Wild about their work

Kathryn Daugherty, followed by Chevy Doud and others, continues into the North Fork John Day Wilderness, which begins at the Peavy trailhead in the Elkhorn Mountains. She and Doud are members of the Baker crew with the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps.

By ADRIENNE GOODRICH
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The Oregon Youth Conservation Corps, one crew from Baker and one crew from Halfway, worked together Monday on the Peavy Trail in the Elkhorn Mountains, clearing debris and readying the trail for hikers and horseback riders.

The OYCC employs 14 people — five for each crew plus four alternates in case someone can’t come to work.

Each year the federal government gives the state money for the program; this year that includes money from the 2009 stimulus package.

Then the Oregon Consortium, Oregon Workforce Alliance, Training and Employment Consortium, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, and Baker County all pitch in to complete funding.

“It’s not always an easy chess game to make sure it all comes together,” said Tom Smit, who works for the Wallowa-Whitman and has been involved with the OYCC program for 22 years.

The six-week crew costs about $20,000 and the eight-week crew about $30,000. This includes the wages for each crew member — Oregon’s minimum wage of $8.50 per hour — as well as boots for each worker, water, food, safety supplies, tools and other project supplies.

The Forest Service pays for the crew leader’s wages, and the transportation costs for the crews.

“It takes a lot of partners to do this,” Smit said.

OYCC crews do a variety of tasks besides clearing trails, including protecting springs and maintaining campgrounds and other recreation sites.

The groups also do a presentation each week to practice public speaking. Smit figured that exercise would benefit the crew members.

“It became very apparent that a lot of people have communication trouble,” he said.

As of Monday the Halfway crew had worked on roughly 15 miles of trail, and the Baker crew had covered 13 in their four weeks of work.

Crews remove fallen logs and sticks from trails, prune plants encroaching on the trail, and sometimes even build bridges if water is running across a section of trail.

“We have to make sure the trail is safe so that people can enjoy the wilderness,” said Mae Hunter, 16, of the Halfway crew.

Because of this experience she plans on applying for a full-time job with the Forest Service next summer.

I love the fact that we get to come out and hike,” Hunter said. “I love the feeling of accomplishment.”

Hunter is actually from Idaho, but she is living in Halfway for the summer.

“Now that I’ve had this job i’m definitely going to move back to Oregon for the summer just to work,” she said.

Miranda McBroom, from the Baker crew, said she had heard of the program from many people before she decided to apply.

“I wanted a job that I could actually work hard at, and this is definitely that job,” she said.

“I’m a stud now,” she said referring to her new muscle power.

Todd Snyder, from the Baker crew,  said that he got involved with OYCC because family members have worked in the program in the past.

“It’s a good way to put your foot in the door towards getting another job,” he said.

The crews work Monday through Thursday, from 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Debbie Boucher, the Baker crew leader, has been a seasonal Forest Service employee since 1988. This is her fourth year leading a team.

“I like to see how much more confident they are,” she said.

Some individuals aren’t comfortable with the outdoors when the season starts, but they learn to understand the outdoors as well as bonding with the rest of the crew, Boucher said.

Becky Guthrie, who oversees the voluminous paperwork for the program, said the age group eligible for OYCC — 16 to 24 — has been hardest hit, statistically, by unemployment during the recession.

This is because people who would normally have other jobs are now willing to take jobs traditionally filled by younger adults.

The program also provides exposure to the Forest Service for those who want to work for the agency in the future. Smit said he has hired several permanent workers who had once been on the OYCC crews.

“It’s a job, it’s not a daycare or a summer camp,” Smit said. “But they all know that I expect a day’s work for a day’s wages.”