Meet five people for whom an outdoor interest turned into a burning passion. Here’s how they got hooked, and why they do what they do.
Passionate About Plants
Norma Lewis dotes on her plants – all 7,000 of them. “They all have personalities, let me tell you,” says Lewis, 73, of the succulents (hearty, exotic plants such as jade and cactus that store water in their leaves and stems) that fill her home, yard, hothouse, and greenhouse. Her love of plants took root at age five, when her grandmother took her to the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, home of the world’s largest succulent collection and a place Lewis calls “my heaven.” Today she volunteers there, propagating rare species of succulents that the library sells to raise money and to discourage collectors from taking plants from the wild. Most of all, Lewis enjoys teaching others about succulents. “Some can go six months without water,” she says. “It’s absolutely amazing how they fight for survival.” To learn more, go to Huntington.org
Caring for Crabs
When Glenn Gauvry saw hundreds of thousands of horseshoe crabs spawning on a Delaware beach in the moonlight, he was fascinated. “Talk about romance!” he says. Gauvry, 55, learned that the crabs were being overharvested as bait for conch and eel fisheries; in 1995 he started the Ecological Research and Development Group, the only organization in North America devoted to their protection. Since then, Gauvry helped develop a mesh “bait bag” that reduced the fishing industry’s need for crabs by half. So far he has distributed more than 12,000 bags free to fishermen from Maine to Florida, saving 1,500,00 crabs a year. He is raising money to build a crab museum and research and education center. “The horseshoe crab has been around for 350 million years,” he says. “It’s a remarkable story of survival and harmony.” For more, go to horseshoecrab.org
The Bone Collectors
When Amy and Jayson Kowinsky go on vacation, they never have to worry about crowds. At such off-the-beaten-track destinations as North Carolina’s Lee Creek mine, Amy, 28, a dietician, and Jayson, 27, a high school science teacher, dig up Carcharondon megalodon (prehistoric shark) teeth and trilobites (fossilized extinct marine creatures). Jayson posts their finds on his Web site, fossilguy.com. His rarest discovery so far: the skull of a Squalodon calvertensis (a long-snouted primitive whale). “I knew it was scientifically valuable,” he says. “I think it’s great that I can contribute to science [this way].” The couple is also contributing to their Pittsburgh neighborhood – by building a “bone garden” of whale vertebrae and rib fragments in their yard. What will the neighbors say? “They probably think we’re ax murderers!” Jayson says, laughing.
Friend to Animals
Kristin DeBoer will never forget the first time she saw the imprint of “an otter slide” in the snow near her home in western Massachusetts. “The otters glide on their bellies downhill,” she says. “It looks like fun!” DeBoer, 34, learned to watch for such signs when she helped start the volunteer group Valley Trackers in 2001 to document the movement of wildlife. Her passion for saving animals was sparked in college, where she learned that “we are erasing entire species of animals from the planet.” Today, she and other Trackers look for signs such as moose tooth marks on saplings four times a year, and share the data with local conservation commissions and land trusts. Their goal: to protect the land from development and preserve it. “My hope is that if we can provide enough open space,” says DeBoer, “wildlife will thrive.” For more, go to kestreltrust.org and click on “Public Outreach.”