Youth group celebrates 25 years of public land projects

CODY, Wyo. – The Bureau of Land Management Cody Field Office hosted the Conservation Outdoor Recreation Education (CORE) youth group for another rewarding week of public land stewardship projects in the northern Bighorn Basin.

For a quarter century, the BLM has maintained a partnership with the non-profit Self Help Center of Casper. The goal of the Center’s CORE program is to connect disadvantaged, at-risk and special-needs youths to the outdoors through volunteerism and teamwork at recreation sites. For most participants, a tour with CORE is their first time hiking, camping and disconnecting from technology for an extended period of time.

Victor Orr, Violence Prevention Coordinator for the Center, leads the group of 8–18-year-olds throughout Wyoming, tackling important projects with the BLM, U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service to improve federal lands. Orr was impressed with this year’s group.

“I see changes in these kids over the course of one week,” said Orr. “It’s neat when they pull together and get things done. And it’s not easy.”

The group set up camp at the BLM-administered Five Springs Falls Campground east of Lovell. While there, the kids expanded and improved a group campsite, removed dead trees, cleaned out fire rings, sanded and painted trashcans, trimmed vegetation, cleaned the vault toilets, and resurfaced campsites and trails with gravel.

Eleven-year-old Dyllon was inspired by his mother who was a previous CORE participant.

“The best part about it is working with all the people we get to work with,” said Dyllon. “It’s fun and I wanted to do it again.”

In addition to the work at Five Springs Falls, the CORE kids were able to conduct an official paleontological survey at nearby Rainbow Canyon. Walking slowly and trying to stay in a line, the group surveyed about fifty feet on either side of a centerline, looking on the ground for anything that might be a fossilized bone or tooth.

“While the kids found lots of things that looked like fossils but weren’t, they did find trace fossils, ripple marks and other cool sedimentary structures,” said Cody Field Office Geologist Gretchen Hurley, who led the survey.

The find of the day was a large, fossilized branch or root encased in an ironstone concretion.

“It was great to have their help surveying the trail, and excellent to meet the kids and their trip leaders,” said Hurley.

For more information about the CORE group, or volunteering on public lands in the Cody area, please contact the BLM Cody Field Office at 307-578-5900.