YOUTH CONSERVATION TEENS SHARE SUMMER PARK EXPERIENCES

The Youth Conservation Program (YCP), Grand Teton National Park’s teen trail crew that is privately funded by Grand Teton National Park Foundation, will host a year-end event on August 3, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. in the Directors’ Room at the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center.  The twenty-one participants will share their stories and photographs of life on a national park trail team and will discuss what they learned about wilderness, stewardship, and the challenges facing national parks during their ten-week employment.  The public is encouraged to attend.


YCP was established in 2006 as a way to introduce 16 to 19-year-olds to nature while helping youth develop valuable work skills and a conservation ethic in a fun, hands-on way.   The June to August earn-and-learn program also creatively assists Grand Teton National Park with trail restoration, historic site repairs, and many other projects that improve a visitor’s overall experience in the park.  “We can’t think of any better way to engage young adults and help them become invested in our national parks,” Foundation President Leslie Mattson said.  “Teaching about wilderness, search and rescue, and many other aspects of public lands management, helps us groom the next generation of conservationists and supporters.”

This summer marks the fifth season of YCP, which attracts teens from across the country and is the precursor to a large-scale trail restoration campaign that will address degradation and erosion issues on the park’s most popular trails.  Forty applicants hoped to secure positions on the 2010 crew, but Foundation funding could only provide salaries and equipment for twenty-one, the largest YCP group to work in Grand Teton to date.  Typical projects include building and maintaining trails, revegetation projects, bear box installation, noxious weed removal, and bridge and fence building and repair.

Mattson said the marriage of teens and trails occurred because there was no other program like YCP in the community.  “We’d like to provide for every teen who wants to work for the good of the park,” she said, adding that the number of teens, and in turn, the amount of work that can be accomplished, is directly related to the funding the Foundation can raise in any given year. 

YCP is part of Grand Teton’s Youth Engagement Initiative, an umbrella of youth programming that offers an escalating ladder of positive outdoor experiences.  “The goal is to keep young people involved in wilderness and Grand Teton until they make career decisions,” Mattson said.  “Youth will continue to be a priority for us.  We believe they are the future of parks and other public lands.”

Anyone interested in attending the August 3, 2010 event should contact the Foundation at jocelyn@gtnpf.org or 307-732-0629.

Today’s Youth. Tomorrow’s Leaders.

Keeping Grand Teton relevant in a changing world.

Since its creation in 1916, the National Park Service (NPS) has protected and preserved America’s natural and cultural heritage.  From nurturing endangered species to forging friendships with private organizations, the agency has spent nearly a century safeguarding an impressive 84-million-acre collection of lands.  But today, a trend is emerging that impacts the future of parks—many traditional visitors are aging.  With visitation growing and park fundraising groups more popular than ever, does the graying of park fans and supporters really matter?

In earlier times, national parks were the cherished places where Sunday picnics and family vacations unfolded.  Now, the Internet, digital games, and cable television, coupled with rising obesity and declining outdoor recreation, mean that national parks are not as familiar to younger generations.  Children’s disconnect from nature is a disturbing realization and books like Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods highlight the increasing number of kids who don’t know how to climb a tree or identify a tadpole.  With such a trajectory, will our population care about wilderness in 50 years and still provide the financial support that is critical to the future of our park system?  Carolyn Richard, Grand Teton’s chief of interpretation warns, “If you don’t go to national parks, how will you understand them?  If you don’t understand them, why will you care about them and want to protect them?”

The NPS has long worked to attract young visitors and park staff who will share the story of parks and more accurately reflect the changing face of America.  Grand Teton reaches youth with its Junior Ranger program as well as kid-centric visitor center exhibits, and the Youth Conservation Program (YCP), a teen work-and-learn crew that rehabilitates trails, is five seasons strong.  Richard says Grand Teton’s efforts to increase ethnic diversity, however, have not achieved similar success.  Until now.

The Children in Nature Multicultural Engagement Program, made possible with $25,000 from National Park Foundation and $25,000 from Grand Teton National Park Foundation, has reenergized the park’s efforts to engage Jackson’s growing Latino community.  The program debuted in late March with two weeks of spring break programming for approximately 26 teens and tweens.  Three weeks of summer programming will reach an additional 39 kids.  Both sessions bring Teton Science Schools, Teton County School District, Teton County Library, and other park partners together to identify, encourage, and welcome the young Latino population.

“We hope to open doors—doors that lead to understanding the park as well as doors that may channel kids toward career opportunities,” Richard said.  The program blends recreation, interpretation, and mentorship into a fun, engaging program and incorporates participants’ families at the end of each week.  “We think mentoring and leadership is a great skill set to have.  We hope it’s a way to get the kids thinking about a leadership role in the park.”

With support from Grand Teton National Park Foundation’s donors, YCP and the multicultural program are reaching a younger, more diverse audience and helping Grand Teton lay the groundwork that will influence good decisions about national parks in the future.  “Every time you have an opportunity to connect with others,” Richard says, “you have an opportunity to create future park stewards.”

Interested in supporting youth programs in Grand Teton?  Contact Leslie Mattson at 307-732-0629.