San Gabriel Valley : A Program Aimed at Planting Seeds of Students’ Careers
It’s not a bad job for teen-agers who like to sleep in: Roll out of your sleeping bag and, bingo, you’re at work, faster than you can say, “Smokey Bear.”
Four inner-city students from Oakland and Los Angeles are starting four weeks in the backcountry of the Angeles National Forest, working on trails and camping out, as part of a program to encourage careers in conservation.
The students, ages 16 to 18, and two crew leaders will work near Mt. Baldy in the Cucamonga Wilderness, northeast of Claremont.
The backcountry trails are maintained only sporadically by volunteers, said George Duffy, the forest’s wilderness program manager. The students’ trail maintenance will be the area’s most intensive in years, he said. They hiked in Monday to begin their jobs.
The forest work is part of a yearlong program coordinated by the Los Angeles-based Student Conservation Assn., which organizes community projects, such as mural paintings, tree plantings and beach cleanups. Participants receive a stipend of $800 for their work throughout the year.
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