The Lake Huron Coastal Centre is looking for young people between the ages of 14 to 18 to join their Coastal Conservation Youth Corps program in Goderich and Port Elgin this July, August, and September.
Coastal Education Technician, Kerry Kennedy, says the free outdoor education program uses Lake Huron as a classroom to teach youth about coastal ecology, helping them learn new skills in the field while earning up to 30 volunteer hours towards their high school diploma requirements.
"The Youth Corp program is designed to both educate and provide some experiences and opportunities along the shoreline. So each day begins with a learning session and each day has a different topic," said Kennedy. "Then we get out and get our hands dirty and do some actual work, things like shoreline clean up, taking a water sample and actually looking for micro-plastics, transplanting dune grasses and other plants and getting out into the wetlands and looking for invasive species."
Kennedy says participants gain valuable experience with stewardship activities, like dune restoration, plant species identification, invasive plant removal, shoreline clean-ups, microplastic testing, and community planning. But she adds, it also gives them a chance to find out if they might be interested in pursuing a career in the environmental field.
Kennedy says the first week of classes is already filled, but they do have spaces for July 18th to the 22nd and 25th to the 29th in Saugeen Shores and August 8th to the 12th in Goderich and in the fall over the weekends of September 17th and 18th and October 1st and 2nd, also in Goderich. More information about the Coastal Conservation Youth Corps. Program can be found on the Lake Huron Coastal Centre web page.