This article was written and released in September 2007.
High winds and flooding can mean home repairs for Iowans. However, for the Wabash Trace Nature Trail, cleanup requires the hard work of a few dedicated youth.
With support from multiple conservation partners, four young adults from southwest Iowa spent their summer maintaining the Wabash Trace Nature Trail as part of the Heritage Conservation Corps program (HCC). The group includes Brian Visocky, Darren Kelley, Ryan Pignotti, and Terence Hancock.
The trail crew spent much of their summer trimming back trees on the trace, clearing trees downed by high winds, repairing bridges, resurfacing trail washouts caused by flooding and doing structural maintenance on the nearby Izaak Walton League building.
One crew member, Terence Hancock of Malvern, says he gained much from working on Wabash Trace for the past two summers.
“I got a lot of experience learning how to run equipment,” Hancock said. “But also learning about wildflowers and nature in Iowa.”
In the fall, Hancock will attend Morningside College in Sioux City to play golf and study computer science. He said that work on the Trace could also be challenging at times.
“After one windstorm, we had about 30 trees down,” he said. “It took the whole day to clear them with chainsaws."
The Heritage Conservation Corps is an annual maintenance program. It is managed by Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF), a statewide nonprofit group, and Southwest Iowa Nature Trails, Inc. (SWINT), a local nonprofit made up of volunteers who are committed to recreational trail development. The two organizations spearheaded the trail’s creation.
Funding for the program is made possible by a partnership between SWINT and the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Urban Youth Corps Program. INHF and the Page County Conservation Board also provide in-kind support.
The crew’s primary field supervisor was Bob Drake, hired by SWINT. Ron Willeman, SWINT vice president, and Don Zollars, a SWINT board member, also provided supervisory assistance in the trail effort.
“The biggest thing is the trimming of trees that grow over the trail, but there were a lot of weather-related tasks this year, too,” said Willeman. “There’s so many little things that have to be done. I was amazed at how much they accomplished.”
Wabash Trace was once a railroad corridor that ran through 63 miles of southwest Iowa countryside. Today, it is a converted trail that passes through eight towns: Council Bluffs, Mineola, Silver City, Malvern, Imogene, Shenandoah, Coin and Blanchard.
Garrett Pedersen, an IDOT employee in his first year as program manager for the Urban Youth Corps Program, was one of many people that helped make the 2007 HCC a success.
“It’s really an impressive program,” says Pedersen. “The trail crew seemed to be enjoying and accomplishing meaningful projects, while getting a good education at the same time.”
One condition of the HCC program is crew members must receive training on life skills, as well as skills in conservation. To fulfill this, the crew took time off from the trail for workshops in resume writing and job interviewing. They also attended meetings of Page County and IDOT commissions, not to mention time they spent learning about the native plants and animals in Iowa.
Andrea Chase, Trails Coordinator for INHF, worked with the youth when they visited the Des Moines area for various workshops.
“I think it’s great that through the DOT and the original developers of the trail we are able to provide summer jobs to the youth of the community to maintain it,” said Chase. “We should all be proud of what can be accomplished with a little heart.”