Students cleaning up one of the 48 campsites in Big Larch Campground. Seeley Lake Ranger District Recreation Manager Katie Knotek said because the campground has been closed for nearly two seasons, grass has grown up in the sites and the logging slash has added debris. "We need to reestablish the site perimeter. The kids helped clear the grass, raked out the sites, swept the parking spur, cleaned away any of the slash dumped in the sites and piled wood. There will be a ton more work but at least it will give us a head start moving into next spring."
Students pose after completing the repair work to the bridge over Morrell Creek just before Morrell Falls. They were called "the human mule team" hauling in four, 12 foot and four, eight foot boards along with all the tools they needed to cut, drill and measure the replacement hand rails for the bridge. While the bridge was not damaged in the Rice Ridge fire, snow, weather and time had broken down the boards. Since the trail to Morrell Falls is listed as a National Recreation Trail, it sees a lot of use and the repairs were necessary.
Hunter Carpenter and Beau Sloan team up to carry two of the 12 foot boards for the railing
Seeley-Swan High School students sweeping the parking spurs for one of the campsites in Big Larch Campground.
SEELEY LAKE – "Not only do I get to witness better condition of things but people who come here for tourist seasons get to experience it," said Seeley-Swan High School senior Madison Hinchey. "I know that I helped make it better for them."
Hinchey's sentiments were echoed by many of the SSHS students and staff as they connected to the wider community through eight service projects with the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Seeley Lake Ranger District, Seeley Lake Nordic Club and Camp Paxson during their annual Discovery Day, Sept. 27. Students also learned new skills, work ethic, team building within their small group and how to interact with professionals at their work sites.
SSHS English teacher Lori Messenger said it has been five years since they did trail work at Monture Guard Station during the fall Discovery Day. That was one of the favorite Discovery Days for the seniors that graduated last year. She and science teacher Tonya Smith arranged another Discovery Day as a community service project on public land and public spaces. This year they tied it into homecoming week.
"We've always thought this was a pretty cool way to think of school and community spirit was to do something good for the community," said Messenger.
Messenger contacted Seeley Lake Ranger District Recreation Manager Katie Knotek to help arrange projects for this year's Discovery Day. They both agreed on multiple smaller projects instead of one large project.
Messenger said that working in small groups with students from all grade levels allowed students to work on teamwork. Each group had a student leader that was chosen prior to the project.
It also gave them an opportunity to practice the skills they have learned through the Social, Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum that SSHS implemented this year and the Challenge Success program.
"One of the big things that has come out of [the SEL curriculum and Challenge Success] is a desire for a better connection among our student body - across diverse populations and kids coming from different areas - and a sense that it is not impossible to go from freshman to senior feeling pretty isolated the whole time," said Messenger. "We really want to build better, stronger connections across grade lines and typical friendship circles earlier in the year."
Although it was challenging to come up with eight projects, for Knotek it meant getting a lot of smaller projects done on the District and helping out District partners.
"We don't have a lot of staff [on the District], so to have eight extra people [the size of one of the 10 groups] for a day you can get so much more work done," said Knotek. "It is an awesome opportunity for us to get a chunk of work done in a short period of time."
Messenger and Knotek choose project sites close to the community to help build a sense of connection with the students to the public lands surrounding them and help them better understand the work it takes to maintain public places. Students worked in Big Larch Campground, the Seeley Lake Nordic Ski Trails, on a bridge to Morrell Falls, at the Monture Trailhead and Guard Station, Camp Paxson, on the community trail around Seeley Lake and at Salmon Lake State Park.
Nordic Ski Club member Chris Lorentz was one of the leaders with the group at the Seeley Creek Ski Trails. The Club worked the day before the students arrived to chainsaw brush along the ski trails. Eight students cleared the brush off the trail and cleared brushy choke points along the trails as well as raked out tire ruts left by the road grader.
"Thank you to the SSHS students and staff. The [ski] trails are in the best shape I have ever seen," said Lorentz. "Bring on the snow...in a month or two."
Along with District, FWP and Nordic Ski Club personnel, the Montana Conservation Corps helped lead half of the groups.
MCC Field Coordinator Dylan Barbash saw this as a great opportunity to work with the students and expose them to the work MCC does. Three SSHS students, including Hinchey, participated in the summer MCC program this past summer. Barbash said MCC would like to run a crew of all SSHS students in the future.
"A lot of the kids in Missoula get opportunities and the more rural communities don't get all those opportunities handed to them," he said. "This is an opportunity to interface."
Barbash was impressed with the students' work ethic and willingness to "get after it, cutting trees and brushing back branches that are encroaching on the trail."
Along with completing the project work, the student leaders in each group led an emergency medical scenario during the day. The students were required to problem solve after being given enough information to make good judgment calls. They will discuss what social, emotional skills were required to make that scenario go well during their SEL class this week.
"I was really excited that the school reached out to us and wanted to do some work in the forest. The day went great," said Knotek who added the District would like to recruit more local students into temporary jobs. This was a great way to expose them to the forest and the type of work that they could do. "All the Forest Service work projects were completed and I know my staff enjoyed working with the students. Several of the kids mentioned wanting to bring their parents to their work site to see the work they completed, which is very cool. The students helped us accomplish work projects that probably would have gone undone for this season."
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