Portland teen is honored by his hero in "Jane Goodall's Heroes"

Dr. Jane Goodall is a familiar figure to National Geographic readers. She is the stately British woman with a pallid complexion dressed from head to toe in khaki, generally surrounded by chimpanzees. The iconic British primatologist took hold of American psyches in the 1960s as she defied scientific convention by giving the chimps names instead of numbers, and insisting that animals have distinct personalities, minds and emotions.

Her discoveries about chimpanzee behavior, communication and cunning made her famous. But resting on her laurels is not Goodall's style. She is taking her knowledge about man's closest relative and applying it to the human race, using her celebrity to observe our behavior and speak out about animals, people and the environment. Earlier this month, Goodall visited Seattle to film part of a new special for Animal Planet called "Jane Goodall's Heroes." The show airs in August and features five people who are animal heroes, including one from the Pacific Northwest.

"He's an amazing boy," Goodall says of 15-year-old Washo Shadowhawk. The charismatic Portland teen worked with the administration at the Oregon Primate Center to improve the living conditions for monkeys used in medical testing. He helps zoos build better primate exhibits and has become an expert on garter snakes, the nonvenomous slitherers that call this region home.

"I've known about Jane Goodall my whole life," Shadowhawk says. When he wrote a report in sixth grade on an eminent person, he chose his hero, Goodall. Three years ago, he received a postcard from Goodall, who was in China. Now he is one of her favorite people and is featured in the Animal Planet special, alongside Goodall's other heroes: Hong Kong dolphin expert Samuel Hu, wildlife photographer Tom Mangelsen, Bolivian animal sanctuary founder Juan Carlos and crane expert George Archibald.

Lots of issues left

At 72, Goodall has no interest in retiring. She travels more than 300 days a year trying to stop pollution and environmental devastation. "It makes me hurt," she says. "Especially when I look at my grandchildren."

She also worries that chimpanzees in Tanzania will be extinct within 50 years and that many other large animal species face the same fate. According to a recent United Nations Global Environment Outlook Report, if current trends continue, one quarter of all mammal species would be extinct in 30 years. "Biodiversity is being lost," Goodall says.

She sees the western world drowning in wasted food, consuming natural resources at an unsustainable rate and decimating the pristine environment; while in Africa, poverty, overpopulation and political upheaval are stripping the land of much-needed forest.

"I find it all so depressing — until I hear about the amazing things that are being done to fight the destruction," Goodall says. "It starts with people realizing their lives matter. And kids training their parents."

The roots of a program

Over the past 15 years, Goodall and Mr. H, her trusty plush monkey sidekick, have traveled to 55 countries and met more than 2 million children through her Roots & Shoots program.

Roots & Shoots began when 16 students gathered with Goodall on her front porch in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1991. The students were fascinated by animal behavior and concerned about the state of the environment. But their schools didn't cover these topics. The 16 returned to their schools with a task: Find other interested young people and take action.

"It's the youth of the world that can save the planet," Goodall says. And that's exactly what her 8,000 Roots & Shoots groups in 96 countries are doing. There are at least 40 active groups in Washington state engaged in stream restorations, composting, making alternative fuels and fundraising for local charities.

Making a difference

Shadowhawk discovered the organization four years ago. He immediately started a group at his middle school.

"I've always been upset about the rain forests being destroyed and about people not knowing that animals have emotions," he says. Then he started a group at his brother's elementary school. Now he helps lead 50 students from elementary to high school in four Roots & Shoots programs.

"Anybody who is out there singing environmental songs is pretty important right now," says Tom Strouse, a sixth-grade science teacher at Billings Middle School near Green Lake. This Roots & Shoots leader is grateful to Goodall for "getting kids fired up about the environment" and for giving him "the opportunity to do cool stuff with kids." His group of 10 picks up litter, organized a food drive and looked at alternative ways to get to school.

"The curriculum of our school is right in line with [Goodall's] ideas of action," Strouse says. The school is making its own biodiesel fuel to run its school buses and monitors Green Lake's murky waters. A group of eighth-graders even spoke to the city council about particulate levels in the air over Green Lake, he says.

"Jane Goodall is a hero to me," says Kimberley Trick, another Roots & Shoots leader. "She stands for the hope for the future of this world," says the sixth-grade teacher at Hyla Middle School on Bainbridge Island. The independent school has 90 students and organized an Earth Day dance to raise money to buy earthworm-powered composting bins. "On this island, there is so much development and the kids are so privileged, it's good to give them an opportunity to extend themselves and explore the world."

Young and motivated

Recently Goodall's institute partnered with children's publisher Weekly Reader to conduct a survey about the environment and sponsor an art and essay contest titled "How Green Is Our Future?" Surprisingly, even to Goodall, 20,000 kids participated in the survey — roughly double what was expected — and more than 5,000 wrote essays about one local environmental problem and a possible solution.

Seven-year-old Stephanie Zhang, of Bellevue, won an award for her drawing of planet Earth. The Open Window Elementary School student entered the contest with her Brownie troop while working on her Earth Is My Home badge.

The Weekly Reader survey revealed that 61 percent of young Americans think the government should work harder to improve the environment. Twenty-eight percent of pre-teens and teens consider themselves environmentalists. And 91 percent of students surveyed say they believe they can make at least a little difference in the environment.

Goodall travels the world with that message, inspiring teachers to plan creative ways to get students interested in recycling, outdoor classrooms and conservation.

"I used to see her as a celebrity," Shadowhawk says. "Now, I see her as family, and we have a great relationship."

Michael Bradbury is a Seattle-based freelance science writer.