funding for this program is brought to you in part by the Bachelor Foundation [Music] come on national wildlife refues are the largest system of federally protected lands there are over 500 refugees in the country that are exclusively used for conservation purposes part of our mission for the US Fish and Wildlife Service is to work with others to conserve protect and enhance wildlife fish plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people you know we have our scientists we have our biologists we have even down to our our administrative specialists our communication specialists we're all working towards the same goal with protecting our natural resources working for the wildlife protecting that habitat and enhancing it and so teenagers to me are one of the most important groups because to get them interested young I think and at the just the starting point of their academic lives and and their their careers it's like these these kids can you make a life for themselves and also really help guide our world in the right direction mama so so we in a swamp as you guys can see this not regular this is I don't do this this is my first time ever doing this so as you guys can see we're walking through the march right now man it going to be my first time actually going to a summer camp that isn't like just chilling in my hometown this like actually getting out of South Bay so I'm actually excited for this i read the activities of what we're going to do and it it made me want to um for the day to come faster i'm not even going to lie that would be overcoming my fear doing this camp and then I would say I'm kind of glad to do it but like being in mud and everything that's not my thing that's not my sword that's not my cup of tea i'm not into stuff like this cuz like I said I'm girly i'm not a I'm not a tomboy i I wouldn't see myself like walking through mud that alone it's like yuck it's a ick it's a ick for me i'm more interested in the marine life anyway so this is actually one of my pastimes so and what I'm planning to do in my time is um go to college to get my majors in marine biology so I can become a marine biologist so I can study study like the coral the marine life how to protect it and you got it when National Wildlife Refugees started realizing hey we have a lot of land near dense urban areas they came up with this urban wildlife refuge program and so they designated urban wildlife refues and those are refues that are within 25 miles of a dense urban area defined as 250,000 people or more and that's part of why Lockxahhatchee um is a really special place because it is one of the priority national wildlife refues that are is considered an urban refuge and we're really intentional about the communities that we're working with so that's part of why at least here at Lockxahhatchee we've identified the Glades community as you know one of those places that we really want to do not just outreach but full-on engagement so um what are ways that we can engage with underresourced communities communities that have been excluded yeah sure you want me to throw you one uh yeah throw me one these students are from a place where they're already connected to the land they know the land the one in the pack the three-pack this one all right got you glad is a great place to hunt it's a great place to fish um great place to go rabbit hunting uh it's a nice tight-knit family environment i think the best place to go in to see the lake is in Poken Marina when you seeing that lake over Poken and you feel that breeze it's like it's like God talking to you it's it's it's so beautiful and it's a great place to eat i'm not going to lie you if you want you some good Jamaican food Bahamian food Haitian food Mexican food go to the Glades it's it's worth the trip belgade South Bay Pokei has so many great opportunities but it still needs some it needs some changes to happen i would want to stop the violence like any type of violence it's a it's a small town like Romeo said but it was like a lot of like gun violence and stuff out there you know and sometimes I would be like you know a little worried sometimes i just don't want to be in Belgrade because you have gun violence you have people robbing places with firearm you have people carrying firearm in their car and everything without being without them being licensed or they using it for the wrong thing like you have kids killing kids and that's in Belgi that's in South Bay that's really anywhere you go it's sad it's really sad what this community has came to but we have a lot of uh we have a lot of hope and a lot of uh kids we're very tight-knit and our families out there they just want to have have a better chance at life one of my um old friends I used to um hang around with he was uh he was involved in a um a shooting like a driveby shooting and um I thought he had got killed but luckily the bullet missed his head by a second and um you know and stuff like that it just it just alerted me like you know that I don't want to be around that type of environment so that's why you know to keep me from being in that type of stuff like I I do stuff like this and fish like that I think I had his body that was a guard if the guards are out [Music] it started out like big idea then we went refining it and refining it i'm feeling great we finally got to merge this gap we've been waiting and planning and waiting and planning up how you doing feeling great that we finally got the students to come to the conservation ranger camp all right everybody let's sit down and let's get started so welcome to the Arthur R marshall Lockahashi National Wildlife Refuge and we actually have in the back and we'll give those to you to you all in a bit um we made these really cool swag bags of really cool it's a whole bunch of different stuff so um and that's got bug spray sunscreen um fishing tackle kit so we got the flies stay hydrated we got some flies you know the waterproof bag and we got the you know they had to get us right with fishing together you know so we have a week long of fun-filled activities uh the first day we're going to be doing our outdoor recreation day so that's going to be the fun stuff you know we're taking them on a fishing charter in the refuge which is a super special experience because you know currently that the refuge doesn't offer uh fishing boat experiences [Music] two fish yes now this hand is going to open this just like that okay now you're going to go like this and then as you swing the rod forward you're going to let go of this finger so the line is free like right now your finger is holding that line beautiful excellent job excellent job i ain't catch nothing yet but almost had one dude it caught it yeah you had one it took it i almost got it i almost got it i It felt like a big one too there you go reel reel reel yep you got a fish yes you do nice it won't let go it's not supposed to let go reel [Applause] how do you reel how do you reel this in like this caught a bass i caught a bass give me a high five caught a bass guys is that going to piss it of course you can wait I'm not touching it though oh kill it kill it you going to let it you want to hold it no i'll stand next to you with it the camera just like that you guys I caught a fish if you can see good job awesome job so what do we do with him see what we just busted right now wait wait go ahead you're good thank you no you don't got to hold it just touch the teeth right there feel it so you know how the teeth are you want me to hold it even though I didn't catch nothing the person on the boat actually helped me um discover new species how many fishes you caught Roman i have three siblings Jose Nikolai and I got a baby brother at the house we're actually called the Brown Boys because all of our names is last name is Brown and everybody in the um the glaze known us as the Brown Boys too many too many that's a lie you can't catch none yeah yes I did she caught one no I didn't actually and it peed on her no now why is you lying already from the get- go they're asking "Can we go fishing more this week?"

So I'm feeling good about it and I'm really happy that they have come with so much enthusiasm hi my name is Yabriana but you can call me Brianna for short i am nervous about the snakes and hunting but I'm also excited to learn different things and how to adapt to my environment good release that was feisty it bring it brings that balance back to all the hustle and the bustle ride through traffic like listen to that you can't hear that when you over there in that highway you can't hear that no you can't hear you can't hear those crickets and birds when you got all that going on cuz that right there those sounds those sounds help calm your spirit down those sounds help you reconnect with nature and I think that partnership is helping us reconnect with where we came from and I I I honestly believe um there's something that needs to continue i got something to say next time I go fishing next time me and Yabrianna go fishing I'mma make sure I get some fish we're having people from the Port of Miami come in um they're wildlife inspectors they're bringing with them a wildlife special agent so somebody that goes undercover and like you know gets these like poachers but try to hide sometimes what looks like a regular boot and you've got a crocodile skin boot underneath all of this is for money so when you're co-designing something you are working with the community that you're trying to you know work with you're saying "Okay how can we have a dialogue how can we have a conversation?"

Like they're actually seahorses like what would you like us to offer is there anything that you're particularly interested in so we always knew we wanted to do like law enforcement because the kids told us like they were interested in that we also knew we wanted to talk about hunting so you know the schedule was informed by by what the kids were interested in and also what we thought would be interesting you know to to show them hello guys my name is Jamari my name is Williams and we at the National Wildlife Refuge and Lots of Hatchet uh we started on Monday but it's been good so far we done learned a lot of things learn how to fish better way better we knew we found out um No we found Oh we found about some frogs a lot of frogs lot of frogs i really feel like I do this for a living i'm not exactly sure capturing frogs so we've got the frog in the bag and we cut little holes in the bag just so that there's like ventilation so they can breathe while we're transporting them when they get to a certain size Cuban tree frogs will kind of eat anything that fits in their mouth and the native frogs will eventually fit in their mouth so um they'll eat the native frogs and they can out compete our native frog so he's a pretty he or she's a pretty fell and it's trying to play dead so basically be casing invasive species or frogs that eats the native species or frogs checking them massizing them and bagging them taking them back to the facility but um to basically um kill them humanely yeah and it was 5 and 1/2 in that's the length and it's hot i caught the biggest frog over there oh butterflies there's like one on that leaf it was the same one in my hand yeah see them over here fluttering interesting this here is the pack or the pack test it's 45 lbs so we're going to have some guest speakers come talk about the fire program with the US Fish and Wildlife Service i need hands-on learning i don't like um just people telling me and then just leaving me by myself i need somebody to teach me through the steps and that's what they've done they don't just say something and they move on no they actually walk you through the steps they let you get engaged that's the fire shelter then y'all are going to do this too so I hope you're paying attention all right fire's coming deploy your shelter get in there [Applause] [Music] oh I just finished high school and I'll be in college next fall i'll feel excited but I'm also scared to take that next step into like adulthood cuz like I've always been cuz this might be the first time I'll be without my brothers cuz I and that scares me cuz I'm always like the glue to the family so my brothers always depend on me and I depend on my brothers but it also excites me because that means I um I'll be one step closer to my dreams and I can't wait for it but leaving Mr blake behind cuz he's been my mentor for as long as I've been at Crossroads is going to be hard not seeing him cuz he's always been there for my family i was there for his f first program when it first started which was stand firm outreach and we usually just talk about our feelings what it's like to be a man how to express yourself it's been nice knowing that I have somebody out there that excites from family that will put in the time and effort to teach somebody like me stanford Outreach and uh it's out in the Glades and we actually been helping service our community and our youth who who are at risk who've been helping service them for the past 3 years back then before I went to Crossroad I was in a hard time me and Jose being dumb kids we um we picked fights we were like not bad kids but we were we weren't the best students otherwise we ended up actually getting expelled from um from Glaz Central and they wanted to expose us from um they get an expulsion from all schools but um our mom fought for us we um actually got to go to Crossroads instead an alternative school and the people there actually took us in they treated us as as their second son as a kid and as a c educator I understand the importance of who you put your children around uh I was in the monastery program uh fourth grade got into a little a little I believe a fight i was sitting there trying to do my math work kid was eating eating the carrots and throwing them at me i end up getting in the fight end up getting in trouble but instead of them looking at the gift that was inside of me they tried to put that thumb on me and and I and I have to say this certain school systems were designed for students to be the p the pipeline to the prison system and they they was trying to make me a victim of that that I understand that now cuz they was trying to pinpoint me but my mom and dad they stood firm on what they believed in they said "No you're not going to do my son like this."

Crossroads Academy i call it the school of second chances bad grades a low GPA i was skipping I was skipping school at my previous high school i got kicked out like I said and I bettered myself being at Cross's Academy i started to receive good grades i ended my 11th grade year with straight A's and two B's and a 3.2 GPA i got 20 and a half credits and I just need three and a half more to graduate but I want to acknowledge Mr curry Mr mr leon and Miss Baker and Dr howard they all been there for me while I was at my lowest times at at school i had I had a couple breakdowns at school and they were there cuz they helped me through problems I thought I couldn't get through and I will be ending high school completely in May of next year okay y walking through we keep walking we don't close no doors and no opportunities for student we want them to get everything they get until they get to their age of being grown and there's this thing I like to use it's their tool bag we want to use the refuge as another part of their tool to put in their tool bag for life ready though all right range is hot you go first sometimes archery is kind of like that doesn't seem like super relevant to you know wildlife or a national wildlife refuge nice but we do have an archery hunt people you know will use bow and arrow to go hunting it's also a really cool sport you feel really cool when you're doing it too so it's also kind of that sense of empowerment one of the students Nikolai he was so excited that he got the most points on the target yesterday and he was he was knocking it out of the park he was doing really good last round anyone else nobody has come close to my score yet the closest we've got was a 30 was a 32 was a 37 i I had two on the bullse eyes and then I had two yellows two reds and then one blue thursday is our coastal day so we're going to be taking them up to our sister refuge which is Hope Sound National Wildlife Refuge they're going to do in the morning a sea turtle walk the loggerhead started nesting about a month ago so they'll get to go to the beach and and learn from the biologists up there about sea turtles and they'll get to look also at the scrub habitat so they're going to get to see a different habitat that day and it's important because there are a lot of species that can only be found in the scrub habitat an example of one of those is gopher tortoises and then after that we're going to be going out to Bush Wildlife Sanctuary which is one of the rehabilitators where they're going to get to have animal encounters and they're going to get to see what it's like uh to work at a sanctuary where they actually take care of the animals that can't be reintroduced into the habitat or or that might in the future you know need help for for a while his name is Flatsom he was hit by a car and also hurt his wing so he is similar to Phoebe where he is a migratory bird and cannot fly anymore properly therefore he cannot migrate so you can imagine that is why he has to hang out here with us at our sanctuary we've realized that you know in order to protect these natural resources and protect the wildlife we have to have the people on board in support of wildlife conservation and so how can we motivate young people to want to even try to fight this fight that seems almost like a losing battle i have found that some of the most important experiences measure the castle really comes from those small very intimate moments that you have with nature [Music] yeah did you see that i had a thing for bugs since like I was little i always catch butterflies as you seen me do during the entire week he just he just went that way and I don't know it just fascinates me about how such a little animal can contribute to the wall what's up and how their ecosystem is so much different and vast from ours you have to be really patient with those fishes you hold it tight the kids really suffered over the time during co the kids was really stuck they were isolated this was a good experience for them to see something different versus just being home being on the phones uh making Tik Tok videos for them to say "Hey you know what maybe I should put my phone down maybe I need to go take a walk around the glades."

Or "Hey I might want to go fishing now since I got a fishing license."

I think I learned that because I'm not really a people person i really like to stay cooped up in my room so when I came out here and I got to meet everybody I found out that if I actually try my and apply myself that I can actually really enjoy the being around people being around the animals talking with everybody getting to learn learn with everybody and Nikolai I think he's actually grown because as somebody with autism he's not really good with loud sounds he's not good with listening to people he doesn't like interaction that much but throughout the week with everybody here he's been having more I have never seen him more happy and as an older I'm proud of that i learned that that um I could keep a open mind to like new things try new things and not always be picky because um and not be like close-minded because I I didn't know I was going to be doing what I was going to be doing this week like I knew I was going to be slogging but I didn't know I was actually gonna push myself to go in it and I did in the front i'm here to save you it's really important to me that we continue to sustain this relationship with the students because I don't want it to just be a one and done check the box i hope we continue to grow this and into a program that that can offer more and for more students wallace there's not enough programs to me because there are kids that are losing their lives when I when I when I walked in the local multuaries and I saw kids that I caught sun I gave hugs to I love I loved on when I saw them laying there dead it's not enough it got to be more than stand for outreach it has to be more i think we need to have an abundance of more more programs versus less cuz I don't care if that program is only servicing one child guess what that's one less child that can be turned over to the streets that's one less child that can be turned over to possibly getting into gang violence i'll be going to Palm Beach State College for like two years and then I'll transfer over to FIU for my marine biology um degree yes I want to go to Palm Beach State and complete at least two years for their education course and then attend a university get my degree in education and become a teacher and then eventually work my way up to becoming a superintendent of Palm Beach County School District good luck yes you will that's what I'm talking about my father and my mother they believe in the village you can't just have one person saying I'm that I'm the person i think Belglade South Bay Pokei every organization we got our own little garden and we need to just focus on watering our own garden and then we have one big beautiful eating we have one big beautiful garden but we got to focus on if your mission is media your mission is ministry my mission is youth your mission is feeding put it together i guess uh US uh fish and wildlife is it's just got added to the melting pot making that good soup all right [Music] funding for this program is brought to you in part by the Bachelor Foundation