Nature Conservancy Interns Serve up Adventure

AUSTIN, Texas - They are young, fun and they toughed it out in the Texas wilderness over the summer break in the name of protecting the planet. Meet Matt and Riley, The Nature Conservancy's roving field correspondents. With camera and notebook in hand, early in the summer the guys set out to explore the largest state in the lower 48, capturing video and writing about their experiences along the way. The project is called Everybody in the Wild with Matt and Riley and Nature Conservancy has been posting a dispatch from their adventures on its website and Facebook throughout the summer. So why were these guys coerced into tromping through nature preserves during the hottest summer on record? To get their generation excited about the great outdoors so they become invested in protecting it. While the main purpose of the series is to use a fresh approach to educate teens and young adults about important environmental issues (ala rebuilding oyster reefs in the Gulf of Mexico and protecting wildlife along the U.S. Mexico Border) the duo's love of film and the written word, which is evident throughout the pieces, also gives the series an artistic flavor that's hard to ignore. "Las Estrellas has a Sophia Coppola-esc vibe to it and the Davis Mountains piece has a real mystery to it," said Laura Huffman, executive director for The Nature Conservancy in Texas. "But the pieces are also true to the Conservancy's work and really capture the passion that Texans feel about our land, which is why kids young and old love Matt and Riley." Matt and Riley's Big Adventures:

• Explore an archeological find and a desert oasis in West Texas.
• Hit the Gulf coast where you'll stumble on a family of gators and learn what the Conservancy is doing to keep the ocean's most tasty appetizer on your plate.
• Embark on a spiritual quest for an endangered cactus that looks like peyote with the nuns of Starr County.
• Swing down to the southmost tip of Texas to learn about conservation along the Rio Grande.

  Next up, the guys head to a sky island in the Davis Mountains before wrapping up the series at Dolan Falls. You can catch all the episodes of Matt and Riley here: nature.org/mattandriley

Melvin Wylie