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Camp Participants Help with Reforestation Efforts
By McKibben Jackinsky
"Awesome!" is how Christi Craig refers to the 60,000 spruce seedlings she and 100 campers planted on the Kenai Peninsula's spruce bark beetle-ravaged countryside during June and July. Grown from seeds harvested on the Peninsula, the baby trees were planted by young people ranging from 14 to 18 years of age while attending one- and two-week sessions of Cook Inlet Tribal Council's first Ninilchik Youth Camp, located 20 miles east of Ninilchik village.
Craig's response applies equally to the campers' increased appreciation of their individual strengths and heritage, and the lessons in Alaska history taught at camp.
Several years ago Carl Marrs, president and CEO of CIRI, envisioned combining CIRI's reforestation of logged areas on the Peninsula with employment opportunities for Alaskan youth. In January 1999, fueled by enthusiasm for Marrs' idea, leaders from CIRI, Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC), Southcentral Foundation, and Alaska Native Resource Consultants, Inc. (ANRCI) put their heads together and developed a youth camp pilot program. Thanks to their strong commitment, hard work and support, the camp opened this past June as an extension of CITC's youth employment program.
"The idea behind the camp is to take care of kids at this adolescent period of their lives so they don't fall through the cracks later. This way, they can gain work experience, before they get out of school, that will help prepare them for their future life," says Marrs.
CIRI Board
Chairman Bill Prosser says the camp is a "perfect example of how businesses
can be sympathetic to social needs and accomplish the goals of both."
Addressing the short lead time, Prosser credits "a lot of the success
to the people of the village, in particular Dean Kvasnikoff, who not
only supported it, but worked hard to make it happen."
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Kvasnikoff, owner of ANRCI, was responsible for putting the physical facilities together. Located on CIRI land, tents, a kitchen and dining area, showers and laundry facilities were waiting for staff and campers when they arrived in June. In honor of Kvasnikoff, the nearby lake was dubbed "Dean Lake."
Camp Coordinator Gary Bibb, who has experience coordinating youth programs as well as reforestation projects with CITC, performed an excellent job of pulling together a seven-member staff consisting of counselors and counselor aides, an Anchorage School District teacher, a registered nurse, a bus driver and cook.
The first campers to arrive added the finishing touches. They proudly point to graveled walkways, the talking circle, and a steam bath. Morning started with a 6 a.m. wake-up horn calling sleepy campers to breakfast. John Demientieff, on loan to the camp from Southcentral Foundation, drove staff and campers by bus to areas logged in the early 90s when the war against spruce bark beetles was heating up. Scattered skeletal remains of seed trees left during the logging dot the hillsides, sobering reminders of the two to three million acres of forested land impacted by 10-year infestation of epidemic proportions.
Although reforestation can be done mechanically, some areas, such as steep hillsides require hand planting. These were the areas where campers spent four hours every morning, Monday through Friday, planting 200 seedlings an acre, in exchange for stipends.
After lunch back at camp, afternoons were set aside for studying Alaska history with Anchorage School District teacher Barbara Boles, earning the kids half a high school credit. Camp counselors Ben Snowball, Moses "Moe" Wassilie, and Louise Leonard, members of Kicaput Dancers and Singers,
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Students between the ages of
14 and 18 participate in the first season of the Ninilchik Youth Camp.
