Earthwatch Institute engages people worldwide in
scientific field research and education to promote the understanding and action
necessary for a sustainable environment.
Earthwatch is an international
nonprofit organization that places paying volunteers (or student/teacher grant
award winners) of all ages on short-term research expeditions all over the
world. As an Earthwatch volunteer, you can explore some of the most
unusual places, like Belize, Estonia and Mongolia where you might excavate a
million-year-old elephant fossil, comb tropical streams for calling frogs or
track radio-collared pumas.
Each Earthwatch project sends you on an important,
life-changing adventure where you’ll make friends from around the world and
help conditions here on planet Earth.
www.earthwatch.org
Lori’s Earthwatch
Experiences:
Traveling, adventure and environmentalism are some of Lori’s
passions. As an Earthwatch volunteer, she’s experienced many once-in-a-lifetime
events. So far, Lori has traveled down a river by boat for three days to live
with Chamacoco Indians in Paraguay. At the Karcha Balut village, she learned to
weave baskets from palm leaves. Lori taught in the one-room schoolhouse for a
day. She also photographed special cultural ceremonies to help promote the new
Chamacocco heritage museum.
(Click Pictures for Larger View)
Lori at Karcha Balut village with her Earthwatch
team.
Lori taught a group of kids in a one-room
schoolhouse. She had to speak Spanish. The children in Karcha Balut spoke three
languages, none of which were English!
At Central Washington University, Lori volunteered the
Chimpanzee Human Communication Institute with scientist Roger Fouts and his
research team who work with a group of chimpanzees that communicate in sign
language. This group includes Washoe, the first chimp to ever learn to sign.
Here Lori observed and recorded how these extremely intelligent chimpanzees
used different enrichment activities, including clothes, books and special
treats. The goal of this research is to see how to best stimulate the
chimpanzees in captivity. She made meals for the chimps, like fruit smoothies
and spent hours in long, rubber boots cleaning their areas. Lori’s best memory
was having Loulis, the youngest chimp, sign “tickle” as he tried to tickle her
foot through a glass wall! This project taught Lori so much about the sad
plight of chimpanzees in captivity and how vital it is to provide them the most
enriching life possible.
Visit the chimpanzees at the Chimpanzee Human Communication
Institute at:
www.cwu.edu/~cwuchci
For optimal health conditions for the
chimpanzees, all of their areas are kept extremely clean at the CHCI. Here’s
Lori in her long, rubber clean-up boots!
The chimpanzees loved apples, oranges and kiwi!
Here Moja the chimpanzee puts on a tie-dye
shirt. She loved to dress up and admire herself in the mirror. She has since
passed away and is missed greatly.
Lori’s most recent Earthwatch project was trekking through
Kluane National Park in the Yukon, Canada. Here, the goal of the research team
was to find ways for Grizzly bears and humans to best coexist in the same
areas. Collecting bear fur, tracks and scat (poop!) were part of her daily
activities. Backcountry hiking also sent Lori bushwhacking through beautiful,
yet rough, terrain in search of bear dens. Her biggest thrill was seeing her
first Grizzly and Bald Eagle in the wild and watching the Sockeye Salmon spawn
upstream. This project helped remind Lori of the importance of respecting
wildlife and preserving what little pristine habitat they have left.
Visit Kluane National Park at:
www.parkscanada.gc.ca/kluane
Lori and one of her teammates collecting bear
fur.
Back country camping in the amazing Kluane
National Park. Photo: David Rein. (shot of tents in backcountry)
Chow time! A Grizzly goes after a salmon. Photo:
David Rein.
Lori in the backcountry in search of bear dens.
Lori’s life-long love of animals and nature usually find
their way into her stories. And, most of the amazing wildlife she’s met along
the way usually end up as characters in her books.
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Lori Polydoros
kidtales@hotmail.com
