As you may know, the State Parks Division is part of a larger agency, the Department of Conservation and Recreation. Our sister Natural Heritage Division is sharing our Youth Conservation Corps crew headquartered at Kiptopeke State Park for a week's worth of service at the two Eastern Shore Natural Area Preserves - Savage Neck and Cape Charles Coastal Habitat.
Crew Supervisors Garret Milton, John Verrilli, and Alex Moore are leading a crew of ten young men aged 14-17 in the three week overnight Youth Conservation Corps at Kiptopeke State Park. Garret and John are veteran YCC Supervisors and Alex Moore is an intern with the program. Interns are youth just graduated from high school who have been in the program at least one year before and have been invited to participate as an intern based on their performance.
For the first week of the program the crew is working with Dot Field, Eastern Shore Regional Steward and Richard Ayers, Eastern Shore Stewardship Technician from the DCR Natural Heritage Program. Dot and Richard told me today how much they appreciate the hard work of these young men. In fact, they spend significant time planning the projects that the youth will work on. Virginia’s Natural Area Preserve System includes some of the most interesting, unusual and beautiful natural features in the state. Natural area preserves harbor many of Virginia’s exemplary natural communities and rare species.
The youth were proud of their accomplishments. They took Gaston Rouse, Carrie McCrory and I to Savage Neck Natural Area Preserve to show off some of the work they completed which consisted of a replacement foot bridge on the trail. The young men described how they completed the work and some of the other work they had done at the Preserve. Savage Neck is one of the more accessible preserves and they also assisted with improving trail markers and clearing over grown foliage from the trail.
Keep in mind that this first week of their program marked 100 degree heat. So you might think the projects described above occupied their time. But, no they also worked on a significant project at Cape Charles Coastal Habitat Natural Area Preserve. The crew demolished part of a damaged boardwalk and recovered the wood for other projects. Watch this slide show to see the work involved.
