Over the past 50 years, service trips have given me the opportunity to help protect and restore vulnerable areas around the world. In 2007, I read an article about the Scottish non-profit, Trees for Life, in National Geographic Adventure magazine. Trees for Life has been working to reforest the Scottish Highlands since 1989. Sadly, much…
A Human Waste Problem! Probably not the first thought that came to your mind, right? Seriously, we hikers love remote wilderness areas. But our love has an impact. At Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, more than 150,000 visitors make an impact each year. For more than ten years, ConservationVIP® volunteers have been repairing…
What kind of person would spend more than ten years volunteering thousands of hours for an environmental nonprofit, without drawing attention to himself and his contributions? We have such a person in our organization, and I decided this is the right time to call him out. Behind his back some people have called him John…
![A [Volunteer] Day in the Life](https://conservationvip.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/yosemite-960x339-1-300x106.jpg)
It was September, 2009. My wife and I learned about ConservationVIP® from a family member and we were encouraged to check out the trip to Yosemite National Park. Upon learning more details from the ConservationVIP® website and through REI Adventures, we signed up to join them. Having experienced the value of volunteering locally and being…
Have you ever been camping or hiking and thought – darn, I really should have brought those extra socks, or maybe a hat, or maybe a blanket; perhaps, you needed a rope for your tent or someone to chase away a raccoon in the night. Or, you may have even found yourself as the last…
Peter Murphy, photographer and videographer extraordinaire, has generously shared his talents with ConservationVIP®, producing videos and photographs which vividly portray our volunteer trips. Because Peru and Machu Picchu hold special meaning to Peter, his first videos for us were focused on our Machu Picchu volunteer trip. I asked Peter to explain why he has been…
