LIVING EARTH WATCHERS

THE CATALOG reads like a travel brochure. Fiji Islands: Fiji Coral Communities. Western Australia: Birds and Barriers. England: The Abbey of St. Al-bans. The designated prices seem like typical vacation prices – Bermuda: $1,245; Greece: $1,350; Maine: $625.

But there’s nothing typical about these excursions, which are vacations only in the most liberal sense of the word. They are just a few of the 80-odd expeditions sponsored this year by Earthwatch, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit organization that sends amateur science buffs around the world to man scientific field investigations. Through Earthwatch, professional field projects that otherwise may be too expensive to launch are crewed by eager volunteers who pay their own way.

While on an expedition, these apprentice scientists may scrape away at fossils in New Mexico, study forest ecology in Peru or catalog coral reef fish in Hawaii. They range in age from 16 to 75, come from all walks of life and participate simply because they want to. They get firsthand experience in the types of science and humanities disciplines in which they have always been interested – an opportunity ordinarily reserved for the pros. For this opportunity, Earthwatchers, as they’re informally called, pay between $450 and $2,000 (tax deductible), depending on the expedition, plus travel expenses. Aside from the immediate education they receive, they gain the satisfaction of making tangible contributions to science. And often, Earthwatchers learn a good deal about themselves in the process.

At the helm of Earthwatch is president Brian Rosborough, who matched some 1,800 volunteers this year with their desired projects in 30 countries and 18 states. Rosborough has been with Earth-watch since 1972, when it was a struggling organization called Educational Expeditions International (EEI). Rosborough worked with EEI for six months before he gave up a job in corporate development and finance to take on full time the newly named Earthwatch organization.

In its 11 years, Earthwatch has burgeoned beyond even Rosborough’s expectations. “In 1973 I had big plans for Earthwatch,” Rosborough says, “but 1 was busy with questions of solvency and design. Like a man stepping into a canoe, I was more worried about going back and forth than forward.” With hundreds of new Earthwatchers taking to the field each year and dozens of alumni making second, third and fourth trips, Earthwatch has finally come into its own. To date, Earth-watch has given about $3.2 million to scientists, making it the third largest private investor in scientific expeditions. Through the money and, more significant, through the manpower it has supplied, Earthwatch has mobilized more field investigations than any other private group.

“We’ve had an overwhelming response from the public,” Rosborough says. Indeed – Earthwatch now boasts more than 8,000 members who pay $20 annually or $35 for a two-year membership, which makes them eligible for expeditions. Members receive the triannual Earthwatch catalog, which details the numerous expeditions and gives updates on Earthwatch-sponsored research and advance notices of projects.

Earthwatch welcomes anyone -from truck drivers to astrophysicists. Anyone, that is, with reasonable physical stamina, an interest in a chosen project, a commitment to work and, most important, enthusiasm. “We’re interested in people who are doers and who like to see things get done,” says Rosborough. He estimates that about 60 percent of Earthwatch volunteers are business and working people, 30 percent are people in education (such as teachers, students, researchers and museum workers) and 10 percent are retirees. Amazingly, the age range of volunteers is evenly divided, which Rosborough considers a definite plus. “Intergenerational grouping,” he says, “is much more stimulating and satisfying for everyone involved.”

There is no typical Earthwatcher, which is a large part of the program’s appeal. A housewife may measure prehistoric rock paintings alongside a chemical engineer; a sportscaster from Seattle can share his coral finds with a librarian from Tampa. Rosborough believes that Earthwatch satisfies people’s interests in fields that may be separate from their chosen professions but that are interests nonetheless. “Architects, it turns out,” he says, “make damn good archaeologists. A dentist can have the opportunity to analyze 200-year-old teeth. A grandmother interested in pottery may be just as interested in ancient pottery.” Rosborough also believes that Earthwatch appeals to the American volunteer spirit. “Earthwatch,” he says, “is a little like Tom Sawyer getting 1,500 people to paint the fence.”

This year’s catalog lists field projects all over the world, cross-referencing them by discipline so that someone interested in, say, primatology, can easily learn of trips to Madagascar to track troop movements of ring-tailed lemurs; or to Wisconsin to study rhesus monkeys; or to Iquitos, Peru, to observe yellow-handed titi monkeys. An art history aficionado might try Athens to study folk costumes of Attica; a stargazer can take off for Nantucket’s Maria Mitchell Observatory to observe “variable stars,” which suddenly fade and go brilliant. Other expeditions offered this year include “Mammoth Graveyard” in South Dakota; the “Search for Bronze Age Society” in Moncin, Spain; and “Talking with Dolphins” in Honolulu.

Merv Navarro is an Earthwatch die-hard. The 46-year-old Dallasite and IBM executive went on his first Earthwatch expedition in 1980 as a birthday gift from his wife. He traveled to Peru to survey Inca ruins and their correlation with the stars. He also has accompanied Earth-watchers to Swaziland, Africa; and this year he will go to Queensland, Australia, to study sandstone art. “You get hooked,” he says. So, apparently, did his wife. Having tagged kangaroo in Australia, she is ready to help excavate the ancient forests of the Western Rift Valley in Zaire, Africa, this year to search for pre-hominoid fossils. “My wife and I take separate expeditions,” says Navarro, “because we have separate interests. It’s not a vacation.” Navarro considers Earthwatch unique. “How else,” he asks, “would it be possible for my wife to tag kangaroo in Australia? My biggest disappointment,” he says, “was that they’d been offering this program for eight years before I ever found out about it.”

While Earthwatch volunteers provide the manpower and must take orders from the principal investigator (the name given to the chief scientist on an expedition) and his or her staff, they also can be given a great deal of responsibility. But working on a particular project isn’t the only thing a volunteer participates in. The principal investigators give regular lectures and briefings on the project, and often the entire group holds seminars to ensure that the experience is an educational one. The cooperation between amateurs and scientists becomes highly complementary; the researchers get their crew, and the volunteers get what many of them refer to as “the experience of a lifetime.”

Upon acceptance by Earthwatch, volunteers are sent briefing literature that gives details of the chosen project, information about the principal investigator and his or her staff and a selected bibliography of helpful reading on the subject. Once in the field, volunteers are expected to take an active interest not only in the specific project but also in the daily business of setting up and maintaining camp and interacting with the group. Because of the often rustic field conditions, long days and a good bit of drone work, Rosborough also suggests that Earthwatch participants have a sense of humor and respect for their teammates. But group effort seems to pay off. “These field expeditions build a great deal of camaraderie,” Rosborough says. He points to the correspondence that fellow Earthwatchers keep up for years after an expedition and to the increasingly popular “reunion expeditions.”

Because of increased cutbacks in federal funding, the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities can’t offer prospective researchers the same assistance that they could several years ago. If it weren’t for Earth-watch, many expeditions would never have gotten off the ground. Scientists and researchers looking for support must apply to the Center for Field Research (CFR), Earthwatch’s sister organization, which screens potential expeditions and then recommends that certain ones be sponsored by Earth watch. This year, the 82 Earthwatch expeditions were chosen from 350 initial proposals.

With about 600 Earthwatch members in Dallas and 10 percent of those having gone on at least one expedition, Rosborough has a keen interest in Dallas and in Texas. “I’m real excited about Texas,” he says. With Earthwatch offices on both coasts, Rosborough would like to open one on the “third coast,” as he calls Dallas, which would coordinate Earthwatch activities in the Southwest. Last January, Laura Carpenter of Delahunty Gallery invited several hundred Dallasites to a reception at the gallery to garner support for Earth-watch. Rosborough says that setting up an office in Dallas depends on securing a collection of donors, an office and a good manager.

Earthwatch has begun recruiting corporate participation, and the response has been encouraging. Corporations are allowing employees leave time to make expeditions and are paying part or all of their expenses. Some companies are sponsoring research projects and student scholarships. More than 100 corporations are involved with Earthwatch.

Rosborough considers Earthwatch something more than just a field trip. “You separate each one of us,” he says, “and there is some part of us that is unfulfilled. Earthwatch is fulfilling. It’s an Outward Bound of the mind – a challenge to the intellect and to the soul.” Says Nav-arro: “You get into a rut, you get locked into a job. Earthwatch puts everything back into perspective.”

Rosborough wryly lays it on the line.”It’s a businessman’s Peace Corps,” hesays. “Short-term, good risk/rewardratio, immediate return on investment,patently constructive and, most important, fun. The downside risk is blisters; theupside potential, self-renewal.”