Teens help protect burned forests

Some Central Oregon teenagers are putting their backs into heavy work this fall, rehabilitating the forest burned by the B&B Complex Fire.

The Forest Service's Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation team (BAER) has contracted with the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council (COIC) to supply a work force of teens who are not enrolled in high school.

Around the headwaters of Abbot Springs, near Abbot Butte, three COIC teens and a crew leader are erecting an A-frame fence to protect budding, green plant life from an elk herd.

This area near Camp Sherman was burned particularly severely by the fires last summer.

All of the Forest Service roads in the area are closed to the public. The closure is due to dangerous trees -- trees that are burned so badly at the base that the structural integrity of the tree is gone. Some of these trees are near the road, creating a potential hazard when they could fall at anytime.

The COIC crew has obtained special work access to the hard-hit Abbot Butte. There's not one unscorched tree in the vicinity of the springs.

Jeremy Fields, a Reforestation Technician for the Forest Service, explains, "There's a real problem with the elk because there is not a lot for them to eat and they devastate the only green."

The only visible new growth is in these riparian zones.

"The goal here is just to let this vegetation get established again," said Fields.

The Forest Service speculates that the elk herd carries about 30 head. It is thought that a concentrated population of cougars near Abbot Butte and the Doll Ranch has pushed the elk onto the Warm Springs Reservation.

The teens work hard in a tough environment -- all for school credit.

Josh Day, Youth Employment Counselor for COIC, says, "About 20 percent of the students that come over to us do the Work Education Program. They earn school credit coming out here and doing work."

These teens do not receive pay.

Upon arrival at the job site on a recent morning, Day organized his crew. His three-man crew was in good spirits.

There was no grumbling about the hard work, the cold morning or the wet fencing material.

They immediately set to work assembling the fence with three-inch diameter poles and fastening them together with eight-inch, twisted galvanized spikes.

The A-frame design is intended to trip the elk when they come in contact with the bottom rung of the fence. If the fence was the usual vertical design, the elk could jump over.

"We intend to just let the riparian fencing fall over," said Fields. "It will stand for about five years."

When the COIC crew broke for lunch, everyone was still enthusiastic after a sweaty morning of fence building.

Philip Doke, 16, thinks this work is fun.

"It teaches me things I can use later in life," he said.

Shawn Weight's brother told him about the COIC program after he was kicked out of high school.

Joshua Daschunea said, "It's fun. If it wasn't I wouldn't be here. I'm getting Science and Natural Resources credits."

All three workers would like to finish high school despite various setbacks. Joshua and Philip would like to go to college. Shawn intends to join the Air Force.