“People from all walks of life come together with this common goal of healing the land – but it’s not just the land we’re healing. We’re connecting with one another, too.”
Committed volunteers are a driving force behind many local nonprofits, perhaps none more than Wildlands Restoration Volunteers (WRV) – a grantee of the foundation’s Community Trust fund.
“We bring people together to learn about our shared natural environment, and we’re all about community-driven restoration and stewardship,” says Amy Ansari, WRV Native Seed Collection Program Manager. “We’ve created a community of more than 3K volunteers of all ages to help restore and heal the land, and we do that in so many ways – from flood restoration, which is still ongoing right now, to trail restoration, alpine restoration, restoring wetlands and grasslands, and more.
“People from all walks of life come together with this common goal of healing the land – but it’s not just the land we’re healing. We’re connecting with one another, too.”
According to Amy, many volunteers return year after year. “People come back to a work site and can point to a tree they planted that’s thriving, or a rock they placed. It’s such a beautiful thing.”
At the same time, WRV provides opportunities to develop leadership skills.
“We work with our volunteers to eventually lead small groups into the field,” Amy explains. “As they’re learning restoration techniques, they’re also empowered to work effectively with lots of different people.”
While Amy has worked with WRV for seven years – including teaching volunteers how to collect locally adapted seed to restore areas adversely affected by floods – the organization has been around since 1999.
“We’ve done more than a thousand projects, also with the help of the Community Foundation in ways that other grants don’t get quite right,” continues Amy. “The Community Foundation understands the significance of supporting operating costs, which means we can do more in the field because we don’t have to jump through so many hoops.
“WRV is proof that a small group of people can change the world. We’re starting in our own backyard, and we hope that has a ripple effect.”
