Volunteers

Sea turtle mission: Saving the most endangered in South Texas

Posted on July 29, 2016 by Travis Hudson

Sun, sand, sea … and trash, and baby sea turtles, and a firsthand view of how to make a difference.

A team of 50 Dallas Zoo staff, volunteers, members and community supporters traveled to South Padre Island recently – not for vacation, but for conservation. The mission: Kemp’s ridley sea turtle habitat restoration.

Sea turtle conservation is close to the Dallas Zoo’s heart. Our affiliated Children’s Aquarium has a famous blue-eyed sea turtle named MJ that was rescued by Sea Turtle Inc.

The trip was part of the Dallas Zoo’s Wild Earth Action Team. Typically, the Zoo is called upon to support conservation organizations through funding or donations, but the Wild Earth Action Team takes it a step further with sweat equity.

“Action seems to be the most direct and powerful way to reinforce conservation identity,” said Ben Jones, dean of the Zoo’s Wild Earth Academy and organizer of the Wild Earth Action Team.

Everything comes back to habitat restoration, and that’s the bulk of the Wild Earth Action Team’s work. Locally they’ve cleaned rivers, planted trees and more. In August, the team will create a monarch butterfly habitat at the Dallas Zoo.

“The Zoo wants to activate our network to help animals, to change the world for wildlife, and this is a way to do it,” Jones said.

Click here to register for the next Wild Earth Action Team project and visit seaturtleinc.org to learn more about sea turtle rehabilitation and release.

(Video and photos by staffer Chelsea Stover)

WEAT - hatchling release CS
« ‹ 1 of 24 › »
Categories: Conservation, Education, Reptiles and Amphibians, Volunteers | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

Teen volunteers leave the Zoo for inspiring overnight adventure

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Youth Volunteers Program
Nature Bound 162

Nature Bound teens included: Kalen Beacham, Kaleigh Beacham, Christian Hernandez, Xavier Hernandez, Wessie Simmons, Tylah Thurman, Victoria Langham, Jane Giles, Ethan Casas, and David Jester.

Dallas Zoo’s youth volunteer coordinator Courtney Crawford (and her teen volunteers) guest-blog on ZooHoo!

The Dallas Zoo’s Youth Volunteer program is in year No. 28, and it’s been a huge success, with more applicants than spots. As the youth volunteer coordinator, I’m always looking for ways to help our volunteers gain new experiences, learn more, and prepare them for their futures after high school. I truly believe “my” kids are going to be agents for change in our environment, and an inspiration to future generations.

So I decided to take an elite group of 10 youth volunteers off-site for a trip filled with fun, educational experiences, away from the hubbub of the city and a little bit closer to nature. Our destination: Glen Rose, Texas. This soon-to-be annual trip is called Nature Bound, and here’s a firsthand account of our adventure, written by the teens themselves:

We arrived at the Dallas Zoo on Monday afternoon and waved goodbye to our parents as we packed up the big Dallas Zoo van, headed for Nature Bound 807Glen Rose. The ride there was about an hour and a half, so we all talked and really got along well. When we arrived at Fossil Rim Wildlife center, we headed to the Children’s Animal Center, where we had a blast with the adorable goats and emus.

Afterward, we went on an amazing tour of the park. We went behind the scenes to see the Attwater’s prairie chicken. We learned that it’s one of the most endangered birds in Texas, and Fossil Rim is a part of the breeding program to help bring their numbers up. The chicks were incredible!

We also got to see (and smell) the maned wolves, a naturally musky and unique species native to South America. After learning about the species at Fossil Rim and what they are doing to help, we went to dinner before heading back to the cabins for some sleep.

The following morning, a few of us rose early to watch the sunrise and catch a view of some wildlife, while a couple of the groggier teens waited until breakfast. Soon we set off for Dinosaur Valley State Park, where we met staff members Nicole and Candace, who told us about their education and how it prepared them for careers in conservation. We toured various areas of the park and learned how each department worked together to run the park.

Next, we moved on to do some trail maintenance, lopping off wayward branches and vines while clearing litter from the path. Maintaining the trails keeps the land clean and keeps people safe while hiking. Afterward we broke for lunch, enjoying a brief blast from the past as we played on the swings and climbed rocks like little kids. Our next project was cleaning out a patch of invasive Japanese honeysuckle. We learned the importance of native plants and animals and how invasive species can affect the environment.

That evening, we returned to Fossil Rim and ventured into the park for a night tour. Armed with flashlights, cameras and a bucket of feed, we toured the park yet again, but this time we noticed new things. Some of the animals who had been much more active during our daytime tour seemed to be a little sleepier, while others who were hidden away in the trees during the day paid our tour van a special visit during the cooler evening hours. One of those was the elusive bongo. Many people drive right past them during the day, as they blend in easily with the forested corner of their pasture. But in the quiet of the evening, the bongos came right up to our van! It was so cool to see an endangered species so closely.

Nature Bound 795After returning to the cabin, we had a campfire and s’mores before doing some serious stargazing.  The sky in Glen Rose was completely filled with stars and planets! Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were visible.

Wednesday morning, we packed up the cabins at Fossil Rim and headed back to Dinosaur Valley State Park to partake in our final project for Nature Bound. Nicole and Candace taught us about citizen science and how we can help scientists identify plants and animals in the area. They split us into two groups. One group searched for different species of birds, while the other sought out different species of plants, using the app iNaturalist to upload photos and location information.

We concluded our experience with final remarks from Nicole and Candace about the future of conservation and careers in environmental science. Soon after, we began our trip home. Exhausted from the past two days’ activities, the ride back was a little quieter than before. Upon arrival, we said our goodbyes, knowing that this was not the end of our journey to a more sustainable ecosystem.

We were honored to be given a glimpse of how our efforts can create a thriving environment for wildlife across the globe. We were introduced to possible careers relating to environmental conservation, and the friendships we forged made the experience ever more enjoyable.

Learn more about our Youth Volunteers program.

Categories: Conservation, Volunteers | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Working for the weekend: Corporations spend morning giving back

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Kayla Belt
Mammal Supervisor Linda King poses with volunteers from Research Now.

Mammal Supervisor Linda King (far left) poses with volunteers from Research Now.

That’s a wrap! We are thrilled to announce the success of our first-ever Corporate Workday event. More than 150 volunteers from KPMG, Kohl’s, Research Now, Holmes Murphy, Deloitte & Touche, and HP-E dedicated their time to improve our Zoo. Our corporate volunteers tackled projects like adding new sod to the tortoise exhibit; building bamboo fences; landscaping primate and carnivore habitats; giving our buildings a fresh coat of paint and more.

IMG_7662 Volunteer cleanup CSWhy would corporate professionals want to come in early, break a sweat, and get dirty on a Friday morning?

“More and more companies are becoming socially responsibility and encourage their employees to volunteer and give back to the community,” said Julie Bates, director of Dallas Zoo’s Volunteer Services. “Companies like to have their employees volunteer in groups because it creates a positive team building experience for participants.”

As a non-profit, volunteers are one of the most important resources we have at the Zoo, contributing more than 40,000 service hours every year. Today was the first time we hosted multiple large groups at a time. Having teams work together allowed us to complete many much-needed projects in a single day.

Our volunteers knocked it out of the park this morning, making us certain we’ll deem Corporate Workday a reoccurring event.

“The ability to work willingly together for the betterment of our Zoo is unmatched. The time our volunteers donate is very important to both the Zoo and the folks involved, making it a true win-win situation,” said Bates.

Learn more about volunteering with us at dallaszoo.com.

IMG_7736 Volunteer cleanup CS

Categories: Volunteers | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Children’s Aquarium was catalyst for renowned oceanographer, UTA professor

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Travis Hudson
Dr. Johnson poses for a Fox and Friends video at the Children's Aquarium at Fair Park.

Dr. Johnson poses for a Fox and Friends video at the Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park.

As a child, young Ashanti Johnson fell in love with marine science, sparked by hours of watching the famed Jacques Cousteau exploring the deep blue world.

Yet as a high school senior in landlocked North Texas, the Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park gave her the first taste of what would become a remarkable and inspiring career.

Today, Dr. Johnson is an associate professor of environmental sciences and assistant vice provost for faculty recruitment at the University of Texas of Arlington. But in the summer of 1988, she was a teenager with a passion for the science of the ocean.

A meeting with the director of the Dallas Zoo gave her an opportunity be a youth volunteer.

“He wanted me to work with snakes, and I don’t do snakes,” she recalls.

The Children’s Aquarium was much more to her liking.

“[My family] would spend a lot of time walking through the different museums on the weekend,” she said. “Going to Fair Park was the closest they could get me to marine science.”

Johnson volunteered at the Children’s Aquarium during her senior year in 1988-89. Her work was definitely “not glamorous,” she says: cleaning glass, cutting fish, sweeping and mopping. But her passion never waned.

“Growing up, we were supposed to be productive as we pursued our interests and give back,” she says about the importance of volunteering.

Johnson went on to become the first African-American to receive a marine science degree at Texas A&M University at Galveston. She then earned a Ph.D. in oceanography from Texas A&M.

She’s worked all across the globe as one of the first female African-American chemical oceanographers, inspiring hundreds through her Minorities Striving and Pursuing Higher Degrees of Success in Earth System Science initiative.

Her passion for mentorship was rewarded with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in 2009.

“One of my biggest pleasures is helping other people achieve their dreams,” Johnson says.

Visiting the Children’s Aquarium, the Zoo and museums as a child was critical to her successful career, she believes. Those successes were recently spotlighted by Fox and Friends for Black History Month.

“Life experiences help children imagine and dream,” she said. “It’s much more impactful than being in front of a computer.”

(Imagine what volunteering could do for your child – or for you! More than 1,000 people volunteer each year at the Dallas Zoo and the Children’s Aquarium. Visit dallaszoo.com for details on how to join us.)

Categories: Volunteers | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dallas Zoo totally owns green living

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Lydia

Being green is a way of life. As a conservation organization, we strive to practice what we preach, not just on Earth Day, but every day. We work tirelessly to combine our daily operations with our conservation mission, and we rally our community to do it with us.

Here’s how we own green living:

Growing food: Our residents eat better than most people. Across our 106-acre park, we’ve planted dozens of organic produce gardens and “browse” gardens filled with woody plants for our herbivores. *No fossil fuels were burned in the making of our animals’ food on grounds. (Reducing carbon footprint? Check.)

IMG_1352 Gorilla B'wenzi CS

Litter picker-uppers:  We clean up our community. We get up early, usually on Saturdays, and we get to work donning gloves and boots. In the past year, our Wild Earth Action Team of more than 100 staffers and volunteers filled 250-plus garbage bags with litter pollution from Cedar Creek and Trinity River’s Elm Fork. And 110 staffers and Zoo supporters pledged to pick up 10 pieces of litter pollution each Tuesday through Reverse Litter’s “10 on Tuesday” campaign. Even our raven does it! This means our network removes 1,100 pieces of litter from the environment each week. *Casually patting ourselves on the back.*

KidsHoldingMetal

Composting like earth warriors: Pretty much all organic matter at the Zoo, including vegetable waste from our animals’ diets, is composted on property and put back into our gardens and landscaping. Vegetable waste is a gold mine in composting – it’s high in nitrogen, natural sugars and carbon. This sought-after “green” component helps us produce the finest quality of compost. We also turned nearly 900 cubic yards of landscape debris into mulch for zoo landscaping in 2014. (Hint: Why our grounds always look so fabulous.)

_MG_5147-Horticulture planting-CB

Recycling fanatics: Last year, we recycled nearly 40 tons of mixed items – about the size of a semi-truck – plus 27.5 tons of scrap metal; 14.4 tons of paperboard; 2 tons of electronics; and down to small items like our zookeepers’ rubber boots, Styrofoam, radio batteries and more. Can’t stop, won’t stop.

IMG_5220 Statler Raven Ten on Tuesday CS

Our white-necked raven Statler even helps pick up litter!

Saving water: Five barrels across the Zoo collect rainfall – up to 9,256 gallons of harvested rainwater. And thanks to Texas weather, they’re full quite often. We use this all-natural water for irrigation and exhibit maintenance. We also plant Texas native species for low-water-use landscapes.

Water conservation AA

Safe haven for pollinators:  Some say North Texas is a pollination desert as our pollinator populations continue to decline. The Dallas Zoo is proud to be recognized as a safe haven for migrating pollinations. Last fall, we rescued 30 milkweed plants from a soon-to-be strip mall construction site in Arlington. These mature plants were successfully transplanted at the Zoo and are growing beautifully. Plus, this month our Zoo Corps teens planted 72 pollinator plants in the Lacerte Family Children’s Zoo as part of their “Operation Pollination” project. They also made and distributed 414 “seed bombs” filled with Texas native pollinator seeds for guests to easily plant their yards.

IMG_1385-4x6-Monarch-CB

A dedicated team: Comprised of some of the most earth-loving folks, the Dallas Zoo’s dedicated Green Team keeps us in check and in good company with Mother Nature. The Green Team manages our recycling program; helps develop sustainable practices; promotes conservation efforts; and simply makes us better every day. (Fun fact: They’ve found a local company that’ll turn our used Styroforam into lightweight concrete! Winning.) The team’s website is coming soon with details on how you can go green at home. If you’re interested in helping the Zoo with a conservation project, email volunteers@dallaszoo.com.

_MG_2150-CB

Green Team helps kids plant trees in the zoo on Forest Wildlife Day.

Categories: Conservation, Education, Volunteers | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Brought to you by the Dallas Zoo