Greetings from AMC-JAG! (Jobs for America's Graduates)
This past week we worked on a trail that was started by our
crew last summer behind the White Mountain Community College Child Development
Center. Last year the trail began as just flagging through the woods. The
students cleared most of the trail corridor and put in a few structures to fix
swampy areas. This year we focused on shaping the rest of the treadway, cutting
drains, and removing tripping hazards to make the trail walkable for little
feet. At the end of the week we were also able to put in a few log steps to
retain the soil on a steep section of trail.
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| Log steps installed by the crew |
Sue Cloutier, the director of the Child Development Center,
arranged for the students to attend an orientation with an admission counselor
at the college. They discussed their options for after high school, went on a
tour of the campus, and even got to try out the new virtual welding machines in
the welding lab!
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| A student using the welding simulator |
This week we shifted from a group to a crew, with students
giving out trail names and motivating each other to keep projects moving. We
also got a special visit from Switchback, a second-year member of the AMC’s
professional trail crew. She worked with us for an afternoon and talked with
the students about her experience with trail work and the AMC. The crew was
excited to have her and some students are now considering continuing trail work
with the AMC in the future.
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| The crew gathers in front of a huge tree that the daycare children call "The Hugging Tree" |
Our fourth and final week with the Berlin crew will be a
culmination of our crew’s new trail work skills as we return to Mt. Jasper to
install some rock staircases and check steps.