Save a tree. Clean up a stream. Local actions can have global results. That was the message at an environmental forum Tuesday for the Community Role Models program, an initiative supported by the county to engage young adults in community service.
"We need new energy, fresh ideas and creativity," said County Board member Walter Tejada. "I believe young people have that."
The crowd of more than 50 prospective 20- and 30-something volunteers heard from others of the same demographic who have pitched in to keep Arlington's local environment clean.
"When you work a 40-hour week, at the end of it you wonder where all the time has gone and what you did," said Miles Grant of Arlingtonians for a Cleaner Environment (ACE). "This was a way for me to feel involved with something in the community outside of the office."
ACE volunteers take part in monthly service projects related to restoring and protecting local watersheds, like cleaning up streams and marking storm drains with labels prohibiting illegal dumping. With more than 70,000 storm drains in the county, according to Executive Director Elenor Hodges, ACE can use all the volunteers it can get.
"We kind of look at making Arlington more environmentally sustainable, and we stress that a lot of it starts with personal responsibility," said Hodges.
As an example, Hodges said that by using transportation alternatives like bike riding and Metro rather than driving, an Arlingtonian can keep 4.62 tons of carbon dioxide from being spread into the air each year.
ACE's other work includes landscaping projects aimed at improving local wildlife habitats.
Arlington's public parks offer many volunteer opportunities, according Parks and Recreations Department representative Eric Legg. Along with environmental service projects like stream cleanups, the department has several openings for volunteer sports coaches. With 80 miles of bike trails and 1,100 acres of parks and recreations land in the county, Legg said the department also needs volunteers for maintenance projects to keep the land looking beautiful.
"WE'RE A VERY busy age group," said Mike Smaha, who has volunteered coaching a team of second-grade boys in soccer. "It's difficult to commit to a group or an organization during the week."
But Smaha said his coaching experience was well worth the time.
"Try to run a soccer practice with 9- and 10-year-old boys," he said. "It's like trying to herd cats. It's very difficult, but I enjoyed it a lot."
Saving the environment can even be done from the comfort of one's apartment building, as Bonnie Wilson of the county's Department of Environmental Services said. Wilson, charged with monitoring Arlington's solid waste programs, encouraged apartment dwellers to help organize recycling efforts with fellow tenants.
"Arlington does a great job providing these services, but we need residents, tenants, the people of Arlington to do to it, to make recycling possible," said Wilson, who added that Arlington now recycles 33 percent of materials like cardboard, aluminum and glass. The county's goal is to recycle 37 percent of that material by 2014. She encouraged people to go door-to-door and spread the word about recycling.
"We need residents to be our spokespeople, to be advocates for recycling," she said.
The forum also saw members of Yorktown High School's Environmental Action Committee. This cadre of students has gotten the school to look closer at how it disposes of its trash. Yorktown, one student said, creates 70 bags of trash each day.
Arlingtonians interested in transportation issues might want to get involved with the Arlington Coalition for Sensible Transportation. Representative Jason Rylander said local transit projects are critical to the county's environmental future. The coalition's current projects include promoting alternatives to the proposed widening of Interstate 66 through letter-writing campaigns and other approaches.