'We All Need to Do Something'

The Earthwatch Institute credits much of its successes to its volunteers. The 37-year-old nonprofit sent some 3,800 volunteers out on 120 field projects last year to work directly with scientists around the world. Among the group's recent success stories was the release of 2,000 hand-reared African penguin chicks that were orphaned after an oil spill. The best news: the animals are successfully breeding in the wild of South Africa's Robben and Dassen Islands.
But you don't have to go as far as South Africa to find an animal in need. When Louise Craig of Rochester, N.Y.,  was looking to take a trip last year, she chose to go on an Earthwatch expedition in neighboring New Jersey to help save the diamondback terrapin turtle, which makes its home in the brackish waters of Barnegat Bay.

For nearly two weeks, she and her son Albert, then 10, monitored nesting sites, collected vegetation samples and tracked the turtles, whose numbers are being depleted due to land development. "These are some of the coolest creatures on earth," Craig says. "We could have gone to Disneyland, but I know that this was more important. Maybe in our own small way we helped these turtles, and that would be just wonderful."
Fortunately, when it comes to animals, cute, cuddly and cool is in the eye of vacationer.

"There really isn't an animal that doesn't get some attention," says Lisa Rooney, director of outbound programs for Volunteer Adventures in Denver. About half of their programs are geared toward wildlife and conservation, and even somewhat stigmatized animals, like bats, have their vacationing advocates.

"People come back from these trips and say they are more aware that the world is really a very small place," Rooney says, "and every creature deserve a safe place on our planet. I'm hopeful about the future."

© 2008