Volunteer your services for a good cause

Friday, Feb. 5, 2010

The American Hiking Society wants to help you keep some of your New Year's resolutions if they included things like volunteer more, connect with nature, give back to our public lands, meet people with similar interests or simply have more fun.

You see, each year, the AHS sponsors a program they call Volunteer Vacations that can facilitate your checking off those thoughtful promises with ease.

Folks of all ages who are hikers, trail enthusiasts or maybe you merely want to volunteer your services for a good cause can sign up with AHS to help them maintain trails on more than 60 projects in 26 states.

"Volunteer Vacations are a great, inexpensive way to see the country while doing something good for the earth and for the soul," said Gregory Miller, president of the American Hiking Society.

These projects are typically week-long jobs on America's public lands. Each crew consists of 6 to 15 volunteers under the direction of an experienced crew leader.

Tasks range from easy to very strenuous plus offer the volunteers backpacking and daypacking options. Whole families can sometimes enjoy cabin stays or you might choose a project in a more primitive area where you'll hike into a base camp.

Volunteers normally don't need any experience to sign up, and your food and necessary tools will be provided. You also won't be working 24/7 and plenty of time is provided to explore the surrounding countryside at your own pace.

If you want to stay fairly close to home, volunteers are still needed for a project at Douthat State Park in Virginia on March 8-14 and there are two more adventures waiting in nearby West Virginia at Monongahela National Forest in May and Canaan Valley scheduled for early August.

Through the month of February, AHS is offering a 10 percent discount on the registration fee to participate. Right now, that will cost you $220 and that pays for your food, safety equipment, tools and any other gear you might need. You also must be a member of AHS and it is easy to join plus there are many great benefits.

To learn more, go to www.AmericanHiking.org or call their Silver Spring headquarters at 301-565-6704.

CWD found in Virginia

Chronic Wasting Disease was confirmed on Jan. 19 from a white-tailed deer killed by a hunter last November in Virginia's Frederick County. The deer was shot less than one mile from the West Virginia line. Virginia now joins 17 other states and Canadian provinces with CWD, five of them being east of the Mississippi River.

Maryland will probably be next, as the western region of our state borders very close to an area of West Virginia with multiple CWD cases.

Photo contest

The National Wildlife Federation is now accepting entries into their 40th annual photo contest.

Cash prizes totaling more than $30,000 and other gifts are being offered for winners in seven categories in three separate divisions.

Professional, amateur and youth winners will be published on their website and also appear in next December's NWF magazine.

Forget film, the photos must be in digital format, you must be at least 13 years old and you have to be able to provide a description and story about your photos.

For more information, go to www.nwf.org/photocontest.

Beware of ice

If you're planning a trip out to Deep Creek Lake to play on the ice, Maryland's Park Service wants you to use extreme caution and consider that a personal floatation device (that's a life jacket friends) could save your life whether you're a cross country skier, riding in a snowmobile, moving around as an ice hiker or simply enjoying the afternoon fishing through the ice. Of course, you have to actually be wearing one to gain any benefit.

If you do head out to Deep Creek Lake, be especially cautions around any bridges for the salt and other abrasives plowed from those bridges that ends up below will absolutely weaken that ice directly under those spans.

Do not go out onto the ice around here in Southern Maryland. It is not safe.

Get the kids outdoors

Earlier this week, hundreds of national health, conservation and youth leadership organizations turned over petitions to new Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin, urging her to make time outdoors a health priority for children.

According to a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average American child 8 to 18 now spends 7 hours 38 minutes plugged in to electronic media per day.

The average daily time spent outdoors by these same kids is 4 minutes.

Dr. Benjamin already endorses our children being healthier through regular physical activity and better nutrition, but time unplugged and out there in the natural world should also be a part of that vision.

Cabin fever cure

If cabin fever has you down, go to www.TakeMeFishing.org and start casting in their online Catch A Boat fishing tournament.

This contest runs from now until March 1 and the grand prize is a new Sylvan boat with Evinrude motor plus trailer.

Participants may also be eligible to win daily prizes from Bass Pro Shops, Rapala, Plano and South Bend Sporting Goods.

Hey, it beats sweeping and shoveling this seemingly never-ending white stuff that keeps falling around here.

International hunting

A new survey by HunterSurvey.com showed that 2.6 percent of this country's 12 million hunters will hunt outside the U.S. within the next year while 5.7 percent plan to do so within the next two years.

By far, the most popular destination will be Canada, with the average hunter spending $6,718 outside of the United States.

zbasser@aol.com