How we spend our volunteer time

If you’ve read the About Us section on our website, you’ll know that we each spend time on volunteer efforts (paid volunteer time each month) as part of our 1% for the Planet membership. We thought it would be fun to share a bit about what we’ve spent that time doing. Are you interested in getting out and doing some good? Search the map here for some environmental partners who may have some opportunities!

Markus

We were approached by Sam Williams of Macaw Recovery Network when he started his excellent wildlife conservation podcast. If you saw our pink Loquelic Iteritas, you’ll remember MRN: they got 100% of the proceeds from that project! Along with some administrative tasks, Sam was in need of an audio editor, and I, being a closeted podcast audio snob, was more than happy to jump on the opportunity. 

All of the episodes have been excellent, and it’s a double treat for me: I get to do some fun audio editing, and I get to learn from his fabulous guests at the same time. I particularly enjoyed Rocio Palacios’s episode: I had no idea you could dedicate your career to an animal you might never see. 

Some of the early recordings had some particularly challenging (read: very fun) issues that I enjoyed resolving. The best way to remove cross talk? Manually remove every instance of cross talk!

Kris & Stephen

A fun opportunity we’ve found is North East Trees who do a lot of restoration work across North East Los Angeles, including in our local park. We haven’t gotten there to assist as frequently as we’d like but their volunteer hours are always fun. We get to spend a few hours on a Saturday morning digging in the dirt and potting native plants. Plus, they often have plants for volunteers to take home! We have a couple of trees from them and several native plants (though admittedly the native milkweed is languishing). 

I (Kris) also wanted to find some volunteering that I could do from home for days where I had a little free time. My 1% for the Planet rep recommended that I check Catchafire. There I was able to find a few ways to give some of my time. My background in biology made me a great fit for a couple of organizations searching for funding opportunities. I’ve been having a blast looking for pots of money they can apply for to keep the lights on while they are out there doing the good conservation work. Currently, I’m volunteering with an organization called Working Dogs for Conservation. They train rescue dogs to use their noses for good. Dogs can be deployed with trained handlers to help find and protect rare, threatened, and endangered animals and plants. They are also training them to do a ton of other great things like detecting and preventing spread of invasive species (and disease!), fighting poaching and illegal animal trafficking, and more. Cool stuff, and it’s really fun to be a part in some small way.

Stephen helped our pal Sam from Macaw Recovery Network when he was setting up his podcast that Markus has helped with. Sam had a chance to interview some really great conservation biologists, and wanted to record it, but he was really quite new to the process. Stephen met up with him on Zoom and gave him a masterclass on recording and popped in for another tutorial here or there. 

Patrick

I’ve also been helping our friends at Macaw Recovery Network build their social media presence. They have a vast archive of photos and raw video showcasing the birds, their habitat, and the dedicated people working to restore wild macaw populations in Costa Rica. We've been developing YouTube Shorts and other video content for their channel, including their YouTube trailer, which is seen by new visitors when they visit their channel.

One of the most rewarding parts of the project has been composing original music for these videos using Noise Engineering modules, including the pink Loquelic Iteritas that first sparked our partnership. Pairing my music with drone footage of forests and macaws being cared for has become one of my favorite things to do.

The project is also deeply personal. Growing up in the midwest, I always heard birds in my house because my bedroom was next to my sister’s. She devoted her life to caring for birds. She passed away a couple years ago, and working with Macaw Recovery Network helps me stay connected to that part of my life.