View: Study of Yellowstone can enrich Yonkers

Growing up in Yonkers, I never thought I'd be pursuing a career in wildlife sciences and seeing the relevance of them to my hometown. As a child, "nature" to me meant a cluster of trees in a corner of the playground that I avoided, because the swings and sprinklers were in another section. I never imagined that a view from a peak in the White Mountains or a summer spent at Yellowstone National Park could hold lessons for our local commitment to conservation.

I didn't even think I could make it to the top of that mountain peak. I thought I was going to die.

My passion for the natural world began by accident. I was an indifferent student in high school and often skipped class. One day I decided to stick around, and it happened to be the day that an environmental organization came to pitch summer jobs. The money appealed to me, so I applied and was hired.

Step by step

During my first week, I went on my first hike ever – a 3-mile trek in White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. I wasn't an active kid. Activities like hiking and camping had always been foreign to me, and the potential for violence in my neighborhood had frightened me so much that I never considered exploring much of it.

So that first hike was excruciating. It wasn't long before every step became a challenge. I was feeling faint; I was crying. I wanted to turn back, but even back was too far to go.

Eventually my group reached the top, and the summit was life-changing. The view was spectacular all the way to the horizon; the air tasted pure. My accomplishment left me exhilarated, determined to explore our nation's natural beauty further.

Everyone I hiked with was so proud of me, despite my constant griping on the way up. Growing up, it had just been my mother and me – I didn't understand community. But I made a family bond with that group that continues today.

After that, I went camping for the first time; I learned how to start a fire and build a trail. I once went a week without showering and no one minded. Being outdoors cleared my head and let me forget any troubles I had back home.

Blade by blade

Today, I'm an environmental studies major concentrating in ecology at SUNY Purchase interested in wildlife sciences and spending the summer at Yellowstone National Park as an interpretive ranger intern. I landed the internship through the Student Conservation Association, the national organization that engages new generations in environmental stewardship.

When I landed my SCA internship, it was like a dream – a chance to be in one of the most stunning settings in the world and to learn how it operates, down to the blades of grass. I've built trails, hidden overused ones, helped guests find their way, and even spent one day literally counting blades of grass with park biologists.

That was in the Bison Management Department, where the biologists keep track of the herds that spend much of the year in the park but also cross into Montana. For bison to thrive, the vegetation that they trample must recover, and that's where counting grass comes in.

You do it blade by blade, using a measuring device which has thin metal rods that fall at a specific angle to the ground. Placing the device on a patch of ground, I counted every blade of grass that touched the metal rods, and noted whether it was alive or dead. After a few measurements I was able to extrapolate for a larger area. The work is important because it gives a warning if the ecological balance is being thrown off or whether some vegetation isn't recovering.

All connected

Surprisingly, that's a key lesson for Yonkers. If Yellowstone can measure its conservation down to the blades of grass, so can we. I don't mean literally counting grass in Yonkers, but paying attention to the condition of our parks, our open spaces, our natural beauty, in minute detail.

In Yonkers, nature should not be a cluster of trees in a corner of the playground to be avoided; it should be an ever more essential part of our community, especially in a city on the banks of one of the greatest rivers in the world.

Yellowstone National Park is stunning, but so is the Hudson River. We just have to see it that way. Sometimes it takes hiking to the top of a mountain to see what's in your own backyard.

Today I volunteer at the Bronx Zoo during the school year and have taught kids in Yonkers about nutrition and healthy foods. Now I have a new story to share, about bison and grass and migration and Yonkers. They're not as unconnected as they might seem.

The writer is a Yonkers native entering her sophomore year at SUNY Purchase.