AmeriCorps NCCC Team Silver 3 member shares her San Lorenzo Valley Restoration Program experience.
By Kelsey Stoneberger
Hometown, Harper’s Ferry, WV.
When Coast Redwoods sprouting up into the shape of giants greeted me as I drove into Santa Cruz on the first day, I could feel this overwhelming sense of comfort and familiarity and magic. There are a lot of holes in the roads from mudslides, but I think they hold some of that magic and every time the van drives over them, the magic sticks to our tires and we carry it with us.
The whole team was brought here to work on habitat restoration, and I kept thinking, all of those areas were unaware of the fact they needed restoring. At first I thought how sad that is, but then I realized it’s all figured out at different times. We took the guts and hidden roots and hung them out to dry, tossed them in the dumpster, told them this is no longer their life to live. I became convinced that a troll was holding all of the Himalayan Blackberry roots with tight fists, laughing at me every time I tried to pluck one from the earth. It felt odd to break things away from where they are comfortable and safe, but maybe that’s the whole point. Maybe some things should not stay just because they’ve always been rooted somewhere.
I came to Santa Cruz and I felt comfort and familiarity and magic. It was the first place I felt could be called home. And it is difficult to explain why I’ve been searching for that in other places. Before I started AmeriCorps, I told myself I would grow in ways I could not imagine. I welcomed a new year of life here, jumped from 22 to 23. I touched the Pacific Ocean for the first time and inhaled the peace that rolls from the sea. I feel very comfortable near the ocean because it is indecisive; it keeps coming back for more. I touched Redwoods and compared myself to them, realized that humans also have to shed themselves of unnecessary things to stay sunny. And it doesn’t matter what the unnecessary is, it just means that someone can’t keep growing if they can’t see the sun. I don’t know what comes after this or what is next but I am comfortable with being alone. I am comfortable with taking slow steps to new places.
Wherever those new places are, I will take every bit of gathered knowledge from Linda and Kelley Skeff, Santa Cruz, and everyone else who fills in the cracks. Kelley Skeff told me there is a common variable throughout all of humanity: That is chance embedded in unpredictability, so don’t be afraid…and I won’t.
AmeriCorps NCCC is a national community service program whose members, age 18-24, spend 10 months serving communities and developing leadership skills through direct, team-based national and community service.
The San Lorenzo Valley Restoration Project, in collaboration with The Valley Women’s Club and Santa Cruz County Parks, works to enhance and sustain the health of the natural environment in the Santa Cruz Mountains. AmeriCorps Team Silver 3 spent the months of January through March, 2017, in SLV (with a short hiatus to assist those responding to the Oroville dam crisis) clearing invasive flora and improving infrastructure in Highlands Park, Quail Hollow Ranch, and the site of the new Felton Library. On Facebook: www.facebook.com/slvrestorationprogram/
