Helping hands

April 6, 2007

By John R. Moses

Frontiersman

SUNSHINE - It's going to be a busy and productive summer for about a dozen kids who will build and repair trails and oversee a Talkeetna summer camp as paid participants in the Upper Susitna Youth Conservation Corps.

YCC Program Director Emilie Pechuzal will be at Su Valley Jr./Sr. High School today recruiting for the eighth year of a program that uses state and federal cash to get kids working on projects that benefit the whole community.

The program pays minimum wage -$7.15 per hour - to kids ages 14 to 19 for outdoor work that starts at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m. four days a week.

Pechuzal said the program was started by the Upper Susitna Soil and Water Conservation District as a way &#8220to promote a good work ethic” and teach kids who may never have had work experience how to work as part of a team.

The program &#8220gets them outside and it gets things done,” Pechuzal said.

The conservation corps model isn't new. Its roots can be traced back to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal invention, the Civilian Conservation Corps.

That program was born of the deep depression that followed the stock market crash of 1929. It put people to work in a variety of ways building public works projects, many of which are still used today.

Evidence of the USYCC's eight years of work are apparent to users of local trails cleared by the group, and by haters of invasive plants that choke out native species. There's also an experimental tree farm that's going to get a moose barrier in hopes the farm can grow Christmas trees that won't become winter moose munchies.

This year's work will be appreciated by future users of the new Talkeetna Lakes Park.

&#8220We are going to develop a three-mile hiking and winter snowshoeing trail,” Pechuzal said. &#8220The consensus among local groups is it is better to have local kids involved in building the trail.”

Not only will there be a sense of pride, she said, but corps members will also have a stake in seeing that the area is maintained in the future.

She said the Denali Nordic Ski Club has been a great help in the trail design.

That club pushed for preservation of the area and for trails, according to the borough's 1994 development plan for the recreation area.

The loop trail in the area of X-Y Lakes will be the first big trail development for users of that new park. Presently, there is a new parking area off Comsat Road near the Talkeetna Spur. The lakes are used for winter skiing, hiking and snowshoeing.

The trail was designed years ago by Chris Mannix and Karl Swanson of the ski club, who flagged the route and then hiked it with a mountain bike trail expert and a representative from the borough.

Mannix said he'd be happy to see local kids get paid to build it.

&#8220I think it's a wonderful idea,” he said.

Mannix said one way to go would be to bring in some heavy equipment to make a rough trail, and have the kids do the finish work by hand.

He said there has been enough work done that hikers can follow the route of the trail, and he hopes some will on June 2 - National Trails Day. &#8220It has been brushed-out enough that you can walk on it.”

Participants will also build a stacked stone stairway in the lakes area to improve access to one lake reachable now via a very steep grade.

Following the June-July king salmon season, corps workers will probably also spruce up the Sunshine Creek fishing area, which will also likely take a beating during August's silver salmon run.

For two weeks, the work will be at Byers Lake in Denali State Park, and that means camping at the scenic lake. The group will rebuild damaged boardwalks and fix trails with funds from a two-year grant. Some trails were damaged during last summer's high waters.

The program has its rewards. Halfway through, workers will be evaluated, and those who have been judged as high-performers will get a 25-cent-per-hour raise. Returning corps workers come in at a higher rate, from $7.75 to $8.75 per hour.

Half of the workers will be counselors at the Denali Explorations day camp for middle-schoolers.

First aid and other paid training starts May 30. The week of July 1 is a holiday, and the program ends Aug. 3. There is an attendance policy, and drugs, alcohol and tobacco products are forbidden.

Applicants who attend Su Valley can find informational meetings during the middle and high school lunch periods in Mr. Stull's and Mrs. Hogan's classrooms. Other applicants can pick up an application at the soil conservation district's office at Mile 2 of the Talkeetna Spur.

For more information, people may call Pechuzal at 733-7923, e-mail ycc@pobox.mtaonline.net or go to www.alaskaswcds.org.