meeting my internship

For my first journal entry I suppose it would only be appropriate to describe what organization I will be mini-interning with and what I will be doing with these people. I chose the Berkshire Natural Resource Center as my place to volunteer, initially I was not quite sure what these people did but through their website I was able to understand that they manage private lands for public use. I called up the Resource Center and the first person I talked with was absolutely befuddled by my request. Initially the person I spoke to asked me several questions; why are you doing this? what do you want to do for us? what special talents do you have? After replying “I dunno!” to all of the aforementioned questions the person I spoke with finally asked “do you know anything about the outdoors or computers?” Finally a question I could answer, I love the outdoors, hunting and fishing are my favorite pastimes. Thanks to this response I was assigned the duty of “trail work.”
Obviously I had no clue at the time what trail work entailed, I imagined a machete and a safari hat which I would later learn that I would not receive. Before I get into the theatrics that were my first day of doing trail work, a topic worthy of its’ own journal entry, I must first describe my initial reaction to the people at the Resource Center. The man I first spoke with, while confused as to my motives was very pleasant and patient. The man who I was referred to from this mystery phone man, Doug Bruce, also seemed like a great guy over the telephone. The first question I asked Doug once we decided that outdoor work was the best way to get anything accomplished by me was “What do you people do at the Resource Center?” Doug proceeded to basically summarize the Resource Center in the following way “we’re like a state park system but it’s private land.” What this means is that the Resource Center takes privately owned land and buys the conservation restrictions to the land. In state parks the state decides what can and cannot be done on the state land. The Resource Center buys conservation restrictions, or has them donated and opens private land up for public use and determines what can and cannot be allowed on their parcels of land.
From there I had two questions, first, why would anyone want the Resource Center to tell them what can and cannot be done on their land? The reason if I may paraphrase Doug is that if you sell the resource center a conservation restriction you get money and a tax break. Also people will donate land just to make sure it is preserved for the good of the Berkshires. Secondly I needed to know what can and cannot be done on Resource Center land. The can do’s on Resource land involve hiking, hunting, fishing, timbering and farming (with the Resource Center’s permission of course of timbering and farming.) The do not’s involve off roading (Jeeps, 4-wheelers etc.), dumping garbage and camping. The mission of the Berkshire Natural Resource Center is to protect the Berkshires for the public to use in generations to come. After talking with some people within the organization I was eager to begin my mini internship.