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More Feature Articles

January 2010
-Creature-Focused Careers
-Former Members Reflect: Dr. Dwight Armstrong
-Levy Randolph
-Safety on Speed Dial
-Preserving Their Culture
-Off and Away

November 2009
-Former Members Reflect: Emilie Bocker
-Turn That Down!
-Car Smarts
-So Much Cooler Online
-Laila Hajji
-The Water Way
-A Greater Cause

June 2009
-Stretch Your Summer Income
-Riley Branch
-Turn That Down
-Behind-The-Scenes Star

May 2009
-Welcoming Women
-Regina Holliday
-Job Interview Jitters
-So Much Cooler Online
-Questioning Your College Choices?

-A Can-Do Attitude
-Former Members Reflect: Michele Payn-Knoper

April 2009
-Hannah Crossen
-Cowboy Book With a Cause
-From FFA to 33Miles
-There’s Cash in Your Future
-I’m Angry…Now What?
-For the Love of Landscaping
-Perfect Balance
-Gardening For A Cause

February 2009
-Blue-Ribbon Banjo Player
-FFA as an Art Form
-Wild About Animals
-Nessie Early
-Be a PAL
-Full Throttle
-Living to Serve
-Special Invitation

January 2009
-All About National FFA Week
-Paul Moya
-Justin Floyd
-Partners for the Planet
-Finding Balance
-Swimming in Aquaculture
-Breaking Records
-Take It Slow

December 2008
-National FFA convention to rotate homes

November 2008
-Dr. Al Snyder
-Scholarship Secrets
-Gear Up for National FFA Week
-Kari Boettcher
-Resist Peer Pressure
-Good to the Last Crop
-All Creatures, Great and Small
-Sparking Interest

September 2008
-Agriculture Accuracy
-Crissa Fruechte
-Brady Revels
-Get Up!
-Proceed With Caution
-All in Good Taste
-Clutch Performance
-Step Right Up

July 2008
-Take It to a New Level
-Deep-Rooted Interest
-Take a Deep Breath
-Tyler Tenbarge
-Inspired by FFA
-On the Right Track

May 2008
-In the Vault
-Your Money: Keeping Records
-National Officer Q&A
-We’re All Unique
-Best in Show
-Grab Life by the Reins

March 2008
-Call to Order!
-Reality Check
-Turtle Power
-By the Numbers
-Dale Darling
-A Token of Appreciation
-National Officer Q&A

January 2008
-National Officer Q&A
-Back Talk: Paul McCutchan
-Building Bright Futures

November 2007
-National Officer Q&A
-Back Talk: Corey Flournoy
-Biofuels Mean Business
-Go, Team, Go
-A Tractor Tradition

October 2007
-National Officer Q&A
-Back Talk: Kristie VerMulm
-Give them an A+
-Cranberry Crazy
-Racing to Indy

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FFA Feature

Turtle Power

Florida FFA member protects endangered species

March 2008

Chances are, you’ve never seen a sea turtle up close and personal. You’ve probably never watched a giant mother-to-be paddle her way out of the ocean and up onto the beach, dig a nest in the ground, and lay her eggs. And you’ve almost certainly never witnessed the baby hatchlings emerge, miraculously, after days of struggle, from beneath the sand. Well, here’s a bit of advice from one person who has: You should.

“It’s amazing,” says Alonda McCarty, a recent graduate of New Smyrna Beach High School in Florida and a seasonal employee at nearby Canaveral National Seashore, where endangered sea turtles are the main attraction. “Whether you walk out there on the beach one night and just see it once, or you go a thousand times, each time it’s different. Each time it’s special. The first time I saw a sea turtle, I fell in love with it.”

An Eye-Opening Experience
The first time Alonda saw a sea turtle was her freshman year in high school. She’d just moved to coastal Florida from Kentucky, where her family owned a cattle ranch.

“I went from this big farm to this tiny island,” she says. “It was so different.”

Alonda joined the local FFA chapter, where she quickly discovered she had a lot to learn about modern agriculture.

“To me, FFA was cows and horses and things like that,” she says. “Actually, joining FFA opened up a whole new world for me – to see that there was so much more to it, from endangered species to the fishing industry. We even had a clam nursery at school where we raised baby clams.”

Eager to get her feet wet, Alonda began volunteering at Canaveral, which is operated by the National Park Service. Before long she was asked to help out with the sea turtle program. She jumped at the chance.

“We’d take a group of 30 people out four nights a week and show them where the turtles lay their eggs,” she explains. “I learned more and more about it and eventually got really involved. Sea turtles just became a really big part of my life.”

So big, in fact, that Alonda has returned to Canaveral year after year, spending the better part of each turtle season helping park rangers, leading educational programs and, occasionally, rescuing stranded turtles.

When it was time to start her supervised agricultural experience program, she decided to build it around the conservation of sea turtles and their habitat. She even won a national FFA proficiency award for her work.

The thing about sea turtles, Alonda says, is that they’re in trouble. Development pressure, pollution, global warming and a number of other threats have led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list all but one species of sea turtle as endangered. Her new summer position at the park is to direct an environmental education program for kids.

“The more you educate young people, the more they want to help,” Alonda says. “They come out and see the turtles for the first time, and they’re hooked.”

A Future in Conservation
Last summer, at the end of another long hatching season, Alonda finally saw the giant turtle of the sea – a leatherback. These turtles can top 2,000 pounds,
and some live to be 80 years old.

“They’re extremely rare,” Alonda says. “It was incredible.”

Now a sophomore at Eastern Kentucky University, where she majors in environmental science, Alonda has managed to juggle two potentially competing interests: her devotion to both sea turtles and her family. The cattle ranch is still going, and her grandfather, who runs it, welcomes her help.

“Sometimes it’s nice to get back to your roots for a while,” she says. “That’s one of the main reasons I’m in school here – so I can be around and help out on the farm.”

Still, there are no doubts about Alonda’s future. She says she’ll definitely find work by or on the water when she’s finished with college.

“My dream job would be on a research boat traveling around the world, studying leatherbacks,” she says. “But I’d also love to work with the Park Service, to just be out there with the sea turtles or another endangered species, helping them stay alive.”

Story by Chris Hayhurst

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Web Extra

Get Involved

Officially “endangered” animals like the sea turtle are deemed to be in significant danger of extinction and are therefore protected under federal law by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Once an animal is listed as an endangered species, it receives lots of attention from a range of people – everyone from the U.S. president to real estate developers to the Sierra Club and the National Park Service.

Numerous measures must be taken to preserve its habitat, to encourage successful reproduction and recovery, and to minimize potential threats from things like hunting, construction, and pollution. More than 1,000 animal species are now protected under the ESA.

What can you do to help? Start by reading as much as you can about different endangered species. Next, consider volunteering, like Alonda, at a place devoted to helping the species survive. You could also find part-time work with a group like the Student Conservation Association.

But when it comes to sea turtles, Alonda says the biggest thing you can do right away is not use plastic bags, which often end up in the ocean where they’re mistaken for jellyfish, a primary source of turtle food.

“Recycle,” she says. “Or better yet, use a canvas bag instead.”

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