Volunteer in Indiana

Chris is an active volunteer and member of the Hoosier Hikers Council (HHC), and has built trails at Big Walnut, Hitz-Rhodehamel Woods and Green’s Bluff to help TNC welcome visitors. Chris is also a volunteer prescribed fire crew member, and in this photo he is on a trail he helped build, during a fire he’s helping out with!

What is your role with The Nature Conservancy and how did you get started?
At first it was relatively anonymous grunt work when TNC approached the HHC in ~2019 about moving the trail at Green’s Bluff, the most interesting nature spot close to my home. Some of the motivation to get involved was ego, and some was small-ownership of a place that so, so, so many people love, myself included.

That relationship stayed impersonal, until I worked closely with TNC Land Stewards Jesse Moore and Peter Bauson, which gave us an insight into how TNC enacts its mission. It built trust and it built understanding. It grew the projects at Green’s Bluff and subsequently at Raccoon Woods.

That worked two ways: we built a better, more interesting trail (by following a litany of “it would be cool if...”) because they trusted our suggestions. That led to a few other small tasks like Weed Wrangles, and even helping spiff-ify a gravel pile into workable parking lot.

In spring and fall, Jesse and Peter would miss trail workdays to work prescribed fires, demonstrating a need. It clicked at a volunteer appreciation day when volunteer Bill Cummings said that I should get involved with the burns, so I took the many hours of training. On top of the trail work, now I also help with a few prescribed fires in the spring and late fall, leveraging an outsized impact, for example, on diversity of migratory birds.

Can you share a little bit about your background and your relationship to Indiana’s natural areas?
Two decades ago I stumbled into Bloomington at the nadir of deindustrialization, and was given two books: Newcomb’s Guide to Wildflowers and Nature Walks in Southern Indiana by Alan McPherson. For years I volunteered at the food pantry and The Bike Project because friends asked me to get involved, and ~15years ago another friend asked if I wanted to help with the Hoosier Hikers Council, which eventually lead me to The Nature Conservancy.

You are also very involved with Hoosier Hikers Council. How does that partnership impact how you see conservation efforts?
Firstly, it exercises grand reciprocity. I enjoy mucking around in nature, gawking at neat plants, and the easiest point of entry is trails. Where those trails came from, how they got there, who bestowed them upon me, nobody knew. The HHC afforded me the ability to give others a means to enjoy what they enjoy, be it plant gawkers, bird nerds or I dunno, those real hardcore people that love microinverbrates.

I see my trail-building as a multiplier for TNC to bring in more small donors, volunteers, and good neighbors. Philanthropy seems to allow well-connected people to set the agenda, and my labor is a means to democratize conservation.

In 2013 the Knobstone Hiking Trail Association bifurcated from the HHC. The HHC is asked to build public trails by private agencies, whereas the KHTA is building a half state trail from Louisville to Indy. I am inspired by the big dream of a trail that connects the Falls of the Ohio to the Indiana Dunes, strung through the pearls from Mosquito Creek and Perseverance Barrens, up the Knobstone Hiking Trail and on to Big Walnut, Black Rock Barrens, and so many more. That big dream of a cross-state trail would be much more inspiring, and would align conservation with other goals, like economic development.

What is the most memorable moment you’ve had as a volunteer with TNC?
While winding down a partner-assist prescribed burn at Sycamore Land Trust’s Downey Hill, a number of whippoorwills started singing their annoying car alarm “whip-o-will! Whip-o-will! Whip-o-will!” call. A reminder of exactly why we were doing the work, almost a thanks/go home. Likewise at the beginning of a recent prescribed fire at a forest bank property in Brown County, we sat in appreciation of the welcoming lilting song of cerulean warblers.

Do you have any advice for those who are thinking about starting to volunteer with TNC but aren’t sure yet?
I enjoy carpooling to the sites, because it affords me the ability to pick the brains of a few other TNC employees that I wouldn’t normally interact with on a deeper level. It demystifies both the platitude of TNC’s mission statement and the professional work that supports conservation.Your involvement democratizes the conservation movement. Remember, there’s a difference between being a consumer and citizenship. Join groups: social, service, advocacy or organizing.

By the way, if you’ve never seen a prescribed fire in the woods, it’s definitely not what your imagination conjures. They’re mostly sedate and boring, not raging catnip for heroes. Coincidentally their success is only measured years later, and it really shows.

When you aren’t volunteering, what do you like to do for fun?
I also enjoy urban architecture through the lens of a skateboard, a toy that transforms the city into a playground. I lurk for curious agglomerations of concrete and steel and huck my skateboard at them. Oh yeah, I’m also a carpenter, having learned through an apprenticeship model.