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.