Battling Poverty via Enviornmenal Remediation Seeks Web Help
The Western Hardrock Watershed Team (WHWT) is a coalition of community/watershed-improvement groups, confronting the challenges that remain from historic mining in the West. We address environmental degradation and community impoverishment by providing rural mining communities with the skills and capacity they need to make their neighborhoods, communities, and watersheds better places to live and work.
The WHWT provides important capacity-building support to rural mining communities through an innovative partnership between the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) and AmeriCorps*VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) - often referred to as the domestic Peace Corps. We help build capacity, sustainability, and environmental awareness by placing OSM/VISTAs with local community watershed groups throughout Colorado, New Mexico, and Montana.
All our OSM/VISTAs are college graduates, passionate, and willing to live at poverty for a year or two to make effective and lasting change. We come from all different walks of life. We vary in age from mid 50s to early 20s and have bachelors and masters degrees ranging from Religious Studies to Geology. Some of us are locals, some have moved thousands of miles from home for this opportunity. What ties us together is the belief that we can undo the environmental and economic damage and thus break the cycle of rural poverty, as well as a strong desire to change the world, one small piece at a time. Related Link