This is Alex, one of the two Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps Program members who will be spending the year helping the Yuba Trails Stewardship go from just a name and a logo to an invaluable community organization. While Alex isn’t new to organizing volunteers as an AmeriCorps, he’s totally new to California (and so if you seen him out and about, he’d probably appreciate any trail recommendations).
Alex grew up on the Western Slope of Colorado, where he had easy trail access to the high Rockies. Over the course of countless trail runs among aspen tree groves and winters full of bluebird ski days, he developed a deep love and interest in natural spaces. This passion for the environment is something that Alex has brought with him in everything that he’s done. Studying at Middlebury College in the Vermont countryside, Alex majored in conservation biology, which gave him the opportunity to spend time conducting research outdoors everywhere from the cedar swamps of Vermont to the fjords of Chile. Not quite ready to leave the Green Mountain State, he spent a year serving in the ECO AmeriCorps program at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, where he was the coordinator for a statewide project monitoring vernal pools (which are very different in the northeast from in California).
Looking back on Alex’s life trajectory, it’s easy to see how growing up with easy access to an awesome network of trails led to not only a love for recreating outdoors, but also a long-lasting passion for the environment. Alex hopes that the Yuba Trails Stewardship will help to inspire that same passion for kids (and adults) in Nevada County!
