Youth Trail Work - 2011
WTA youth volunteers accounted for more than 13,200 hours of work on Washington's hiking trails in 2011, including Youth Vacations (9,100 hours) and community partner groups (4,100 hours). Learn about where they worked and what they did!
- A youth crew celebrates their handiwork on the East Side Trail at Mount Rainier National Park.
More than 9,100 hours came by way of summer Youth Volunteer Vacations - a hugely popular program where high school students spend a week at a time improving our trails. Another 4,100 hours of work came from individual youth or from one of the twelve community partner groups volunteering a day or two at a time. As of the beginning of September, youth have accounted for more than 13,200 hours of work on trail.
Some new opportunities offered for youth were a series of Alternative Spring Break day work parties, family-friendly work parties for youth ages 10 and up and starting in the fall, once a month Saturday youth-specific work parties.
2011 Youth Vacations
In 2011, fifteen crews of teenagers each spent a week in the woods. Highlights include three weeks of work on Hardy Ridge at Beacon Rock State Park, a week at beautiful Bird Creek Meadows in the Yakama Nation, and a week in the Methow on the Lone Fir trail. Overall, WTA's 128 Youth Vacation volunteers worked in two state parks, one national park, one reservation, and three wilderness areas in three different national forests. From new trail construction to puncheon building and from log-out to turnpikes, these kids did it all. Camping for the week, they learned some great trail skills, cooked and ate yummy food and made new friends. It's truly amazing and we can't thank our 2011 Youth Volunteers enough!
For more information about where exactly WTA's youth crew worked in 2011, check out the locations below. Click the yellow hiker icon and learn more about the trails WTA maintained. Note that trail names do not always match the Youth Volunteer Vacation trip name. To learn more Youth Vacations and all the details about joining trips in 2012, check out our Youth Vacations page. The 2012 schedule will be posted on February 6, with sign-ups beginning on February 13.
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