Building Trails and Resumes In The Hot, Humid Forests Of Houston

If you’re just out of college and finding it tough to land that first job, here’s something to consider. But a warning: it involves Texas and chainsaws.

By Dave Fehling August 30, 2016 9:30 am, , ,

From Houston Public Media

Within the confines of Houston’s Memorial Park is the Arboretum, a nature preserve with ponds and trails. But last week, the songbirds were getting drowned out by the sound of chainsaws working somewhere deep in the forest.

“We have 155 acres where for a very long time we have done nothing with the landscape. So a lot of invasive species have come in, “said Emily Manderson, the arboretum’s conservation director.

The Arboretum has a lot of invasive trees and shrubs that are choking the preferred native plants. But what it doesn’t have is a lot of is money for a big, full-time staff to go attack the invaders. So the Arboretum is trying something new.

“This is our first time working with them, “ said Manderson.

“Them” would be a crew of nine, 20-somethings who we found walking down one of the nature trails.

They were about to start clearing an area that looked so thickly overgrown you couldn’t begin to walk through it. One of the chainsaws is in the hands of Aneta Tyminski from Chicago.

“I just finished school. I majored in environmental science and my minor is in marine biology,” Tymiski tells us, wiping away sweat on a typically humid Houston morning.

Another crew member is Stephen Wolf from Houston.

“I’m still in school but I decided to take a semester off to make a difference and see what the world is like.  At school, I’m like a business major,” Wolf said.

Read more.