Wow it's been a long, sometimes bumpy, road these last two years since Restoration Not Incarceration™ began. But I hope you are as glad as I am that at this moment our two top Restoration Not Incarceration achievers Calvin Glenn and Pierre Johnson have just left Houston to head to work on the 13,500 acre Galisteo Basin Preserve in Santa Fe County, New Mexico. Both Calvin and Pierre are formerly homeless and formerly incarcerated. We've come a long way together.
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Calvin Glenn and Pierre Johnson, GPRC Ecological Health Crew Members
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"We know how to work, and work hard," Calvin says. "We know how to remove invasive species like Chinese tallow trees down here on the coastal prairie. I'm looking forward to tackling the junipers and cholla cactus in New Mexico and helping bring back prairie dogs!"
Pierre says, "We're on our way to New Mexico for the first time ever in our lives. I'm very excited to work with and meet everyone."
Do I sound like a proud big brother? Haha you got that right.
Helping these young men and others help themselves restore their own lives through restoring America's broken prairies -- and earn pay through new Green Jobs in ecological restoration -- is something we can all support.
I'll be out there with them these next 5 days, as will Paula Martin, our Prairie Dog Grasslands Coordinator, and local folks from Santa Fe. We'll be building the second of three planned Gunnison's prairie dog towns. This next one will be on the northern rim of the Preserve. (The first was completed in September.)
I hope you will be with us in spirit out on the Galisteo Plain. We come from urban black Houston and the lush, green but very endangered tallgrass coastal prairie down here on the Gulf, and meet up with northern New Mexico Hispanic, Indian and Anglo folks on the soaring, high and dry yellow High Plains nearly 7,000 feet in the sky. And eventually vice versa.
There is a lot more of this work interaction to come. The Galisteo Basin Preserve, initiated by Commonweal Conservancy, is poised to expand significantly and will be a privately held national preserve built by all of us, including you. GPRC is the restoration partner.
Please,
DONATE what you can to continue this good hard work. Seriously, the economy has been tough, yet we move forward. We can't do it without you.
Stay tuned... and thanks for your years of support!
Jarid Manos
Founder & CEO
Great Plains Restoration Council
(*beauty and vision not polemics move this country forward*) :)
