Youth program puts boots on the ground

A few months ago, Alan Martins of Hungry Horse was finishing up his high school equivalency diploma. Last week, he was hard at work in Glacier National Park wielding a cross-cut saw longer than his arm as he cleared downfall along the Lake McDonald West Shore Trail.

Martins was part of the Glacier Youth Partnership, a new volunteer program supported by the Glacier National Park Conservancy, Montana Conservation Corps, National Park Foundation and Glacier National Park.

The program was funded by a $55,000 grant from GNPC, a matching grant from NPF and a contribution from MCC.

The program exposes college-aged students to a variety of jobs in Glacier Park. Over the past week, Martins and fellow crew members participated in a citizen science outing to count loons and mountain goats at Arrow and Trout lakes, worked in the Park’s carpentry shop and cleared trails.

The Lake McDonald trail was in particularly bad shape — a recent windstorm had blown down more than 200 dead trees over a four-mile stretch.

But the crew was no stranger to trail work — prior to working in Glacier Park, they spent nearly three straight months in the Bob Marshall Wilderness as MCC workers. The Glacier Park effort is an extension of MCC’s mission.

Crew members are paid a $1,000 a month stipend and a $2,700 trust payment when they complete the program that only can be used toward education costs. The education award for crew leaders is $5,500, MCC regional supervisor Cliff Kipp said.

All told, Glacier Youth Partnership crews have provided 10 weeks of labor, about 3,000 hours, at little to no cost to Glacier Park, volunteer coordinator Jessica Kusky said. That’s a valuable asset at a time when National Park Service funding is being cut by Congress.

Kipp said the program has also given MCC crew members from the Kalispell office a chance to work in Glacier Park.

For crew leader Helen Birke, it’s also given her a broader view of the world. The Maine native wanted to come out west after she graduated from the University of Vermont, so she joined MCC. After a few weeks of training, she was off working in the Bob.

“In college, you have a comfort zone. Then you come out here and shatter all of those and learn new skills,” she said.

Now, she says, she has more self-confidence.

“It’s a type of self-confidence I wouldn’t have gotten back home,” she said. “It’s been a great experience. The world seems a lot bigger now.”

Martins grew up on the doorstep of the Bob and Glacier Park but rarely went to either while growing up. His parents weren’t hikers, and the family didn’t get out much. But after three months in the woods, he’s changed.

“It makes me appreciate the things I used to take for granted,” he said. “It’s kind of mellowed me out.”

The Glacier Youth Partnership program will continue into next year, and the hope is to sustain funding for it for years to come, Kusky said.