Edmonds Community College News
Edmonds CC students to revive historic conservation effort
Release Date: July 2nd, 2008Students enrolled in Edmonds Community College’s Learn-and-Serve Environmental Anthropology Field (LEAF) school this summer will help rebuild Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) trails in Moran State Park on Orcas Island.
“This service project is an ideal learning opportunity for students,” said LEAF school instructor Tom Murphy. “They can study the history of the CCC, America’s first national service program, while participating in AmeriCorps, a national service program inspired in part by the successes of Roosevelt’s Conservation Corps.”
The conservation corps was part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s response to the country’s economic crisis. From 1933 to 1942, the government employed three million men, with an average age of 18, for stints of six months to two years in natural resource conservation work. The men helped restore the nation's parks, revitalize the economy, and support their families and themselves. The CCC planted three billion trees.
The LEAF school is part of Edmonds Community College’s nationally award-winning service-learning program, which includes 53 part-time and 2 full-time AmeriCorps volunteers who work on projects on campus and in the community. To participate in the LEAF school, students register for Anthropology classes 101, 102 and 103 and earn college credit working outdoors on ecology projects, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Tues.-Friday, throughout summer quarter July 1-Aug. 22. Students may also earn AmeriCorps students-in-service scholarships for their work.
This summer’s LEAF school projects include studies and service projects on Whidbey and Jetty islands as well as the CCC trails project on Orcas Island. On the Moran State Park project, the college will partner with Washington State Parks and Service, Education and Adventure based in Coupeville. Students will spend two days helping rebuild the trails and will study the history of national service programs, while camping in and upgrading facilities created by the CCC.
For more information about the LEAF school, call anthropology instructor
Tom Murphy at 425.640.1076 or go to http://www.edcc.edu/leaf. To enroll at Edmonds Community College this summer, call 425.640.1459, email info@edcc.edu or go to http://www.edcc.edu/enroll.
Find out more
Phone: 425.640.1076
Email: tmurphy@edcc.edu
Web: Join the LEAF school this summer | Find out more about the Civilian Conservation Corps
