YCG Yellowstone Leadership Challenge Crew after our big Lamar Valley restoration project. Lamar Valley, YNP.
Every Yellowstone Country Guardians program has a “Giving Back” day and these service learning projects are instrumental to fostering commitment from this generation of young teenagers. So it is always with heightened anticipation that we awaken bright and early on Day Two of each Yellowstone Leadership Challenge. This year we were excited to facilitate two valuable service projects with NPS staff in Yellowstone National Park, and we couldn’t have been more enthused about Day Two’s big project.
After sharing an inspiring Yellowstone presentation the night before, the students awoke surprisingly bright-eyed for our 6 a.m. wake up call and 6:30 departure to the Lamar Valley. Adding to the excitement and festivities of the morning was the arrival of Daniel and Jacob, who had traveled via bus all night to make it to the second day of the Yellowstone Leadership Challenge. We have witnessed a great deal of commitment—one of YCG’s program core values—from students in past programs, but Daniel and Jacob took things to another level. They both play for Park High’s varsity football team who happened to be playing in the Class A Central District Championship game for the first time in over 30 years. Adding to the drama, the game was being played in Havre, Montana. Bound and determined to join us for our morning of wildlife watching and afternoon of back-tiring service work, they traveled all night and arrived in Livingston at 4:30 am, only to jump in a truck with one of our YCG mentors, and brother of Daniel, who also had traveled all night, to make it to Dome Mountain Ranch at 6:15 am. That is commitment.
With five SUV’s hauling 29 people we made our way through the cold and foggy morning with mega fauna on our brains. Having guided wildlife watching tours for a number of years now in the park, I know firsthand how difficult October can be for wolf and bear sightings and we were unable to find either of these two charismatic predators during the first two years of the program but we were bound and determined. Leading the way, we had received word of a cow elk being targeted by the Lamar Canyon Pack near the confluence of the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek. But just as we were passing the Buffalo Ranch, I recognized the blue Subaru of a longtime bear watcher from Idaho.
If anybody in the park was going to find a grizzly on this late autumn day it would be Bill. I had run into him multiple times while leading wildlife tours over the last two months, and even bumped into him in the parking lot of the Iceberg Lake trailhead in Many Glacier, Glacier National Park just two weeks before. Just as he had put me on to grizzlies that day in Glacier, Bill had spotted two male grizzlies near Specimen Ridge and Amethyst Mountain. Generously sharing his scope, we set up two additional scopes and every student and mentor had the unique opportunity of watching a grizzly bear in the wild. For many, this was there first such sighting. The excitement was palpable.
Next we journeyed through the valley to the confluence where all of the wolf watching regulars’ were out and glued to their scopes. We climbed one of the social trails to the top of a ridge overlooking the valley floor and set up a dozen scopes donated for the day by Nathan Varley (YCG board member) and Linda Thurston of the Wildside. For the next hour the students patiently and excitedly watched as different members of the Lamar Canyon pack tested a cow elk that they had apparently injured 48 hours before. It was an incredibly unique look into the world of predator/prey dynamics and the students couldn’t have been more amped. It was really amazing for the mentors to watch a transformation take place with many youngsters who came in with nothing but negative connotations surrounding wolves, wide eyed and in awe of what they were witnessing.
Following our hour plus observation of what the students said was, “straight out of a National Geographic film,” we traveled back through the valley to begin our restoration project. When Colby Anton of the Wolf Study team contacted me about the possibility of making this our service project I was very intrigued. The idea of leaving our mark—a positive one—and inspiring a legacy in the heart of the Lamar Valley had definite appeal. I was already so excited to have Colby so interested in YCG and our work and enthused that he had agreed to be a mentor for the entire program, that it seemed like the project would be a perfect fit.
We really couldn’t have asked for anything better. Colby went to great lengths to make this project--which was several years in the making--happen. With four additional NPS staff members and a truck full of Pulaski’s, fence pole diggers and shovels, we were ready to get after it, and get after it, we did. With somewhere between 16-30 social trails criss-crossing the hillside just east of the second exclosure in the Lamar, our mission was to remove the network of social trails, build water bars, plant native seeds, cover with wood and other debris to discourage further use and build two new trails leading to a new central viewing platform.
This was a perfect example of human/wildlife conflict that we spoke about the night before. In our zeal for watching wildlife in North America’s Little Serengeti, we—wildlife watchers—have degraded many such sections of roadside habitat, and now we had an opportunity to restore this site, benefitting the wildlife, their habitat, and creating a more natural and sustainable observation area for wildlife enthusiasts and visitors to Yellowstone.
According to one Park Service employee, this was a project that could have taken weeks, but with all hands on deck, and 30+ inspired and dedicated volunteers all wanting to make a difference, we were able to complete the project by late afternoon. While there were certainly tired bodies by lunchtime, our students and mentors returned from lunch re-charged and committed to finishing the project. There was a great sense of joy, pride and accomplishment at the end of the day as we were all honored to be a part of something so memorable and meaningful.
After a long day of hard work and excitement, we rewarded students with our traditional soak in the Boiling River, which was yet another highlight of an action- packed day filled with highlights. To the delight of the students, Crystal—my beautiful wife—had a big batch of her legendary spaghetti waiting for us at the ranch when we arrived, which only added to an already extraordinary day that certainly won’t be forgot by any of us.
Before bed we shared a testimony period that was filled with love, energy, inspiration and hope for the future. Two days down and one to go…
~Michael Leach, Director and Founder
Wolf Project member and YLC mentor sharing with students what members of the wolf study team are discovering.
Students watching wolves interact with elk through high powered spotting scopes donated by the Wildside and Jim and Joellen Barton.
YCG mentors and staff.
Ricky and crew working the Pulaski and restoring an entire hillside in the Lamar Valley, YNP.
Mizz Ashley working with a smile.
Daniel and Dakota re-seeding and restoring a hillside. Lamar Valley, YNP.
Students spreading debris on restored social trails to discourage future use in order to rehabilitate the area.
Wyatt working with Coach Leach digging a post hole to place restoration sign.
YCG board member Nathan Varley and YLC mentor Colby Anton all smiles as we neared completion of our deeply meaningful service project.
Jacked up after busting through layers of rock to get sign in place.
YCG board member and YLC mentor Brad Bunkers working with Jacob--Park High football stud--to bust through another dense layer of rock.
Cameshia and Brittany all smiles and full of pride.
A tired but proud YCG crew after a big day of work.
