November/December/January 2006-2007


Feature Articles:


For eight weeks every summer, more than 30 young people have their lives transformed--in one of the most beautiful places on earth. They learn of responsibility, of hard work, and about themselves. Since 1989, you’ve made this possible. It’s called the Youth Conservation Corps program at Yellowstone National Park, but the kids just call it. . .
YCC

Photos by Eric Wehrmeister and Kurt Wehrmeister


The enrollees and Youth Leaders (chosen by peers to return for a second year) of the 2006 Youth Conservation Corps at Yellowstone National Park--a program underwritten by the men and women of the Moose fraternal organization.

> ‘The bond between the Moose fraternity and the U.S. National Park Service’s Youth Conservation Corps program at Yellowstone National Park was, like many strong relationships, one born of adversity.

In the drought summer of 1988, the world watched its television screens in horror as tens of thousands of the 2 million acres of America’s premier national park were engulfed in flames. It was numerous individual fires amid the dry timber which had merged; some were naturally occurring (lightning strikes); others were the result of human carelessness. Ultimately, most conservationists would agree that the fires were a normal part of the burn-and-regrowth cycle that should be allowed to take its course in a wilderness envi-ronment such as Yellowstone. But the destruction of numerous Yellowstone visitor and staff facilities was an indisputable fact.

Mooseheart High’s representation at YCC 2006 consisted of (from left) Kirsten Bredesen, here getting acquainted with a friendly palomino at the Bechler horse stables; and Jessica Vazquez and Tori Bates, here in costume for the mid-July “Oregon Trail” party held on a Friday night at YCC headquarters.

The late Paul O’Hollaren, Moose International’s Director General from 1984-94, immediately contacted National Park Service officials to ask how the Moose fraternity could help. Robert Barbee, then-superintendent of Yellowstone, offered a response that touched a strong chord with Moose leadership: Federal funding had been pulled within the previous few years, from an annual program called the Youth Conservation Corps at Yellowstone, Barbee related. This was a program in which teenagers were annually brought to Yellowstone and paid federal minimum wage under adult supervision, to do maintenance and erosion-control work on hiking and horse trails, footbridges, picnic grounds and other visitor facilities. Would the Moose be interested in breathing new financial life into YCC?

Please click on any photograph below to view a larger image.






























The low-slung, ’70s-vintage YCC headquarters and dorm are tucked away about a mile-and-a-half south of Yellowstone Park headquarters in the Mammoth Hot Springs area. 8,564-ft. Bunsen Peak looms to the south.



















This duo positions and sledgehammers “kickrails” into place for a walkway out of a cabin at the Bechler ranger station in Yellowstone’s southwest corner.


YCC’s work projects are exactly that--hard work. Veteran adult crew leader Andy Weibel directs a contingent including Mooseheart’s Tori Bates (pink helmet) in hauling lumber into place for an erosion control project on a horse trail in the Cub Creek area.

Absolutely, responded O’Hollaren and the Moose Supreme Council, and by the end of 1988, the Moose Yellowstone Youth Fund was born, with an initial commitment to raise $1 million toward funding the program. YCC was revived for summer 1989. By 1990 the Moose was the sole funding source for the program, which then carried annual operating expenses of about $125,000 (the number has since grown to roughly $200,000; your contributions are keeping pace).










Dillon Martini of Boulder, MT, and Morgan Jones of Sandy, UT, check bindings on a log in preparation for hauling it into place on the Cub Creek project.


Sunday evening all-camp meeting.

Beginning in 1991, Mooseheart students have been part of the YCC program every year; since ’96, slots have been set aside for teens from Moose-member households.

The original $1 million goal was surpassed several years ago, but Moose support for YCC continues as strong as ever. For more information on Moose and YCC, see www.ypf.org/partnerships/moose.asp or www.nps.gov/yell/technical/jobs/ycc.htm.












Horse corral repair near the Bechler ranger station.


This crew enjoyed a Monday-morning boat ride across almost 15 miles of Yellowstone Lake (above)--but then had to unload (below) and haul a week’s worth of gear on a four-mile hike inland to get to its remote worksite, Beaver Dam Creek. There, the students cut away heavy brush that had overgrown onto horse trails.







Weekend excursion to Cooke City, MT--note the burn area on the hill above from ’88; it gave the town the temporary dark-humor nickname of “Cooked City”!


On weekends, YCCers shed work shirts and helmets to enjoy camping and sightseeing in the stunning natural beauty within Yellowstone and a bit outside as well. A group of girls go exploring in the Beartooth National Wilderness Area, several miles northeast of the park in Montana.


A group pauses to rest during a climb up 10,243-ft. Mt. Washburn.



On a Friday evening in early July, Yellowstone naturalist Paul Miller offered a seminar on plants native to the park--and advised how to spot others brought inadvertently from other areas.



Genie Bostrom: ’98 YCC Rookie, Today’s YCC Leader

> Genie Bostrom had just finished her freshman year at Mooseheart High when she was chosen as a 16-year-old enrollee in Yellowstone YCC (inset top right). Eight years later, she’s 24, a graduate of the University of Illinois--and the YCC co-director, arranging and coordinating all work projects, having earned the respect of Program Manager Steve Sarles (center above and inset bottom right) and other park rangers including Les Brunton (above right).