A WTA Work Party was a Life-Changing Trip for One Youth Volunteer

It takes a seed to start growing a passion. WTA gives many people their first exposure to trail maintenance. For some young people, that time working on trail sparks a passion for trail work and pushes them to pursue more personal and professional ways to care for outdoor spaces and the hiking community. This year, we've been telling the stories of several young adults who got their start on trail with WTA — and of the transformative moments that inspired them to get further involved as stewards of trails and public lands.

Haylee Darby can recall the first time she thought about the work that goes into building trails; it was on one of her first hikes.

Photo courtesy of Haylee Darby. 

She said, "I remember thinking, ‘How do these trails get made? Who does this?'"

In high school, Haylee was part of Honor Society, which required students to do community service. Thinking back to her question about how trails were created, Haylee decided to try out volunteer trail work. She signed up for a WTA day work party and found that, even though she was a high-schooler and almost everyone else was an adult, the whole crew was excited to have her there and happy to teach her about trail work.

Just two daylong work parties would have met her community service needs, but she liked trail work enough that she signed up for a weeklong WTA youth volunteer vacation. Haylee didn't have a lot of outdoor enthusiasts in her social circles, so she was eager to meet new people who shared her interest in the outdoors. She also liked having a support system on her first-ever backpacking trip — a full week in the Pasayten Wilderness.

She made a life-changing connection on that trip.

The crew met with a liaison from the U.S. Forest Service, Abby Ludeman from the Methow Valley Ranger District, who helped them complete a project. Haylee looked up to Abby, realizing she could work outdoors professionally as an adult.

"I was like, ‘I want to be you when I grow up,'" Haylee said. "I thought she was the coolest person in the world."

Haylee Darby (front) on a WTA youth volunteer vacation in the Pasayten Wilderness. Photo courtesy of Haylee Darby.

She asked Abby a bunch of questions about her job, her background and how she got there.

"I left that trip really wanting to do trail work as a job in the future," Haylee said.

A couple of years later, during her senior year in high school, Haylee was asked to be a WTA Youth Ambassador, a program for youth that WTA had at the time.

Haylee used her role to share her love of trail work. As student body president, she organized a work party in Puyallup for her peers. She chose a place close to home so the volunteers could go back later to hike and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Haylee also became an assistant crew leader (ACL) with WTA, supporting other volunteers at work parties.

"I figured that becoming an ACL as young as possible would be another great way for me to practice my leadership skills and encourage others my age to take on a similar role," Haylee said. "It was intimidating sometimes since I definitely didn't know everything, but I never felt anything but encouragement from the WTA crew leaders."

Haylee spent some time with WTA as an ACL before starting work with the Forest Service. Photo by Bob Zimmerman. 

With the confidence and support she'd gained from WTA, Haylee applied to work on trails with the Forest Service during her first year at the University of Washington, where she studied environmental science. For the next 3 years, when she wasn't in class, she worked at the Methow Valley Ranger District as a crew member and then a crew leader.

Nowadays, Haylee lives in Bozeman, Montana. For a while, she was working as a ski patroller during the winter and as a climbing ranger on Mount Shasta in the summer. At the end of last year, she blew out her ACL while ski patrolling. As a result, she started exploring her passion for healthcare and working as a nurse aid, and she plans to attend nursing school in a couple of years. She's since recovered enough to return to ski patrolling and avalanche education. 

"I decided that the best way to use this downtime I have would be to diversify myself as a professional so as to be prepared in case this happens again and I can't do manual labor in the future … Becoming a nurse feels like a physically and financially sustainable way to continue to work seasonally and ski patrol or volunteer with the Forest Service in different seasons throughout the year. I am certainly not ready to say that my seasonal career is over — it is just going to look a little bit different from here on out!"

Haylee encourages any youth who are curious about WTA's work parties to sign up, especially if they have community service hours to fulfill. It was a little nerve-wracking to put herself out there at first, especially having no experience, but she's glad she took the chance.

"Just sign up for that one work party and see what it's like," said Haylee. "See if it's something you like, do some physical labor and meet a bunch of awesome, knowledgeable people."