AMY STOCKLEIN
As part of an AmeriCorps NCCC crew, Cooper Lyons (left) and Cedric Wyche clear invasive brush in Lakeshore Nature Preserve to help native species thrive.
The loud buzzing of the brush saw permeates Bill’s Woods long before the workers, including 21-year-old Dylan Gordon from Gilead, Maine, come into view.
Gordon is part of the nine-person AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) crew assigned to a two-week project in Bill’s Woods, a 15-acre area located near Picnic Point in the Lakeshore Nature Preserve. On this muggy June morning, the crew is removing invasive brush, like buckthorn and honeysuckle, to allow more sunlight to reach the forest floor so that native species — namely oak trees — can grow again.
“This area was used as experimental farm fields for the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture until the mid-1900s,” says Adam Gundlach, UW staff member and field projects coordinator for the preserve, who is working alongside the crew. “It was since abandoned and filled in with brush. The long-term vision is to return this area to an open oak savannah setting, mimicking what was here pre-settlement.”
This is Gordon’s first time participating in an AmeriCorps program but he spent time volunteering with the Red Cross during disaster season in several locations, including Louisiana, Texas and Puerto Rico. Gordon is stacking into piles brush that was hacked down by fellow crew member Kyle Sainio, 25. “I like to travel,” Gordon says. “I bounce around a lot but [with AmeriCorps] it’s nice to be around people my age and have the stability of housing and food.”
Cece Garcia, another crew member, serves as media representative for the group — known as the Cedar 3 team — which is part of AmeriCorps’ North Central Region based out of a former Braille school campus in Vinton, Iowa. A 22-year old from Oakhurst, California, Garcia is serving her second term for AmeriCorps NCCC. Each term is a 10-month commitment. It includes a stipend for essentials — like shampoo — and an education award that can be used for school or to pay off student loans. Natural disasters take precedence; otherwise crews travel to different areas for projects that last six to eight weeks.
“Before this we were in South Dakota working with the Sioux YMCA on the Cheyenne River Reservation for six weeks,” Garcia says. “That was amazing. We got to work with an after-school program and take part in an indigenous people summit with people from around the world.”
The Cedar 3 team is now stationed in the Madison area for eight weeks, thanks to a joint application from representatives of the UW Arboretum, Schumacher Farm Park in Waunakee, and Gundlach. The team will spend a couple of weeks at each location working on different projects, including removing invasive species, restoring trails, and planting pollinator gardens.
After working eight-hour days, the team goes to a field for an hour of physical training three times a week, followed by a family dinner — “we take turns cooking,” Garcia says — and then meetings.
The crew sleeps in different settings at each project location. “Housing can be anything from tents to being spoiled like we are here, staying in apartments,” Garcia says. “That’s the fun part of it — you have to go with the flow.”
The next project location for the Cedar 3 crew is still a mystery. “They don’t tell us until two weeks before we go,” Garcia says. “We won’t find out most likely until our last week here in Madison before heading back to campus in Iowa for debriefing, briefings and training.”
As the only full-time field staff member for the preserve, Gundlach says having the crew here helping with brush removal has been a huge benefit. “We normally rely on paying contractors or using volunteers,” Gundlach says. “But the AmeriCorps crew comes ready to go with helmets, and they’ve had their training. Getting this burst of energy helps us cover a lot of ground.”
1964: President Lyndon Johnson creates AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) as a domestic anti-poverty program.
1992: A group of bipartisan Senators creates AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps).
17.6 million: People assisted by AmeriCorps NCCC in disaster areas since 2000.
1,850: Average hours AmeriCorps NCCC members work during a 10-month term.
Who is Bill’s Woods named after? “I have no idea who Bill was,” Gundlach says.
