Riding for the Rainforest

Adam Bauer-Goulden was hiking in the Grand Canyon when a chance encounter put him in the path of a group of girls on a cross-country fundraising bike ride.

For the budding environmentalist and cycling enthusiast, it just clicked.

"I figured I needed something to do, being that I'm an environmentalist and never really have made a direct impact," he said.

Together with some fellow 2010 grads, Bauer-Goulden, 19, created the nonprofit Rainforest Rescue Coalition. The group is now raising money for their first big event, The Ride for the Rainforest.

Slated to begin May 18, the fundraising ride will begin in Sturgeon Bay, Wisc., taking cyclists about 300 miles south over the course of eight days, and end in Oak Park with a party. Along the way, riders will explore wildlife areas, camp overnight in state parks and stay with friends putting them up for the night.

The riders are hoping to raise $25,000, which will be split down the middle into two separate rainforest causes: 50 percent will go toward the purchase of land in the Rawa Kuno Legacy Forest, an endangered area on the island of Borneo; the other 50 percent will fund a "sustainable agroforestry program for the native communities living in the buffer zone of the Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo communal forest reserve in the Peruvian Amazon."

So why be concerned about rainforests located some 9,200 miles away from home?

"Rainforests," Bauer-Goulden explained during a call from Tulane University, "have the most biodiversity in the world. In all of my environmental classes, they've been hammering home the point that we're in a mass extinction.

"Habitat loss is one of the most pressing concerns."

Though the Rainforest Rescue Coalition's four founders are now scattered at different universities throughout the country, their nascent organization serves as a tie that binds, both for friendships and for a common cause.

"For a lot of youth today, it's overwhelming the amount of environmental and social disasters we hear about everyday. It's desensitizing," he said. "But we all started to ask 'What am I doing?' We have to do something.

"So we just did it."

The Rainforest Rescue Coalition's "Ride for the Rainforest" takes place May 18 through May 26. To learn more about the project, the riders, and how you can contribute, see their official website.