GEM Student Ambassadors gaining international experience in India, Kenya
Andrew VanNatta, a UWSP junior in urban forestry and 2008 GEM Student Ambassador in India, kneels in the dry Menali River bed, before summer monsoons. Andrew and Scott Reilly are assisting with a study of the ecology of the Menali River watershed.
Scott Reilly, a UWSP graduate student in environmental education and 2008 GEM Student Ambassador in India, enjoys a mango while visiting with a farm family near Anand, India.
Cultural differences make an impression
Six UWSP College of Natural Resources students are spending the summer abroad – two in India and four in Kenya – on service-learning projects in natural resources with GEM international partners.
Andrew VanNatta, a junior majoring in urban forestry, and Scott Reilly, a graduate student in environmental education, are GEM Student Ambassadors to India this summer. Kenya Student Ambassadors are Maria Holl, a sophomore in land use planning; Joanna Bietka, a junior in forest ecosystem restoration and forest management; Jesse Davis, a senior in environmental education and interpretation; and Hilary Meyer, a senior in fisheries and biology.
Each year, GEM through its Student Ambassador Program sponsors students to work with GEM overseas partners on practical natural resources projects. These ambassadorships are designed to provide cultural immersion experiences, with students spending about three months working closely with local residents, and often living with host families. To date, 35 College of Natural Resources students have participated in the program; destinations have included South Africa, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, China and Guyana.
In India, Scott and Andrew are working with the Foundation for Ecological Security, an Indian non government organization that assists rural communities in ecological restoration and the sustainable use of land and water resources. The UWSP students are assisting FES with its study of the ecology of the 50-kilometer Menali River watershed near Bhilwara, a city in the state of Rajasthan. FES is working with villages in the Menali River watershed to develop a comprehensive management plan for the area and the ecological study will provide valuable information for the planning process.
The two students are adjusting to the sights, sounds and culture of India, all incredibly different than anything they've experienced before.
"Everything here comes in extremes," Scott wrote in an early-June letter to friends and family. "The food, the heat, the traffic, the poverty and wealth, the kindness. It lends itself to living and feeling, the good and the bad of it. There is a lot to be said for just living, and finding happiness in the simple moments."
Andrew writes that the environment itself is another "strikingly extreme component of the country. The first five weeks I’ve spent in India have been at the end of the dry season. Everything is a drab color, full of dust and, of course, heat (they say the 40-45 degree Celsius temperatures are mild compared to some years!). Following the first significant rain event (not quite the monsoon rains, but rather what they call the ‘pre-monsoons’) an amazing transformation occurs. The trees green up and grass begins to appear amid the rocks and barren soil. Rivers, once dry or stagnant, come to life. Birds abound in oases and aquatic animals spring forth. The layer of dust and dirt that has accumulated on everything (and everyone) is washed away and a new beginning is celebrated."
In Kenya, the four students are working at Nyumbani Village, a planned community in the semi-arid region east of Nairobi founded to help combat Africa’s HIV/AIDS crisis. The students are helping the community with sustainable agriculture and agroforestry practices. The village aims to become a self-sustaining community, providing its own food and earning income through sale of surplus agricultural products and handicrafts.
In addition, GEM graduate student Lindsey Wood is splitting time this summer between India and Kenya, where she is doing research for her master's thesis on sustainable communities. Lindsey spent six weeks in India before traveling on to Nyumbani Village in Kenya.
Even during the dry season, sharp differences are evident between landscape under protection and restoration, seen left of the stone wall, and the unprotected area to the right. Working with villagers, FES staff provides technical assistance and some financial help, but villagers make the decisions, in this case to limit grazing and wood cutting so the forest can grow back. In time, this area will provide fuel wood and fodder and will help retain water, a critical factor.
GEM Student Ambassadors Scott Reilly, far left, and Andrew VanNatta, along with GEM graduate student Lindsey Wood, discuss forest restoration efforts with two FES staff members, right, at an FES project site at a village in the state of Rajasthan.
GEM Student Ambassador Andrew VanNatta poses on mud flats on the coast of the Arabian Sea in the state of Gujarat. At his foot is a tiny mangrove plant while the green line in the background is a mangrove forest growing from re-planting efforts by local villagers with the help of FES. Large mangrove flats formerly protected this coast and the agricultural land nearby. Restoration efforts, if successful, will improve the lives of the villagers, who might otherwise lose their livelihoods to saltwater encroachment.
Lindsey Wood shops for fruit at a road side stand. More than 90 percent of India's retail sales are at small shops and stands such as this, rather than at supermarkets or other organized retail.
An Indian woman carries clean laundry home. She and other village women carry the laundry to a pool of the Menali River, where they wash it and dry it on the rocks, then carry it home.
On a Sunday excursion, the GEM group poses in front of a temple at the historic fort at Chittorgarh, a Rajput stronghold built in the 7th century AD. From left, Andrew VanNatta, Lindsey Wood, Scott Reilly, and GEM Communications Coordinator Ron Tschida.
