Servicio Forestal de los EEUU, Programas Internacionales y Midewin por Jennifer Juarez

USFS International Programs
Servicio Forestal de los EE.UU Programas Internacionales.

Programas Internacionales es parte del Departamento de Agricultura y Servicio Forestal de los EEUU que maneja mas de 76 millones de hectáreas forestales a lo largo de todo EEUU. La agencia se encarga de estos terrenos para proveer una gran extensión de beneficios sociales y medioambientales como recreación, fauna y la protección de la diversidad biológica. Programas Internacionales (IP) también promueve el manejo de bosques y la conservación de la diversidad biológica en el mundo entero. Aparte de promover conciencia para mejora la naturaleza, (IP) también asiste en proyectos relacionados con el turismo ecológico, la reconstrucción de hábitat para animales, el manejamiento de línea divisoria de aguas y ayudan con el manejamiento de incendios. El departamento trabaja en colaboración con otras agencias incluyendo El Desarrollo de Misiones Internacionales de EEUU, otras instituciones internacionales, organizaciones no lucrativas y muchos mas.
El trabajo de esta agencia se ve reflejado en muchas partes del mundo. Uno de los proyectos mas conocidos a sido en México. Por mas de quince años el Servicio Forestal de EEUU y IP ha trabajado en colaboración con México en temas aplicados a la investigación de la naturaleza, entrenamiento e intercambio de recursos.

Para que entiendan un poco mas de estos departamentos me comuniqué con Raquel Gárcia, asistente en el departamento del Servicios Forestales de EEUU y Programas Internacionales en Washington DC y Latino América, para que nos contara su experiencia.Raquel Garcia asistió a la Universidad de Illinois en Urbana-Champaign, al Colegio de Agricultura y Ciencias Ambientales. Se especializó en ciencia de animales y también antropología. Ya estando en estos programas Raquel a viajado a 30 países alrededor del mundo. Su experiencia internacional y su conocimiento de agricultura la ha preparado para trabajar con el Servicio Forestal de los EEUU que es parte del Departamento de Agricultura de los EEUU (USDA). Para que la conozcan mas, Raquel creció en el barrio de la Villita en Chicago. Ella solicitó esta posición por medio de El Valor que se enfocan en ayudar a la comunidad, localizada en el barrio de Pilsen en Chicago. Su motivación principal en solicitar esta posición era por la oportunidad de aprender mas sobre el desarrollo sostenible en recursos naturales y la conservación ambiental. Ahora el enfoque de Raquel es trabajar en Latino América y también asistiendo al equipo de Cooperación Técnica y la oficina en general.
Algo que a Raquel le gustó mucho al inicio de su trabajo fue un documental que la inspiró y aprendió mas sobre (IP) y de el Servicio Forestal de los EEUU llamado "El Bien mas Preciado". La impresionó mucho porque "habló de las buenas y malas decisiones que la agencia tomó y como han aprendido de sus errores", menciona Raquel. El Servicio Forestal de los EEUU tiene mas de cien años en existencia, por los años 70s tuvieron muchos problemas con el público porque empezaron a talar arboles mas de lo necesario y eso causó daño al hábitat de varios animales como el búho. Dice Raquel que desde entonces, "la agencia ha incluido no solamente silvicultores pero también biólogos, ecologistas, etc". Raquel se siente orgullosa de trabajar con un equipo maravilloso, lo que es IP y el Servicio Forestal de los EEUU. Dice que aunque es mujer y Latina, eso a ella no le importa porque "todo se puede lograr en la vida pero necesitas la pasión para encontrar la manera de realizar tus sueños". Agrega Raquel, que aunque la mayoría de sus colegas son mujeres, reconoce que la diversificación es muy necesario para el bien estar de la agencia, y que ojalá en que en el futuro tendrán mas programas para incluir minorías.
Esta es Raquel Garcia

Midewin National Tallgrass Prarie

Midewin National Tallgrass Prarie fue establecida el Febrero 10, 1996, siendo la primera pradera en los EEUU. Midewin es administrada por el Servicio Forestal de los EEUU y en cooperación con el departamento de Recursos Naturales en el estado de Illinois. También trabajan con voluntarios, negocios, agencias y organizaciones como El Valor que junto con Midewin ayudan a recuperar la pradera. Antes de que Midewin fuera una pradera, fue un lugar donde se almacenaban munición en la segunda guerra mundial. Las condiciones de este lugar fueron dañadas por la dinamita y por lo mismo la hábitat de muchos animales también desaparecieron. Midewin se mantuvo cerrado mientras el Servicio Forestal de los EEUU limpiaba todos los daños de la munición. La acta de conservación de el estado de Illinois, una ley pública y firmada por el Presidente Bill Clinton, hizo posible que 19,165 acres fueran transferidas de las fuerzas armadas de EEUU al Servicio Forestal de EEUU. Esta ley también hace posible los objectivos de Midewin que son: conservar y reservar el medio ambiente y la fauna de los animales en la pradera. Provee oportunidades para investigación de la naturaleza, para educar a la gente sobre la conservación de praderas y seguir recuperando la tierra y la hábitat de muchos animales. Midewin recibe su nombre por los indígenas de la región llamados “Los Potawatomi,” que significa lugar de curación y encuentro. Midewin es un lugar donde la gente puede apreciar la naturaleza y sentirse tranquilo.

Rosa Campos biography

Hola, quiero presentarme ante ustedes:
My name is Rosa Campos; I am 23 years old and currently attend Northern Illinois University. First of all, I want to thank all those who made this internship possible, I am sure it will be a great experience for all of us.

This is a little bit about my background: I was born and raised in San Luis Potosí, México. I lived there for 15 years, graduated from grammar school and High School. Looking for a better future, my parents decided to come to the United States in 1999. Currently, my whole family lives in Chicago specifically in the Mexican neighborhood, La Villita. I come from a big family; I am the 3rd child of 8. Having 5 siblings younger than me has inspired me to work hard in order to become a good role model for them.

In 1999, I enrolled as a sophomore in Nuestra America Charter High School. I came from Mexico knowing no English, thus making this transition extremely difficult for me. Fortunately, most of my teachers were bilingual and were very helpful to me and those students in similar situations. Nuestra America (originally Acorn High School) was open only a couple of years, thus having only two graduating classes; I was in the second one and last one. After two years I was able to graduate with honors and got accepted to a public university.

In 2002, I got accepted to Northern Illinois University (NIU) through the CHANCE program, this is a program that gives a second chance to students who do not meet the traditional admissions criteria. Even though I was an excellent student during high school, I obtained a very low score on my ACT. Because I took this test only a year after arriving to this country, my English skills weren’t strong enough and as a consequence I didn’t understand more than half of the test. Thankfully, the bilingual counselor of the CHANCE program, Susana Das Neves, was there to help me and guide me through all the process of leaving my home and coming to DeKalb as an NIU student. Being the fist person in my family to attend a university wasn’t easy; at the beginning my parents didn’t support the idea of me leaving home. I had no knowledge about financial aid or the classes that I needed to take but thankfully Susana guided me through the process.

My freshman year at NIU was the toughest year of my college experience. My English was getting better but I still struggled understanding the teachers and writing papers. Most of the time I had to do all the research in Spanish, teach myself what I didn’t understood in English, write the papers in Spanish first and then translate them before going to the writing center or asking friends for corrections. Also my personal life was affected by the death of one of my cousins who was a victim of gang violence in the streets of Chicago. On top of this, I also broke my left foot, had two reconstruction surgeries and I wasn’t able to walk normally for almost a year. Definitely my freshmen year made me a stronger person.

Currently, I am completing my sixth year at NIU as a double major in Elementary Education and Spanish Language and Literature. I am very proud to say that after all this work; I will be graduating in May 2008 with two bachelor degrees, a teacher certification and an endorsement in science and foreign language. I plan on working as a bilingual teacher in the Chicago area and working closely with the Latino community upon graduation. My teaching career is one of the reasons why I decided to apply to this internship. I love nature and would like to be more knowledgeable about the subject so I can pass that knowledge on to my students. One of my goals for this internship is to learn as much as possible about the Monarch butterfly and eventually create a Monarch butterfly unit to be incorporated in my teaching.

Regarding my leadership experience, I am proud to say that I have been very involved in my community. The summer of 2002, I participated in a campaign called Youth First. As a community organizer I conducted workshops on street violence, gangs and drugs to parents and youth. I also coordinated a protest of youth against street violence. The summer of 2004, I interned for the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute (USHLI), as a voter registration organizer registering over 600 people to vote for the 2004 presidential election. In addition, I worked closely with the Alderman of the 22nd ward, Ricardo Muñoz, providing team support as a Spanish-English translator.

This past summer was very exciting for me. I participated in a three week field trip in Nebraska and Wyoming. For three weeks, I studied a variety of geological features and concepts in Nebraska, followed by a four-day geoscience teaching methods experience in Wyoming. This summer I was also very fortunate to study abroad in Spain for five weeks. It was an amazing experience attending Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha in Toledo, Spain. I had the chance to travel throughout the country and Europe visiting numerous locations including Paris.



As you can see, I really love to travel and hope to one day visit every state within the United States and all over Latinoamérica. My other hobbies include: cooking, reading Latin American literature, spending time with my family and fiancé and watching novelas. Again, I would like to thank everyone for making this possible. I am very excited about this opportunity and look forward to meeting everyone soon!

Meet our interns: Michelle Tamez

Saludos a todos! My family is from Monterrey, Mexico but my older sister and I were both born in the U.S. I grew up in Madison, WI and consider myself a proud cheesehead! My education has always been extremely important to me and my mother is the greatest role model one could ask for. She had a goal of getting her PhD at one of the most prestigious universities for Counseling Psychology in the country - University of Wisconsin-Madison - even when advisers in her high school told her she could only be a secretary, she pursued her dreams. Even with two children and a job, she still managed to get herself through school. My mother has always been very supportive of whatever pursuits my sister and I have had and she has encouraged us to determine our goals based on what makes us happy.

As an entering undergraduate student I planned to be an English major even though I had a strong interest in wildlife and its conservation. I wasn't as successful in my math and science classes in high school as I was in my English and social science classes and I convinced myself I couldn't be a science major and I would have to find other ways to pursue my interests in ecology. I joined a laboratory which studied amphibian ecotoxicology the fall of my freshman year of college in the hopes that I could be involved at least through an independent study in research. I continued to work there in the winter and into the spring semester and during that time I was consistently asking my mentor about study abroad opportunities that interested me which all involved immersion in tropical studies and conservation. He sat me down one day and urged me to apply to the Wildlife Ecology program and I told him my doubts. He was convinced that my sincere interest would allow me to succeed and convinced me it wast the only way to accomplish all the goals I had for working in conservation biology and I knew he was right. The next day I declared my new major and have never regretted it once.

Since that time I continued to work in the laboratory where I learned to write scientific papers, present at research conventions and participate in field studies. I also achieved my goal of studying abroad in Costa Rica and my change in career direction has led to many other opportunities including this Monarch Internship. I am excited to learn about the Monarch Biosphere Reserve and surrounding communities and learn about the community-based conservation efforts that are happening at Alternare.

I will be graduating this December (only two weeks away!) and it's hard to believe I almost convinced myself I couldn't achieve the point that I am at today. I look forward to all the coming experiences and adventures and believe strongly that community support and encouragement is very important for young people who are interested in the sciences (or any other area of study). I hope my experience will encourage other young students to pursue their interests and what makes them happy instead of convincing themselves they aren't capable of achieving because I know that they are!