by Liam Leslie

When you think about habitat restoration you'll probably think not much because most people don't do this but some people do.

I interviewed Matthew Evinger and his job is to work at Washington Conservation Corps (WCC) to help protect the wild. One of the things that he does is removing weeds. He also makes water cleaner for salmon and plants trees where the weeds would have been. A challenge that he has faced working with WCC is disagreeing with team members, but he knows it’s worth it. A joy for Matthew is to be able to be in the wild every day which most of us are not able to do. But Matthew encourages you to get outside and help the wild just like he does. If you see a sunny day go outside, don't stay inside when you can still do small things like picking up trash. In Matthew’s job there is this cool invention called the raincoat, it protects him from falling droplets of water. As you can see Matthew is not afraid of the elements.

You might not know about the Washington Conservation Corps (WCC) and what they do. In this article I will be showing a little bit about their organization and what they do. First, WCC was started in 1983 modeled after the civilian conservation corps of the 1930’s and 40s. Washington Conservation corps has 53 crews and 14 individual placements across Washington. The program helps habitats that have been damaged and gives them new life so animals can live there. They also plant plants the animals like so the animals can eat with relish. In the next paragraph I will tell you about my interview with Matthew Evinger and what he does in his job at Washington Conservation Corps. If you want to learn more about Corps go to their website.

Matthew Evinger wakes up and then heads to work and makes a plan with his colleagues for the day. Then he goes to his work building and picks up his tools to use at the habitat restoration spots. Then he and his colleagues drive as long as an hour to a place that needs habitat restoration.

Matthew describes his job as planting trees, removing weeds, and helping the Earth. Here are a few reasons why that this job is very fun. First, Matthew says he likes it because he gets to work outside. He also thinks his job is fun because he gets to work with plants and people and teach them about the environment. Some of the other things that he does in his job is teaching people about the environment and finding ways to work together. He has been in this job for seven years and has rarely had a thought of leaving. Sometimes he even goes on backpacking trips to help trails, and now after seven years of doing this job he still loves to do it.

Matthew has a few challenges in his job. One of them is working with colleagues because sometimes it takes a long time to agree about how they should do restoration. One of his favorite parts of his job is also working with people and teaching them about how to help the environment. Matthew loves being able to go outside and teach people about nature.

Matthew helps his community by making the world more beautiful and cleaner. He cares about helping both the environment and the people in Washington to have access to the wild for the future.