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A crew from the Student Conservation Association WildCorps has been working on a variety of projects on lands managed by BLM-California. WildCorps is a partnership with the BLM, to train a cadre of youth leaders to enhance public lands.  The partnership provides on-the-ground WildCorps youth crews to address management concerns such as trail construction and maintenance, invasive weed eradication, restoration of degraded lands and reclamation of old roads, dump sites and mining scars on National Landscape Conservation System lands. (text continues below)

Starting in King Range National Conservation Area, this WildCorps crew moved on to work in the Alturas and Bishop areas, at Piedras Blancas, and the Carrizo Plain National Monument.

The crew made a stop or a “hitch”, as they call their ten-day work period, at the new Granite Mountain Wilderness area managed by BLM-California's Bishop Field Office.

The crew was working on wilderness restoration of old roads.  "Restoration never happens quickly, but with an SCA crew of six people you sure can get a lot of work done," said BLM Park Ranger Scott Justham, who organized the project.  Decompacting the old road bed, vertical mulching, live transplants, and some bitterbrush plants were all part of the restoration equation. The crew completed 16 restoration sites, with some sites over half a mile long.  (Site # 2 before and after shows a good photo of this.)

“The crew was amazing, Justham said.  “This was my first time working with an SCA crew like this, and I loved it.  The high level of professionalism, dedication, and just hard working made the crew a joy to work with.”

The Crew members are:  Erin Ross, Rose Buss, Kana Matsui, Jack Fahey, Will Reed, and crew leader Brendan Taylor. (more text below photos)

Justham said he wanted to make this a memorable “hitch” for the crew.  Bringing the crew donuts, fresh vegetables from his garden, and even some espresso brewed up on the old Coleman after lunch one day made the work a little more enjoyable.

“Working with and SCA crew should be more than just the physical labor the BLM wants to get done," he said.  "It’s about education, and having a good time doing it all.”  The crew was visited by other Bishop BLM personnel, including Anne Halford (botanist), Greg Haverstock (archeologist), Eric Keefer (law enforcement), Elysha Iversen (ORP, visiting from Grand Canyon National Park), and Brad Johnston-Cox (park ranger) all made guest appearances.  Greg Haverstock gave the crew a great educational talk about archeology in the area.

Many members of the crew are from the East coast and have enjoyed seeing California during their labors. With all this hard work you have to enjoy the area you area working in.  So on day 10 the crew climbed to the top of Granite Mountain (8,920 ft) to enjoy the view of the new wilderness area.

About the Granite Mountain Wilderness Area

March 30, 2009 was an historic day for wilderness in California. When the president signed the monumental Omnibus Public Lands Act, California achieved an additional 700,000 acres of wilderness, the largest addition since the California Desert Protection Act of 1994.

Granite Mountain Wilderness Area is 34,342-acres of this new addition.  A geologically varied landscape of open alluvial basins, basaltic plateaus and granite ridges, the Granite Mountain Wilderness is an excellent Great Basin addition to the National Wilderness Preservation System. Its sagebrush steppe habitat is currently underrepresented in the system.  The area is home to sage grouse, deer migration corridors, abundant raptor nesting sites and wild horses.  Numerous archeological sites are scattered throughout the pinyon-juniper woodland. Mono Lake Paiutes historically wintered here, on the east side of the lake, to escape the heavier snows nearer to the Sierra crest.

- Scott Justham, park ranger, BLM-California Bishop Field Office, 10/09, BLM-California News.bytes, issue 406

By Wendy Liscow, Program Officer, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

One warm, crystal clear morning in August, I was lacing up my hiking boots with great anticipation. Not only was I going to get to leave my more formal foundation program officer uniform at home, but I was also going to a site visit at the South Mountain Reservation to meet the Student Conservation Association's Newark-area service corps. I had been to visit the crews last summer at Newark's Branch Brook Park and was blown away by the high school students' enthusiasm and the skills and knowledge they had accumulated over seven busy weeks. This visit promised to be equally gratifying.
Continue Reading on The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Blog.

Elizabeth Titus Putnam and the Student Conservation Association

"As a twenty-year old Vassar College student in 1953, Elizabeth Titus Putnam was inspired by her experience of the aurora borealis in Grand Teton National Park to create a modern-day conservation corps for students. She used her connections and entrepreneurial instincts to make it happen. Today, the Student Conservation Association boasts 3200 student volunteers from all fifty states and many foreign countries-all from the dream and determination of a college student a half-century ago." - From pbs.org/nationalparks

THE NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA'S BEST IDEA is a six-episode series directed by Ken Burns and written and co-produced by Dayton Duncan (SCA Board Member).

Premieres Sept. 27 on PBS (check local listings)

More on "The National Parks: America's Best Idea."

• Preview Introduction by Ken Burns
• Summary of the Screening Event
• Photos from the Screening Event
• The National Parks: America's Best Documentary?

Elissa Blair: Here are some photos from my crew in the John Muir Wilderness. We worked along a section of the Pacific Crest Trail and caught some spectacular views! One of the best places for work and play I could ever imagine. I am so grateful for this program.

Sarah was in SCA's Boston Community Program (Harbor Island Ambassadors) this summer and with this essay, she won 2nd place in the Boston Youth Essay Contest.

Sarah, Left, with SCA Members

By Sarah Park

I promise to konservieren sie, conservi, and behoud. It does not matter what language conservation is said in, it needs to be done, and it is time for the human population to clean up the messes we have created. Most people they are just one and their actions do not have a big effect. If everyone starts to think that way their numbers will add up. I refuse to be one of those numbers.

We need to stop taking this world for granted because we are destroying it. We must ensure future generations do not have to suffer for our generation's actions. We need to start conserving and preserving the land, sky, and waters, which provide life.

The SCA engaged 36 Boston teens in city parks this summer, from the historic Harbor Islands to West Roxbury’s Allandale Woods.  But on Sunday, August 30, some of them got to visit Boston’s best-known park: Fenway!

Bank of America invited SCA students as part of its Youth Day celebration, which kicked off with a tour of the majors’ oldest stadium.  Tomeka Baker, 18, an SCA Island Ambassador and passionate Sox fan, declared “I’m gonna shed a tear!” as she stepped onto the field.