Goodall inspires youths

World renowned primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall spoke to 200 youths Wednesday in the Sacramento Zoo amphitheater.

The students, some of whom traveled from Eureka, listened raptly to the stories of a remarkable woman they called simply Dr. Jane.

"I was really excited and star-struck," said Chris Powell of Sacramento. The 17-year-old said he was in awe of the contributions she has made to the Earth, people and animals.

The gray-haired, soft-spoken Goodall – hushed even with the aid of a microphone – told stories about her life, fieldwork with primates and efforts to motivate youths to be good environmental stewards.

She told of her dream to go to Africa and study chimpanzees, but she was poor and couldn't afford to go to school.She went to secretarial school and worked as a secretary and then a waitress, until she saved enough money for her first voyage to Africa. She was 26 years old.

During an early encounter with chimps, she said, she met one she called David Greybeard, who would become her favorite primate. Goodall described him as "calm and gentle," and said he was the first to accept her into his chimp family.

Since then, Goodall's fieldwork has continued to shed light on chimpanzee behavior, including their use of tools, complex family relationships, their culture and individual personalities. These discoveries changed conventional knowledge about primate behavior.

"I came to regard them as more than animals, but as chimpanzee-beings," she said.

But chimpanzees and the environment are being threatened, she told the students. In Africa, she said, chimps are losing their habitat to deforestation and their lives to rampant poaching.

Two decades ago, she shifted from working directly with primates to championing environmental and habitat preservation.

In 1991, she founded Roots and Shoots, a global organization that encourages youths to carry out environmental projects in their own neighborhoods.

She encouraged the youths to not lose hope, but to take small steps toward change. She told them to reflect on the consequences of their choices, from the clothes they wear to the food they eat.

Keele Shaw-Connelly, 18, of Sacramento, who helped to organize the event, called Goodall "an inspiration" who shows how one person can make a difference.

Shaw-Connelly traveled to Tanzania in 2006 with Roots and Shoots, and planted saplings with local youths in an effort to restore the canopy of trees.

Goodall said nature's resilience is a reason to hope, and pointed to California's redwood forests as a good example.

"I have never seen trees that are so ill-prepared to die … they refuse to die. Out of the old stump, comes new life. And in the end, the new life will completely surround and encircle a tree that was logged after World War II."

But the energy and spirit of youths are the ultimate hope, Goodall said.

"I'm really inspired to go out and do stuff, but also reflect on what I do," said Katherine Carey, 17, of Sacramento. "You can make a difference. Every human has something to give."

Students planted 50 trees in William Land Park – one tree for each year of Goodall's five decades of research.

Carrying a shovel, 9-year-old Megan Culligan was ready to put the morning's tree-planting lesson to use.

"You have to tickle the roots so they don't grow in a circle," she said. "It spreads out the roots so they get stronger and don't wind up into a little ball … this is a valley oak and it grows to be really, really tall."

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