Shawnee National Forest Hires

Shawnee National Forest hires local high school students

The Shawnee National Forest has initiated an experimental program this summer utilizing local high school students. Five Vienna High School boys have been working this summer through the Hidden Springs Ranger Station in Vienna to help repair and relocated worn out trails and creek crossings.

Dillon Hall, Garrett Mattox, Seth Adams, Michael Goines and Josh Loyd, are the first to participate in this program. They have been working with project supervisor Justin Dodson, now for six weeks. The program is a ten-week program. The six man crew has relocated or repaired miles of equestrian trails in the Lusk Creek Wilderness Area located near Eddyville in the northwest part of Pope County.

Hidden Springs Ranger, Tim Pohlman said it is his hopes that this will be the beginning of a long successful cooperative program. He plans to hire summer help from other area high schools in coming years. "This is a way for the forest service to contribute to the region's economy, by hiring additional local people," Pohlman said. "The high school crew we have now is a hard working bunch of guys. They are doing a great job," he added.

Many years ago, the forest service utilized YCC crews to work during the summer months. That program has long since vanished. The crew was required to go through a two-week safety course before they were eligible to work in the wilderness area.

Additionally, they are required a monthly safety course. During the safety course they learn how to safely use and carry hand tools, lift heavy objects and more. In the wilderness area, no power tools or motor vehicles are allowed.

All needed tools and supplies have to be carried to the site, either by hand or on backs of mules. Loads of red creek rock is trucked to a holding area at the edge of the wilderness area. Mules from other National Forests in other states are brought in to transport the gravel, used as cement, along the trails to the work sites.

Josh Loyd said, "I really enjoyed working with the mules. It is a lot of hard work, loading the five gallon buckets of gravel onto the mules, but I enjoyed it." When asked what he liked most about working in the forest, Michael Goines said, "meeting and visiting with the horse back riders. There are a lot of neat people that use these trails and they come from all over."

The crew is currently repairing a creek crossing known as the 'Old Guest Farm Crossing' to make it safer for horseback riders and to reduce bank erosion and creek sediment. With the exception of red creek gravel, all materials used are from sources close to the work site.

Each day the crew, carrying their tools, must hike 1.25 miles each way into and out of the wilderness. There was a unanimous response when asked 'what is the hardest part of this work?' . . . "The heat."

Ranger Pohlman said the purpose of relocating some trails is to provide the horse riders an enjoyable and safe ride. "Many of the old trails were washed out, or on the edge of the creek banks, causing an unsafe threat to the riders and horses," he said."Our goal is to give the riders the opportunity to see what they have come to see in the safest way possible," he added. Pohlman said with all the trail maintenance that is required throughout the year in the Shawnee National Forest and the time required to do this, they can only replace one crossing per year. All but one crossing has been replaced. The Natural Bridge Crossing should be replaced next year.

The new crossings, unlike the old ones that were deep and narrow, are wide and stair-stepped to prevent erosion, giving horses better footing. When talking to the high school crew about their work on the crossing, Pohlman said, "It may have taken all summer, but this is a 'really' good piece of work." There are approximately 25 miles of designated equestrian trails and five designated crossings in the Lusk Creek Wilderness Area.

Popular attractions within the wilderness area include; Saltpeter Cave, Natural Bridge, Lusk Creek Canyon, Indian Kitchen, Owl Bluff, and Secret Canyon. The wilderness area is located just northeast of Eddyville.