Featured volunteer — September 2007

Sarah Risser attributes her love of the Mississippi River in great part to her grandfather, who took her for an all-day canoe trip as a 10-year-old girl. “Riding through the locks and seeing the great expanse of the river really left an impression on me,” said Risser, who has contributed over 20 hours of habitat restoration work since mid-May.

Photo by Tim Boyle

by Tim Boyle

“I really believe that everyone has a responsibility to do something for their environment, and different people do that in different ways,” said Sarah Risser. Sarah’s way has been to jump right into hands-in-the-dirt habitat restoration work at special places along the Mississippi River.

After reading about FMR in the Blue Sky Guide and online, Sarah volunteered for her first FMR event, a spring Oak Savanna Workday in the River Gorge. She thought it “would be a nice way to get out,” but did not know what to expect.

“The thing that I truly appreciated about my first event was how easy it was for me to just walk right up and begin doing something. It was well-organized and they took the time to properly show you what to do and where to do it. This really appealed to me and made it easy to come back and feel comfortable at the event next time.”

Sarah continued to experiment with different types of FMR volunteer activities, doing prairie seed collection and invasive species removal in and for such special areas as the Hastings River Flats, Sand Coulee and Pine Bend Scientific and Natural Area.

Sarah says her favorite volunteer activities are the restoration ecology tasks. She finds this is now rubbing off into her hobbies. She studies Japanese language and is learning about Japanese gardens by volunteering at the Conservatory and helping to maintain the Tea Garden there.

To relax after such intricate work, Sarah enjoys listening to bluegrass music and spending time with her 9-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son, whom she also takes on camping trips and other family and nature-centered excursions.

Tim Boyle is a freelance writer and photographer and fellow FMR volunteer, and can be reached via e-mail.

To learn more about upcoming restoration events, including the Oak Savanna Workdays, please visit our upcoming events page.

To learn more about the Oak Savanna where Ms Risser volunteers, check out the background info for this past Oak Savanna event.