Matthew Hall has been an amazing asset to the Cottage Grove Community. Listen to his story, including his arrival from England to Aprovecho several decades ago and his work with Al Kennedy High School leading youth corps.
"There was a saying in Ireland that forestry was a great profession to be in because nobody realizes your mistakes until fifty years later."
For the last 13 years, Matthew Hall has worked at Al Kennedy High School as a Transition Specialists, garden / nursery manager and crew leader for Kennedy's Youth Conservation Corps. Under his leadership Kennedy Conservation Corps has worked in the Coast Range, the National Forest, around Fern Ridge and Dorena Lakes along the Row River Trail bike path, at Quamash prairie and at numerous sites in the Cottage Grove area. Kennedy Conservation Corps works with multiple partners including the Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Army Corps of Engineers, Lane County Waste Management and local private landowners. In addition to learning a work ethic and gaining valuable job skills corps members also learn to identify plants, learn about ecosystem restoration, meet natural resource professionals and learn about careers in Natural Resource Management. They also earn high school credit and receive minimum wage.
Check out his article about the Civilian Conservation Corp--a New Deal program with plenty of relevance for today. Can we imagine a widespread practice of young people working together in the natural world that builds character and also nourishes our environment. Projects could include reducing fuel loads in forests, mitigating industrial wastelands, re-planted decimated forest lands, building soil and community...
https://theintercept.com/2020/08/06/naomi-klein-coronavirus-youth-covid-19-future-unemployment/
The second half of this podcast episode is also relevant:
https://theintercept.com/2020/08/05/escape-from-the-nuclear-family-covid-19-should-provoke-a-re-think-of-how-we-live-coronavirus-naomi-klein-civilian-conservation-corps/
