Newspapers / The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.) / Aug. 4, 1977, edition 2 / Page 3
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Hot Springs Area Youth Conservation Camp Successful By JOE WALLACE District Ranger The French Broad Youth Conservation Corps Camp will end this week at Hot Springs after an eight-week program. Twenty-two teenagers participated in the program which was co-sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Labor. The enrollees performed a wide variety of jobs in cluding Appalachian Trail maintenance, recreation construction and maintenance, wildlife habitat improvement, timber marking, fire ac cess improvement, vista construction, erosion control, and many other related jobs. As each new job started, as much as 10 hours of education was given to show the relationship of the task to other resources and the environment. Emphasis was placed on self-learning in the outdoors classroom wherever the job was being done. Whenever possible, a specialist in each particular field directed the learning process. Jay Daves, fisheries specialist from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, led discussions on the trout habitat improvement project in Cold Springs. An archeologist spent a morning on Mill Ridge discussing and showing artifacts from civilizations which inhabited Madison County as far back as 7,000 B. C. The crew then spent time scouring the area for arrowheads and chippings. Educational trips were also a big highlight. One such trip was a two-day camping trip tour to Brevard and included a tour of the Department of Interior's National Fish Hatchery where trout is raised for stocking mountain streams. The group also visited the Cradle of Forestry where they saw the very beginnings of forestry in the U.S. and the first National Forest land east of the Mississippi River. A visit was made to the Schenck Job Corps Camp where we saw Corps enrollees learning construction trades such as carpentry and brick laying. After the touring, surviving heat and bugs, and dusty roads, Sliding Rock Recreation Area on the Pisgah Forest was a welcome relief enjoyed by most of the gang. We also visited Powell Wholesale Sawmill to see how lumber is manufactured as a part of the timber management work the group did during July. The crew made fun out of work this summer and completed many jobs for which the Forest Service was not funded, or things to make the forest nicer for visitors, such as building trout habitat structures in Cold Springs. Only 12 were planned, but the gang built 15 in four days rather than the five days alloted. The structures will create holes in the stream channel and turn V4 mile of unproductive stream into trout waters. Turning out work fast has been typical of the group even though they swam, had water battles, dunked each other, their leaders and visitors to the work site. They proved that you can have fun and do your job, too. Visitors will be pleased to find six new remodeled and relocated privies at Harmon Den, cleaned camping sites, steps on the steep banks and new fire rings. The crew removed several tons of brush from the Harmon Den camping sites and built rabbitats. This is YCC slang for rabbit habitat improvement structures. Appearing as huge piles of brush, the rabbitats will provide homes and cover for several small game species, particularly rabbits in the fields of the area. Populations of the animals should increase in the future. Several free firewood areas were laid out and marked by the crew for cutting by local people this winter. We were surprised at how well the crew learned to select the better trees to be left for future crop trees. Spacing between leave trees was great and they made some good decisions on which trees to cut and which to leave. Their consideration and ideas on which mast bearing trees should be left for wildlife was impressive too. The crew made an overnight camping trip to Snowbird Mountain to build a large heliport for fire control access. A fourth of an acre of trees and brush were cleared for the helicopter landing site which will be used if a fire begins on 1-40 and spreads northward. This will reduce travel time to such a fire by hours and will enable the Forest Service to minimize acreage losses. In the meantime, it will serve as an opening for wildlife in an area where few others exist. THE YCC CREW who ac complished the job; sitting: Ray Moore, Arnold Reese, Allen Crowder, Sandy Graff, Jim Baker, Chuck Gentry. First row standing: Dorothy Payne, Sheila Green. Nina Payne. Susie Aikens, Allie Jean Cogdill. Dwaine Webb, Gary Jenkins. Teresa Ramsey, Alma Stills, Rebecca Lawson, Kathy Holt, Jeff Gentry. Last ?KuicJM, >.?* iBi?: #r * row: Jerry Ramsey, cnane? Rathbone, George Burns, Mark Reed, Donnie Roberts, Kenny Ramsey, Ken Pangle, Andrew Anderson, Mary Waters. Not pictured: Phillip Stamey, Luvenia Shelton, Randy Hodge, Janie Chandler, Billie June McCarter, Billy Holt, Tommy Gosnell, Dwaine Strom. LEFT TO RIGHT: George Burns, Jeff Gentry, Ken Pangle, crew leader Junior Lamb, Alma Stills, * and Luvenia Shelton admire completed trout habitat structure. . imm h irr * JMMilk TOP TO BOTTOM: Janie Chandler, Donnie Roberts and Jeff Gentry add finishing touches to steps at Harmon Den. m?n iB"?iii i ii ? in - - I | KEN RAMSEY steadies rocks in ; fire ring as shovel-wielding Alma $ I K Stills adds soil. KEN PANGLE removes bolts in picnic table, and Andrew An derson and Jerry Ramsey look on Table will be moved to heavier used site at Rocky Bluff. LEFT TO RIGHT: Mark Reed, Ken Ramsey and Charles Rath bone removed unused fire grate at Rocky Bluff. J i LEFT TO RIGHT: Donnie Roberts. Gary Jenkins. Phillip Stamey. George Burns, and crew Leader Jim Baker load privy at \ Harmon Den. ? 1 JERRY RAMSEY up to his waist in a new privy hoid.
The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.)
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Aug. 4, 1977, edition 2
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