Russians visit from Siberia

The first thing that comes to mind about Siberia isn't usually sandy beaches, hiking trails and a beautiful lake - the world's most voluminous freshwater lake, in fact.

Lake Baikal in Siberia contains one fifth of the world's fresh water and is about 350 miles wide. For the past five years the newly formed Great Baikal Trail Association's (GBT) goal is to put a trail around the lake. That might seem like a doable project in the United States of America, but in Russia, building trails is a new phenomenon.

Tanya Yurchenko and Sveta Savvateeva of GBT visited the U.S. West Coast for three months, stopping in Sisters Country to learn about trail building, skills they will take back to their native Russia.

Their weeks here started on Earth Day, in April. Marv Lang of Deschutes National Forest (DNF) brought them to Suttle Lake not only to build trails, but to learn from event organizers, partner organizations, and team leaders. From there they traveled to California to work on the Pacific Crest Trail. One month later DNF brought them back to participate in a week of the Train the Trainer program at Allingham Guard Station in Camp Sherman, where they learned trail analysis and project management.

The DNF and GBT have participated in a trail building exchange program.

John Schubert, of the DNF in Bend, traveled to Russia to assist as a trails specialist and to offer advice about trail design and construction.

"They have very few trails in Russia, it's a new thing in the last twenty years," Schubert said. "It's also the reason they came to the U.S.

"Most volunteers on the GBT are from other countries," he said. "Volunteerism and private commerce are just beginning in Russia."

GBT is the first organization in Russia that builds trails.

"They welcome anyone to come to Lake Baikal and work on the trail," Schubert said. "They need volunteers from all over the world, because not many Russians are interested in trail work."

Sisters District Ranger Bill Anthony and his wife welcomed them as guests in their home for a week, one of their last stops before returning to Russia.

"When I asked them if they were ready to return home, I was surprised by their resounding 'no,'" Anthony said. "They had so many firsts here. They'd never ridden horseback. Never snowshoed, which I was surprised considering they're from Siberia. And they never went whitewater rafting."

Both women are fluent in English and French, in addition to their native language.

"Their jobs in Baikal are as interpreters. Here they were charged with bringing back a lot of information to help on their trail system, and they met a lot of people and organizations here on a daily basis."

They met members of the Student Conservation Association, Pacific Crest Trail, and Americorps.

"Here in Sisters they got to meet Karly Hedrick, our shared employee between Americorp, the National Forest Foundation, and the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce," Anthony said. "She showed them the Web site she is working on.

"Their recent trip to Allingham Guard Station in Camp Sherman for the Train the Trainer course provided them hands-on training on how to treat volunteer leaders, how to maintain and build trails and how to build trails safely," Anthony said. "They mentioned several times how important and how impressed they were with the safety portion of their

training."

As partner representatives of the Great Baikal Trail they were invited to speak at Sisters Rotary, a GBT partner. Rotary International has provided GBT a leadership grant as well as a grant for ecology and the environment.

"Baikal is the first organization in Russia that builds trails," Yurchenko said. "We don't have experience or experts, so we need America to design and build trails. It's a good partnership. International Forestry is funding to make it happen."

Yurchenko is an advertising major who graduated from Irkutsk University, has volunteered for five years at GBT, and was an interpreter for the camps for three years, and for two years has been a foreign volunteers coordinator. Savvateeva also attended university in Irkutsk.

"I got invited because my friend signed me up with a camp," Yurchenko said. "I just fell in love. My family didn't hike."

Savvateeva's experience was similar, "My interest was language, and then I fell in love with the people and nature."

"Every day they had an event going on," Anthony said. "They're trying to learn about how we build partnerships and stewardships."

Since their trail building project began, they have built 360 miles of trails. Their program has expanded with an international exchange program, children's projects and a city project where they built a trail in a botanical garden in the city.

"GBT started volunteer camps in 2003 with just seven camps," said Savvateeva. "Last year we had 21."