in partnership with the Universidad de Guadalajara, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, as well as regional conservation nonprofits and local school districts.  Over 180 international students and volunteers have since joined GBI and its network of faculty researchers from the University of Nevada, and those from partnering institutions, notably the University of South Florida, California State Channel Islands, and Chico State University.

In GBI’s long-term ambitions for this program, Keir envisioned a true exchange of ideas, techniques, and culture between the ecological restoration courses in Mexico and the on-the-ground conservation efforts of the Nevada Conservation Corps, GBI’s largest, long standing program.  Keir continues: “Based on our success with universities in Mexico, the Institute founded the International Conservation Volunteer Exchange, which has been in operation since 2004. The impetus of the ICVE program was predicated upon the need for, and desire of, expanding global ecological literacy through service and education using environmental service as a vessel.”

Now it’s 2009 and, in the July heat of Nogales’ overcrowded McDonald’s parking lot, excitement and anxiety mounts.  All of the long-awaited Guadalajara students have been accounted for, and, after a captivating session of affable greetings, the sixteen ICVE interns begin to load their backpacks, sleeping bags and suitcases into the bed of a large, white, GBI truck with a camper shell, careful to not forget their iPod’s before finding a seat for the long journey ahead.  It’s finally here; the long envisioned ICVE-Mexico program has come to fruition.

After a two day journey north, the conglomerate of young biologists finally arrives to Reno, where they will make their home in a large, non-descript brick house across from the University of Nevada campus.  As part of their training and education, and before any field work can commence, the interns are required to go through a rigorous two-day, bi-lingual, orientation where they are introduced to various projects, technique and theory, and project safety.   Once the interns complete their orientation, it is time for them to be immersed into the rest of the ICVE and Nevada Conservation Corps, 250 members strong during the summer of 2009.

On the first Monday of August, at dawn, the ICVE-Mexico interns make their way to the University of Nevada-Reno’s northern parking lot to meet with the rest of the Corps for the first time.   This parking lot has been the staging area of the Nevada Conservation Corps for the better part of ten years now.  However, most of UNR’s student population of 16,000 would never know.  NCC and ICVE members congregate at this parking lot between six and six-thirty every Monday morning to load up their gear, collect project details, and fan out across Nevada to various project sites, rehabilitating and conserving the many open spaces we share.  Members live, eat and sleep near their project site, spiking in the forests and deserts of Nevada.  After spending up to eight days in the field at a time, the crews once again return to the mostly vacant parking lot late in the afternoon, well after the majority of UNR students have finished their classes for the week, to debrief with GBI staff and unwind for their long weekend ahead.   However, for the ICVE-Mexico interns, their weekend may not seem near long enough.

While all of the ICVE-Mexico interns receive academic credit from the Universidad de Guadalajara, of the sixteen interns, ten are also enrolled in full-time course work at Guadalajara’s sister school 150 miles to the west in Melaque, on the pacific coast of Jalisco.  So, in addition the forty hours per week spent in the field as required for the internship, and four hours of intensive English classes, these ten students from Melaque spend up to fifteen hours per week taking on-line tests and completing homework assignments from their home university.

Throughout the 14 week course, the ICVE-Mexico interns receive cross-disciplinary training and education in conservation. To better understand aspects of the diverse ecosystems Nevada has to offer, the ICVE-Mexico interns support an array of ongoing projects of the Nevada Conservation Corps.  From practicing varied approaches in removing noxious weeds along the Truckee River corridor, rehabilitating riparian zones in the Jarbige Wilderness, forest fuels reduction/restoration in the Lake Tahoe Basin and constructing a new trail system in the high, remote, deserts near Hickison Summit, the ICVE-Mexico interns were given a curriculum of projects focused on erosion control in sensitive riparian zones and watersheds.  This applied education and training will prepare these biologists to work environmental issues facing them at home, on central Mexico’s Pacific coast.

With Nevada Day (October 31) just around the corner, the inaugural field season for ICVE-Mexico is drawing to a close.  The interns are now seasoned field conservationists.  In their short, fourteen week course the interns treated and rehabilitated over 22 acres of forest and riparian zones and built 1.5 miles of new trail for Nevadans to enjoy.   With their research papers turned in and graded, their field evaluations completed, it is time for the interns to say good-bye to their adopted GBI family, their new-found friends in the NCC, and the Nevada wilderness they have come to call home.  As they load their belongings back into the large, white, GBI truck – again, being overly cautious not to forget their iPods for the long drive ahead – the delightful, fun-loving group falls silent.  Little by little, they are realizing that this journey has come to an end and it is time to head back to the state of Jalisco, back to their studies, carrying with them, perhaps, the summer experience of a lifetime.

Decommissioning Illegal Roads

The sun breaks over desert mountains to the east of town. In the University of Nevada, Reno’s north parking lot, a crowd gathers. Gradually, an oblong circle forms around a few men dressed in blue jeans and flip-flops. Moments pass and the crowd grows quiet. One of the men pulls a crumpled slip of paper from his pocket, then recites a line made famous by Edward Abbey: “There are no vacant lots in nature.” With these words, the circle becomes a stream moving toward trucks and vans bulging with backpacks, hand tools, and water coolers. Watching these young men and women climb into the vehicles, you sense that this diverse group hasn’t congregated so early to go sightseeing. The tools and packs, the scuffed work boots and Carhartts, the dawn departure, all hint at hard, physical work and long hours. As trucks and vans pull out of the lot the men wave to the crews that form the backbone of the Great Basin Institute, an eleven-year old environmental conservation organization based at UNR.

Most of these 10-12-member crews include small groups of international volunteers, hailing from around the globe. It’s not their dirt-brown tees and stained Carhartts—the standard uniform of conservation crews everywhere—that give them away. But, listen in and you’ll hear a distinct accent. Maybe it’s British. Maybe it’s German or Korean, or Spanish or Irish. Members of the International Conservation Volunteer Exchange (ICVE), most of these foreign volunteers spend seven to fourteen weeks in Nevada, living in dorm rooms or a nondescript brick house along Virginia Street, and spike camping in the wilderness they’re here to conserve. They’ll work in Nevada’s most beautiful and, in some instances, isolated places. Since 2004, the ICVE has hosted over 500 alumni from 44 countries. In the summer of 2009, alone, the program hosted 105 volunteers from 17 countries. Together, they contributed more than 25,300 volunteer hours to Nevada’s wild lands.

Leaving a project site near Hickison Summit

From May through August, ICVE members teamed up with 175 AmeriCorps members from around the United States, rounding out the Nevada Conservation Corps (NCC). The workhorses of the Institute, each year NCC members contribute thousands of hours of skilled labor to protect environmentally sensitive areas throughout the American West. The NCC serves in the Lake Tahoe Basin, the Truckee River watershed, at Sand Mountain near Fallon, at Hickison Summit near Austin, and the Jarbidge Wilderness near the Idaho border. This past summer, alone, the NCC built or maintained 197 miles of wilderness trails, restored 15 miles of rivers, streams, beaches, and fish habitats, removed hazardous fuels from 653 acres of public land, and removed invasive plant species from 3,947 acres throughout Nevada.

While all Nevada Conservation Corps members invest a significant amount of time and energy to serve, ICVE members sacrifice more than just sweat and regular showers to participate in the program. In addition to paying for the long, two-way flight, international volunteers forfeit many everyday luxuries, such as normal beds to sleep in, privacy, and Starbucks, all to work tirelessly on Nevada’s public lands. ICVE members typically spend four to eight days at a time “spiking” in the Nevada wilderness—living with their crews in tents, cooking group meals using a propane stove on a makeshift table, and abiding by “Leave No Trace” practices (more often than not, toilets are nonexistent in the field).

Why, you might ask, would anyone voluntarily commit to a program that demands so many long days and material sacrifices? Time and again ICVE volunteers respond to this question, as if on cue, with the words, “You form new friendships,” and “It’s the experience of a lifetime.” While nobody denies the work is hard—very hard—few among the program’s 500 plus international volunteers, to date, would trade the sweat and blisters earned in the field for any other experience. As current ICVE member Darrell Rice, from England, puts it, “Being part of the Nevada Conservation Corps and ICVE has been one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.  From the moment I became an international volunteer and right up to the present, I’ve met many new friends, seen some amazing places, and have grown as a person.”  Darrell joined the ICVE back in 2007 and is now a crew supervisor in his third term with ICVE, this time around on a year-long internship. Darrell adds, “I would recommend the NCC and ICVE programs to anyone who wants to be part of something bigger than themselves. They will take away an experience they will truly never forget.”

This year also marked the inaugural year of ICVE-Mexico, inspired by the Great Basin Institute’s leadership of restoration and research field courses near Manzanilla, on Mexico’s central Pacific coast. The ongoing restoration work explores the issues and problems of Mexico’s coastal environment. With support from the University of Nevada, Reno’s Office of International Students and Scholars, and the Universidad de Guadalajara, the ICVE brought sixteen marine biology students to Nevada on internships during the latter half of the 2009 field season. Ana Nafarrate, an intern and crew leader from Guadalajara, says her time here has been “exciting and very eye-opening.”  She adds, “Working in threatened places has been very rewarding.” By partnering with foreign universities, such as the Universidad de Guadalajara and University College Cork in Ireland, the ICVE hopes to expand the educational aspect of the program.

It’s now the end of October. The sun sets, slipping behind the crest of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The same few men, still wearing flip-flops, bucking the chill in the air, stand in UNR’s northern parking lot awaiting crews due back from their final tour in the field. The light fades. Finally, a string of dust-covered trucks pulls into the lot. Crews in dirt-stained Carhartts pile out of vehicles and begin unloading backpacks and tools. After a long season in the field, the time has come for everyone to decompress.  NCC and ICVE members prepare to leave, one last time, the lot they’ve come to know so well. Watching faces, you can’t help but see the mixed emotions each and every person is trying to contain. You can read excitement—a chapter is closing and new journeys beckon, just over the horizon. But you can also see twinges of melancholy. This international family must now say their goodbyes. At length, they do. As the men wave “So long!” to groups of people drifting away, some in cars, others on foot, you’re certain of just one thing. Each person is leaving with memories of this life changing experience, memories that will last a lifetime.

Nevada Conservation Corps & ICVE, August 2009