Over and Out!

TS Crew completed our final great adventure at Glacier National Park. Thank you to the nursery staff for your guidance and sponsorship!

The age old what are we doing here question

The Montana Conservation Corps mission is to equip young people with the skills and values to become engaged citizens who improve our communities and environments.

It does become tempting--nearing the middle of the season, working at a more relaxed pace than usual-- to become complacent and perhaps a little bit unaware of your job. The novelty is wearing a little thin, the spark of an unusual event fades. "The fifth trip over the Going to the Sun Road was enough," you tell yourself. So this is when I ask myself (or maybe nag at myself while sitting on my haunches procrastinating this blog for a week!), what exactly it is that the job that I am doing means to me, means to my community, and means to my environment.


I'll begin with seed collection. Seed collection to me means an opportunity to learn about something I otherwise would've never pursued. That is, the native flora of glacier national park. I feel more akin to the park, knowing its plants, their properties, their name, their characteristics.

Seed Collection to the MCC is representative of our commitment to reducing reducing impact. We practice LNT and build trails so that people can appreciate nature as indestructively as possible. Seed collecting serves a similar purpose. The seeds which we collect are redistributed in revegetation projects in order to restore the ecological integrity of parts of the park which have been disturbed by construction or related operational activities which inhibit growth of the parks natural species. By reveging these areas the park limits the danger of nonnative species (such as nap weed) from proliferating in those areas, and restore them to their former health.

So while it is true that this job is perhaps running at a more lenient pace, and although the middle of the season is creeping up on us, I'll continue to pursue it just as full heartedly as the first day when I picked my boots out of a foot of mud and stood wide eyed at the novelty of it all.

Picking pecks of non pickled pontentillas

TS Crew is spreading its rays in West GNP this week and has pleasantly eased into the pace of seed collection!

We have had the opportunity to work with park botanists and nursery workers, learning about the various native and nonnative flora growing throughout the different drainages of the park including upper st. mary, many glacier, and more.

Among the plant and grass species being collected are the: blue bunch, idaho fescue, pontentilla, stone seed, and many more (which likely have spellings I'm not feeling quite ambitious enough to ponder).

These seeds will be dried at the GNP nursery, packaged and organized, and then sent to larger nurseries where they will be multiplied and sent out for revegetation projects throughout the park.

Something to be proud of

Some incredibly cool (and anonymous) person took the time to find our address and send the Northern Rockies Region Office an email about our work in the Upper Priest. Pretty awesome, TS crew. Pretty awesome.

This past weekend, we ran into the crew working along the Upper Priest River trail in Northern Idaho.We were impressed with the good condition of the trail, and noticed the recent maintenance work.Later we hiked by their camp, and agreed it is a well-kept camp. Clean and laid out exactly as it should be in bear country.We eventually crossed paths while hiking up to the falls. We were surprised that so much work had been accomplished by such a small crew.We really appreciate their good work! Thanks!

Wielding the Saw

Our escapades in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest have been many. These include, but are not limited to eating fresh huckleberry pancakes, splashing around in the nearby waterfall, listening to deer trot around our campsite from dusk until dawn trying to poke their noses curiously into our tents, reading endlessly, playing home run derby with a duct-tape ball and pick handle (sorry tool swamper), and swapping stories by the campfire. And these escapades are all AFTER 5:30pm!!!!

Yes, we work too! With our departure date approaching, a quick reflection of our latest accomplishments is in order.




Over the course of 16 days the sunshine crew has removed rocks, and roots on four miles of trail, from the Little Snowy Top Junction to Junction 28. We have rebuilt a Puncheon (which is like a bridge with one rail on the side), have built two water bars, have built and/or maintained 9 draindips and turnpikes, and have removed one HUGE tree from the middle of the trail, making the multi-use trail hopefully more user friendly. Satisfied with our accomplishments we will return from our 16 day exploits under the great cedar canopy and will return eastward to Montana!!!




Thank you to our sponsors and to Lu for your support and delicious brownies!

Team sunshine would also like to welcome Brian to our Crew!!!!!!!

Sincerely,
Team