GAINESVILLE — The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is celebrating National Volunteer Week, April 10-16, by honoring its Earth Team volunteers.
Locally, that includes Linda Johnson, who wanted to work on a thesis project for the University of West Florida when she walked into the USDA’s NRCS Crestview office 24 years ago.
She was right on time. District Conservationist Darryl Williams needed help — he was a one-person staff facing deadlines for mapping and research necessary to fund repairs on the West Baker Gully. A tropical storm carved out the gully, blocking access to a neighborhood, destroying a wetland and dumping sediment into Blackwater River and into Perdido Bay.
Williams made Johnson an Earth Team volunteer. She mapped the project for her degree in environmental resource management; the project was funded; and the repairs were made.
Two graduate degrees later, Johnson still volunteers for NRCS and for the Yellow Rivers Soil and Water Conservation District as a district supervisor, a county-elected volunteer position.
With distinct resource concerns affecting northern and southern Okaloosa County, and a growing urban population, Johnson said it is more important than ever for natural resource sustainability.
In the North, farmers raise row crops and work with NRCS to resolve erosion problems; while in the South, urban areas are located along the beach, where the agency works with partners to protect coastal dunes.
Johnson's favorite memory is helping hundreds of schoolchildren plant sea oats to stabilize dunes along Beasley Park in the early 1990s. Sea oats held those dunes through Hurricanes Opal, Erin and Ivan and tropical storm Alberto.
“This is why I’ve done this for 20-plus years: because it helps everyone,” Johnson said.
Williams, who became Florida NRCS’s Earth Team volunteer coordinator in 2000, said the extra help is appreciated.
“Volunteers assist us in so many ways, stretching available resources and helping put additional conservation practices on the ground,” he said.
“Volunteer efforts help improve land and wildlife habitat and contribute to cleaner water and air.”
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DID YOU KNOW?
Earth Team, created in 1985, offers opportunities to individuals 14 and older who are interested in improving natural resources.
Its volunteers help the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service staffers provide private landowners and others a range of services from conservation technical assistance to teaching about conservation through community projects.
Learn more about the Earth Team Volunteer program at www.nrcs.usda.gov/earthteam.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview Earth Team volunteer says service ‘helps everyone'
