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In May, Oregon graduated one crew, the blue crew!
Two of our other Oregon crews partnered with the Hood River and Barlow Ranger Districts. They worked alongside recreation staff. Crews tackled maintenance projects around the districts including removing graffiti from Little John warming shelter, repainting forest boundary signs, and removing trash left after the winter snowmelt. Crews also assisted the trails program in restocking the Fivemile Butte Lookout with firewood.
Our Expedition Crew ending the month working out at Diamond Lake with the Umpqua National Forest helping to get the campgrounds ready for the summer season.
Washington’s first Young Adult Spring program successfully graduated 12 members and leaders at then end of May. Crews rounded out the season working with the Washington Department of Natural Resources, Cascadia Conservation District, and the Siuslaw National Forest completing projects ranging from campground and recreation area maintenance and preparation for the summer season, and trail maintenance.
“During my term I realized I am stronger than I thought. I definitely didn’t realize how mentally hard it is rather than physically. I grew a lot as a person and hope to continue to use the knowledge I have gained in the future,” said a crew member from our all women’s crew
Idaho graduated two crews in May. One of them, our Women’s saw crew finished out their season out of the beautiful Grandjean campground in the Sawtooth National Forest. After having to delay the project for a couple weeks due to snow pack levels, they finally got to work in Idaho’s forests performing thinning work alongside the USFS Timber crew. They removed trees within the campground in order to protect structures from wildfire risk, then used their tree ID skills to thin a 9 acre parcel of undesirable species.
The second, our young adult red crew put some miles on their crew truck this season, and the last couple weeks were no exception! They went from doing campground maintenance work in Mt. Hood all the way up to the Idaho Panhandle, where their final week was spent working at Idaho Fish and Game’s Kootenai Wildlife Refuge. They worked on a variety of tasks, including removing old fence posts, landscaping work, and removing sod.
Five crews from our Community Wildfire Protection Corps (CWPC) have completed their Session and graduated at the end of May.
“It was a very wholesome, real, fun, educational, thought provoking, and motivating experience that for sure helped me find a path that I’m hoping to figure out for my future,” Quote from CWPC Member who just graduated.
All CWPC staff received 100% on the post-session survey question: “How well supported did you feel by CWPC staff (Assessor, Program Coordinator, Program Director)?”
“I am very impressed with their work! They were friendly yet professional and exhibited an amazing work ethic! I would recommend the team to all of my friends and neighbors! Wonderful!” Quote from property owner survey result.
CWPC crews will start again in September. Northwest Youth Corps is looking for Members to join (19-26 years old). Learn more and apply here. We are looking forward to continuing to do great Community Wildfire Protection work.
