Photo: Brian Davies / The Register-Guard. Crew leader Britney O’Connell helps drag away a load of teasel, a non-native thistle that has invaded the wetland prairie near Willow Creek.

WILLOW CREEK PRESERVE - You could see them in among the tufted hairgrass and common teasel, the blue-helmeted heads of 11 teenagers working in the heat just north of 18th Avenue between Willow Creek and Bertelsen roads.

The delicate tufted hairgrass would stay, but the teens were taking out the teasel - a kind of thistle that has invaded wetland prairie, crowding out the indigenous plants that once thrived there.

The youngsters lopped off the spiny seed pods and piled them on tarps they dragged to a waiting pickup truck.

'It's not too labor-like,' said Ali Doll, 15, taking a break with her long-handled blue clippers. 'It's just hot.'

Doll is a member of the Northwest Youth Corps, whose programs link adolescents with jobs that help them develop teamwork and leadership skills.

The program Doll participates in, YouthWorks, lasts three weeks and gives youngsters ages 11 to 15 up to a $165 stipend and a variety of outdoor jobs such as building trails in area parks and sending invasive species packing.

The youths work seven-hour days, but Doll doesn't mind the labor.

'You get to spend time with kids your own age,' she said. 'And you get to learn stuff. The educational part is awesome.'

Working in the Willow Creek area, for example, she saw her first Fender's blue butterfly, an endangered species endemic to the Willamette Valley.

Photo: Ali Doll, 15, a Northwest Youth Corps participant, removes the invasive species teasel as part of her three-week stint in the program.

It's no mere make-work effort. The Northwest Youth Corps really is helping to restore wetland prairie, a habitat all but destroyed in Oregon by contemporary culture, said Matt Benotsch, a stewardship coordinator with The Nature Conservancy, which owns the Willow Creek Natural Area.

Corps participants worked this week in a section purchased last fall by The Nature Conservancy. The additional 67 acres brings the total acreage owned by group to 508. The land is part of the broader West Eugene Wetlands, a 3,000-acre swath roughly bordering Willow Creek and Amazon Creek that begins south of 18th Avenue and runs west and north to Greenhill Road. The patchwork of lands are owned by The Nature Conservancy, the Bureau of Land Management, the city of Eugene, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the McKenzie River Trust.

Clearing invasive species is the first step in restoring native plants such as Willamette daisies and Kincaid lupine, Benotsch said.

Expanding the range of plants such as the Kincaid lupine helps the endangered Fender's blue butterfly, which lays its eggs only on the lupine. Unbroken wetland allows contact between separate populations of the butterfly, which improves the species' overall well-being.

'It becomes an important piece of the corridor,' Benotsch said of the recently acquired land.

But there's more to see on the wetlands than butterflies, Doll said. 'We've seen a lot of hawks, too,' she said.

They've spotted elk tracks, and Benotsch has seen bobcats, heard coyotes and knows at least one person who has seen river otters cavorting in Willow Creek.

Cavorting is also in store for youth corps members. When they wrap up their work this week, they'll be rewarded with an overnight camping trip near Cougar Reservoir, Doll said.

OUTDOOR OPPORTUNITIES

YouthWorks: Has one last three-week summer session, from Aug. 15 to Sept. 2, for children ages 11 to 15. For more information, call Northwest Youth Corps at 349-5055 or visit the Web site at www.northwestyouthcorps.org.

The Nature Conservancy: Work parties to help with wetlands restoration are held the second Saturday of each month. For more information, call Matt Benotsch at 915-7459.