Urban students get up close with WV nature

The students are interning with The Nature Conservancy this summer. The program hires city youth to help preserve natural habitats while at the same time, giving the students field experience. 

Mike Powell is a Land Steward for the Nature Conservancy in West Virginia.

“You go from dry land to this rock to that rock," Powell said as he directed the students across an algae covered creek.

He’s leading four young men through a meadow in the Greenbrier Valley.

“It’s a combination of getting them out into the landscape and experience nature first hand," he said.

"They all go to an environmental high school in New York City and a lot of the themes and concepts that we’re talking about in these natural areas, they are familiar with in writing but they’ve not necessarily experienced these things first hand."

Their journey started in mid July when they traveled to Canaan Valley and Pike Knob. The labor intensive work continues just outside of Alta in Greenbrier County. Powell says the trip across West Virginia shows the habitat diversity in the state.

“Trying to get them to look more into themselves and to have some faith that they can do this hard work," he said, "that they can actually make a difference in the environment and they can also pursue careers in conservancy if that’s something that interests them down the road."

The young men dodge thistles and thorns as they clear a way through grass waste high. Phase one of the restoration project in Greenbrier County is to remove invasive plants from around a stream, such as multi-floral rose bushes. This will make room for native plants to grow.

Julian Orellano is a 17 year old New Yorker.

“We’re taking away the invasive species so the other plants can grow with more room and nutrients."

He says West Virginia wasn’t what he expected.

“I was expecting more of a city area, not where it’s like a house every five miles," he said. "I think I was expecting cell phone service that I didn’t get much."

Orellano says he’s learned about more than science on the trip.

“I learned more about myself I guess you could say," he said, "that I can actually do all this work and I learned more about the environment and how we’re affecting it and what we can do to help it or stop from what we are doing."

Brandon Noble is another student on the trip.

"I’ve learned so many things from plants - names of plants, names of weeds - and I’m definitely more interested in my environment than I was before," he said.

"It’s the exact opposite of New York. New York is an urban jungle; this an actual jungle, so pretty much all the bugs, the flowers, the dirt, but we’ve gotten used to it I guess."

Students are learning about the region's culture too. Student Matthew Feliciano made an observation after tuning into the offering of radio stations in Southern West Virginia.

“West Virginia likes country music,” he said.

Marcus Harvey is also from New York. He's the group's leader.

“I wasn’t expecting the people to be so friendly," he said. "I felt like I was an outsider coming into a space that was close to them and so it was sort of kind of invading their space."

"One of the highlights of the visit is the people whose log cabin that we’re staying in threw us a barbecue on Monday night and the kids got to eat deer meat for the first time in their lives, so that was pretty exciting. Now they want to take deer meat back to New York City."

Another new experience for the students is being disconnected from technology. The log cabin where the crew is staying has no Internet or TV.

“It’s the total opposite of what they’re used to," he said. "So it’s trying to keep them entertained and keep them motivated to get up and to do the tough tasks at hand. They're not used to working in the heat, climbing up a three mile hike at 8 o’clock in the morning in the rain, to go pull some invasive species."

The students head to Ice Mountain in Hampshire County next, to do trail repair work.