Community Involvement
Investing in the local Darrington community, and voicing their opinions on public land management is a top goal of the Collaborative. Since the establishment of the Northwest Forest Plan, rural timber communities have not had the economic support they were guaranteed. The Collaborative’s commitment to bettering the Darrington community is primarily expressed through investment in their youth. Below, explore the ways the Collaborative has given local youth opportunities to engage with Forest Service staff, and gain experience working in the field.
Getting the Local Youth Involved
One way that members of Darrington’s youth have been involved in Collaborative projects, is through involvement in Environmental Assessments. During the EA process the Forest Service is tasked with marking where perennial and annual streams are, as well as marking which streams are fish bearing and which streams are not. It is common for the Forest Service to be stretched thin when it comes to their staff, so the Collaborative reached out to Glacier Peak Institute to get more boots on the ground. GPI has a seasonal workforce development crew that works closely with the Forest Service on a number of projects including but not limited to manual invasive removal, trail maintenance, and stream typing.
The youth that are on the workforce crew not only get to create strong professional relationships with key members of the forestry community, but they are also gaining valuable work experience. It is common for teenagers to not know what the next steps are in life, especially when facing graduation and large impending decisions. Giving the youth an opportunity to test the waters in an environmental field before making any strong commitments. Alternatively, if a young member of the community is confident that they want to go into an environmental field, this opportunity can work not only as work experience and a way to meet staff in that field of work, but it can also help them decide what sector of the environmental field they want to specify in.
