‘Any bit helps’: Why volunteers will save the world

I started today’s column thinking about Earth Day — or, if you prefer, Earth Month, as April is known. I considered collecting some of the most prominent among numerous environmental stories we carry regularly and then noting, as is true, that we don’t need an annual observance to motivate us to find interesting stories that promote environmental awareness. We produce many such throughout the year.

Then, as I began the collection, I realized there is another theme here, one that is perhaps even more important. It occurred to me as my attention was drawn to four front-page stories from just this month, and it takes shape in my mind in two related axioms. Choose which you prefer and we’ll proceed.

One: The world could not exist without caring volunteers.

Two: If anyone actually saves the world, it will not be some great general, philosopher or political leader. It will be everyday, caring volunteers and the sum total of their random efforts.

The theme could be examined along any number of topics and activities. For the purposes of this month’s observance and this column, let’s just consider four environment- and wildlife-related pieces.

We begin with Katlyn Smith’s April 6 feature on efforts throughout suburban recreation areas to protect local bird, fish and wildlife by simply cleaning up. The story of course includes some professional ecologists and biologists, but it is the commitment of Amy Tavolino that particularly stands out. One wonders what the official experts would do without her.

Tavolino, of Wheaton, a volunteer with the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, spends several hours a week wandering the Blackwell Forest Preserve near Warrenville and other preserves, picking up litter that can be dangerous to fish and wildlife. She and her husband Jerry keep a crate in their cars so that if they come upon an animal in trouble, they can rescue it and get it to the DuPage Forest Preserve District’s wildlife hospital in Glen Ellyn.

One day later, Mick Zawislak profiled the work of the Lake County Lake Lovers, a group of volunteers working with nonprofit GlobalWaterWorks to find ways to improve water quality in the county’s 173 lakes. In a pilot program last year, the group focused on cleaning up 12 lakes — often plagued with algae blooms that block sunlight and can lead to hazards for people and pets as well as fish and wildlife. This year, they’ll focus on 21 lakes.

In four years, their number has grown from around a dozen members to now 500. The volunteers engage in intense study of the science and tools involved in protecting the lakes, and they work to collect, study and share reams of data online.

“We are building a powerful culture of intelligent lake stewardship married with community engagement. It starts with volunteers who care for their local lake,” Becky Sawle, co-chair of Lake County Lake Lovers, told Zawislak.

On April 15, Jake Griffin described the work of professionals and volunteer experts tracking the spring return of hummingbirds and other fowl returning to Illinois in the spring, and just yesterday, Rick West told of 84-year-old Joyce Zemba who became fed up with the deteriorating condition of a two-acre public wetland and pond near her apartment at Hearthwood Senior Living in Bartlett and set out to do something about it.

With the help of Hearthwood Executive Director Eric Gross, she connected with a local lake management company to save the area from invasive species that were choking it literally to death and devise a long-term plan to protect it in the future.

Stories like these deserve special attention in a month devoted to appreciating the environment that sustains us, but they abound throughout the year. And, when seeing them, it is striking to note how much we owe volunteers for what is successful in the realm of biology and ecology. That observation likely extends to nearly every subject one could name, and in that sense, it is encouraging to reflect on how a dominant theme of Earth Month — that, as Amy Tavolino told Smith, “any bit helps” — is relevant for almost every goal or obstacle society faces.

• Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is managing editor for opinion at the Daily Herald. Follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jim.slusher1 and on X at @JimSlusher. His book “To Nudge The World” has been named a Book of the Year by the Chicago Writers Association and is available at eckhartzpress.com.