Earth Team volunteers honored

By John Markon, Virginia NRCS

Each April arrival of National Volunteer Week has particular meaning to the significant number of Virginia employees of the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service who began their careers in conservation as Earth Team volunteers.

Among them are Matthew Roberts, Jake Browder and Cory Guilliams, all of whom transitioned from Earth Team to full-time NRCS employment, and, eventually, to positions as district conservationists, or supervisors of operations at one of the agency’s 41 field offices in the Old Dominion.

“What Earth Team did for me is as simple as saying ‘Foot in the door,’” said Guilliams.  “I know the COVID years had a really negative effect on all kinds of volunteerism, but Earth Team is so effective in getting people involved with conservation and keeping them involved.  It’s an important program and I think it will be bouncing back.”

While the backgrounds of Guilliams, Roberts and Browder have some similarities, there are significant differences as well.  While they’re all Virginia natives, they come from distinctively different areas of the state.

Guilliams grew up in Botetourt County and was working toward his degree in Environmental Science at Ferrum College when he found himself very engaged with a one-credit hour course in conservation of natural resources taught by Raymond Cocke, now a retired NRCS employee.  Cocke and one of Guilliams’ career counselors eventually pointed Guilliams toward Earth Team and NRCS.

“I had never heard of NRCS or Earth Team until then,” he said, “but I learned that they did work that I discovered I wanted to do.  As a volunteer, I did farm visits with full-time employees and learned the names and terminology associated with NRCS programs.  I also worked with a DC named Rodney Williams (now retired) who liked having volunteers in the office and was good at inspiring them.”

Roberts hails from Wythe County and also came into contact with Williams.  Before that, he found himself in community college with a career goal of teaching agriculture to high school students.  His first teaching internship, however, convinced him that his destiny was somewhere other than the classroom.  After consulting with a career coach, Roberts began volunteering at NRCS’ Wytheville office and continually increased his volunteer hours as he moved on to Virginia Tech, where he was graduated in 2016.  In 2015, he was selected as NRCS’ state, regional and national individual Earth Team Volunteer of the Year.

“I just threw myself into the work because I liked it so much,” he said.  “In 2015, when I won the award, I think I totaled something like 1,380 volunteer hours, which was kind of crazy.  I was also the first volunteer in Virginia to be certified as a conservation planner.  I eventually got into our Pathways program for college students, which led to a part-time job and then a full-time job.”

As for Browder, who was raised on a farm in Brunswick County, Earth Team capped a volunteer “career” that began with 27 months service with the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic.  After returning to the United States, he attended a county fair where he encountered a high school classmate who’d secured a job with one of the state’s soil and water conservation districts.  This meeting ultimately led Browder to NRCS’ field office in Smithfield, where administrative assistant Wendy Mears pointed him toward Earth Team.  Five months later, he was hired as a part-timer.  Today, he’s the district conservationist in Smithfield.

“My timing was good,” he said.  “I’d just gotten married and was basically unemployed.  Volunteering was a big help in two ways.  First there was the ‘foot in the door,’ which was priceless.  There was also the opportunity to visit so many of our field offices in Area IV (Eastern Virginia) and work with so many experienced professionals.  It was a real education.”

Other current district conservationists who began as Earth Team volunteers include Hunter Musser (Marion), Mark Jessee (Abingdon), Travis Mead (Stuart), Wess Stanley (Lebanon) and Nathan Osborne (Galax).  Hannah Clifford, a soil conservationist in the Courtland office, retraced some of Roberts’ steps when she was named the state and regional individual Earth Team Volunteer of the Year for 2022.

“Earth Team volunteers can have a large impact,” said Dr. Edwin Martinez Martinez, NRCS’ state conservationist in Virginia.  “While they’re building new skill sets and exploring the idea of a USDA career, they’re also engaging with their local communities, assisting our agency and learning the basics about how we work with our partners to get more conservation on the ground.”

Browder, Roberts and Guilliams were united in the opinion that volunteerism will eventually rebound as the isolationist tendencies of the COVID years fade in memories.   This hope extends not only to volunteers exploring career opportunities, but to large projects – tree-plantings and woods clean-ups, for example – involving groups of “one-day” volunteers who may never formally affiliate with Earth Team but who perform valuable services none the less.

“We were able to organize successful tree-plantings in 2021 and 2022,” Guilliams said.  “We didn’t do one last year, but that was only because we lacked a site.  I’ve always recommended Earth Team to anyone who’s curious about what we do.  Some of my former volunteers are full-time conservation pros now, and I’m very proud of that.”

More information about Earth Team and volunteer opportunities with NRCS is available at your local field office.  Don’t be surprised if the person you speak with tells you they began their career as a volunteer.