Wildlands Volunteer Corps

Wildlands Volunteer Corps - Road Reconnaissance Project, Lolo National Forest

Andrea Stephens, Signe Leirfallom, Kelsey Nielsen, and Chelsea Toone
Big Sky High School, Missoula

In June 1999, 10 Missoula high school students and their crew leaders surveyed roads in the Upper Lolo Creek and Dunham Creek areas. The students collected information on erosion associated with roads, on culverts which might be creating fish passage barriers and on road drainage problems. They photo-documented the most significant problems they encountered. The crews surveyed nearly 100 miles of roads; in the process, they acquired skills in navigation, map reading and Rosgen stream type classification. In addition, they learned about forest road design and construction, the dynamics of watersheds and fish habitat needs. The students’ work, totaling nearly $7000 in volunteer labor, was commissioned by a hydrologist with the Lolo National Forest. The LNF has already used the students’ data to help make determinations about road maintenance and obliteration needs. The students working on this Road Reconnaissance Project were members of the Wildlands Volunteer Corps. This summer project was sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service, the Flagship Program (a Missoula county, after-school program funded through a Dewitt-Wallace/Reader’s Digest grant) and Missoula County Public Schools. The Wildlands Volunteer Corps is a program of Northwest Connections, a non-profit organization devoted to conservation and education. The Road Reconnaissance Project will continue in the summer of 2000 with students from Big Sky High School and Sentinel High School in Missoula.