Connecting students to nature is part of the job for volunteers helping out the Howard County Conservancy. More retirees are reacting to climate change and becoming environmental activists and volunteers out of concern for the future of their grandchildren and later descendants. Photo by Howard County Conservancy

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Barbara Schmeckpeper spent her career as a molecular biologist parsing the minutia of genes at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. But when she retired 20 years ago and looked up from her microscope, she found a wider world beckoning.

First, she volunteered to pull weeds at a local park, which led her to volunteer with organizations that work on environmental education and watershed issues.

Later, she co-founded the Howard County Legacy Leadership Institute for the Environment (HoLLIE) and volunteered with the Howard County Conservancy and the Anne Arundel Watershed Stewards Academy.

Schmeckpeper, who is 77 and lives in Columbia, admits it was a surprising change of pace.

“I became so focused on my own work [in the lab] I hardly knew the outside. That’s why it was so wonderful to retire early,” she said.

“It is my grandchildren who are impelling me. The impact of climate change on my grandchildren and their children has really driven me to want to educate people.”

Whether they became environmentalists in their youth or discovered the urge to protect the Earth after retirement, many older Howard County residents are volunteering to protect local watersheds, confront global climate change and safeguard the natural world for their grandchildren. And the county offers numerous opportunities to both learn and pitch in.

One of these is the group Schmeckpeper co-founded in 2009, HoLLIE. Every year, it offers an eight-week course on climate change and other global environmental issues, as well as about more local concerns, such as the Chesapeake Bay and Patuxent River.

While the institute began as a program for those 50 and older, it soon expanded to include adults of any age.

After last year’s virtual session, the course will resume in person starting on Feb. 3, primarily at the B & O Ellicott City Station Museum. The all-day sessions will be held on Thursdays through March 23. The course costs $120.

During the course sessions, experts from NASA, NOAA, the University of Maryland and other schools and agencies meet with the participants.

Teaching kids about nature

Schmeckpeper, who grew up on a Minnesota lake, is particularly interested in water quality. As a volunteer with the Howard County Conservancy, she waded through streams, studying their tiniest inhabitants, with ninth-grade students.

That field trip was part of a new curriculum on climate change that the conservancy and three county schools launched for middle schoolers last fall.

“I’m working directly with kids. I just love it. I would never have thought this is something I [would] like so much,” she said. “It’s a crucial thing for kids to start thinking about climate change as early as possible,” she added.

The conservancy educates both children and adults about the natural world at a 325-acre farm that’s now a nature reserve in Woodstock. About 150 to 200 volunteers a year help educate students there.

Because the conservancy focuses on daytime programs with school children, around 70 percent of volunteers are retired, said Executive Director Meg Boyd, who is 51 and came to the conservancy with a land conservation background.

“Older volunteers bring such a wealth of experience and skills to our community of naturalists. We always say that, to volunteer with us, you do not need to be a nature expert; you just need to love nature,” she said.

From banker to teacher

Ralph Massella is another conservancy volunteer who became an environmentalist as he grew older. The Catonsville resident, 71, spent his career as a mortgage banker.

About 25 years ago, he participated in a program that included a week of wilderness survival. “I learned which trees grow where, how to survive, what plants are edible. That opened up this whole world,” he said.

“I liked to hike and camp as a kid, but I never got into this level of understanding. I feel terrible for not paying attention earlier, [not] having a clue. That [experience] really lit me up.”

After retirement, Massella became a volunteer ranger for Patapsco Valley State Park, but found himself doing park cleanup tasks.

In contrast, at the conservancy he enjoys being able to interact with kids. Because the programs are primarily outdoors, they’ve continued through the pandemic.

Last fall, Massella helped students learn about the tree canopy and soil erosion, and how aquatic life less than an inch long can help gauge the health of a stream.

But in some ways, rather than optimism for the future, Massella said he felt frustration after the COP26 global climate change conference in Glasgow in November.

“The U.S. is the funniest place on earth…We burned down everything, dug up everything, and now we’re telling people around the world they can’t do that. We’re the most patronizing people on the planet,” he said.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever get all our ducks in a row. We’re not getting anywhere. People are more interested in making money than saving the planet.”

Although Massella is worried about the future his two grandchildren will face, he said he’s glad to be a small part of the solution by educating children about their role in helping the environment.

‘A privilege and a duty’

HoCo Climate Action is another group working to engage residents to confront climate change. The organization began in 2007 as a four-week discussion circle on climate and grew from there.

Today, its newsletter is distributed to more than 1,400 subscribers. Many members are older adults, including the group’s entire six-member steering committee.

“Many of our members are retired, concerned for the next generations, and now have the time to volunteer and work on climate issues,” steering committee member Liz Feighner wrote in an email.

“We believe that acting during this critical window of time is both a privilege and a duty. What we all do now will determine whether future generations can thrive in a stable climate and equitable world.”

The group works on many fronts. Its members have attended numerous rallies, and HoCo Climate Action sponsored a bus to the 2014 People’s Climate March in New York — one of the largest climate protests held in the country.

The group has also collaborated with communities across Maryland to ban fracking in the state and increase the amount of solar and wind energy used in the county.

Working with students is also a priority. The group has shown the climate change documentary, “This Changes Everything,” at Howard Community College, and makes presentations at the college’s annual sustainability day. Before the pandemic, it gave high school students rides to Washington climate rallies and youth events.

Back at the Howard County Conservancy, Schmeckpeper said it might be easy to get discouraged at the rapid pace of climate change already taking place — from out-of-control wildfires in the West to devastating floods, such as those that so impacted Ellicott City.

But she has no interest in wringing her hands and giving up.

“What I enjoy about the conservancy is it is so careful to impart hope. It’s not all gloom and doom,” Schmeckpeper said.

“If kids sense something is hopeless, they become hopeless and they turn off and don’t try. We can’t let that happen. I’m going to keep doing this ‘til I drop.”

Learn about these and many other local environmental groups and volunteer opportunities from Live Green Howard, a project of the county government. For a list of organizations, visit livegreenhoward.com/community/local-environmental-groups.