Shouldering shovels and backpacks, eight Kaua‘i teens lean into the ascent up the Wailua House Lots Sleeping Giant trail. It’s week four of a six-week commitment the team has made with Hawai‘i Youth Conservation Corps, an organization that’s been in the state since the ’70s providing hands-on education to Hawai‘i’s youth. The intent is to develop natural resource managers, raise cultural awareness and personal growth and encourage teamwork and leadership skills in an environmental setting.
The work at hand is trail maintenance. Today the group, self-named the Blue Llamas, will clear the upper tier of the Giant, leaving the lower half for a second group of teens to clear next week.
Blue plastic ribbons tied to tree limbs dot the trail where Division of Forestry and Wildlife employee Kawika Smith marked as in need of pruning. YCC students work side-by-side with some of Hawai‘i’s premiere conservation leaders learning about Hawai‘i’s delicate habitat.
“It helps that the kids are into it,” Smith said. “I love this program because it gets kids into natural resources.”
The program began with just one team on Kaua‘i until 2007. This is the second year they’ve had a second YCC team. Each team of eight is led by two team leaders in their early 20s. Currently the program has summer and year-round internships for young adults between 15 and 30 years-old. The average age of the Blue Llamas is 17.
The team hikes as high as the picnic table, pausing only for a snack and water before descending. Smith tells them, “anywhere you see a root making a loop, cut it so hikers don’t trip.”
Today the work is clear cut and fortunately in the shade. In the past few weeks the teens have traveled from one end of Kaua‘i to the other. Last week at Limahuli the youth removed Awapuhi to replace it with native species.
“We did about 12 trips in and out carrying plants,” said Dyllon Heresa, 15, of Lihu‘e.
While the physical labor is apparent, there are other moments of enlightenment the teens comment on.
“You have to kill some plants to save others,” said Kaua‘i High School graduate, Mary Coulombe of Kalaheo. “It’s harder then it sounds — I feel bad killing anything.”
Coulombe leaves for college in Flagstaff, Ariz. after completion of the program. Many of the students receive college credit for participation, as well as a $1,000 stipend.
This summer is a first for all the youth. Llama team leaders are Josh Orphanidys and Desiree Vea. Orphanidys came to Kaua‘i two years ago as a literacy tutor with Americorps. Koloa native, Vea, was a YCC participant while attending Waimea High School. When she returned from university in May she joined the program as a team leader.
“I love this program,” she said. “I led a sheltered life in high school and this program got me out to see so much of Kaua‘i and meet a lot of people.”
When a couple kids short-cut rather then stay on the marked trail a hiker stops the group to point out trail etiquette.
“At the top of the shortcut the trail gets eaten away,” said Kitty Basuel of Wailua House Lots, pointing out the erosion that clearly narrows the maintained trail.
When the Conservation Corps students apologize and explain they are there to clear the trail of over-hanging branches and remove hazardous roots, Basuel gave a cheer of celebration thanking them, “When I come tomorrow the trail will be big enough for my body.”
The Llamas started the program with an orientation on O‘ahu in June. From there they’ve worked at Limahuli Gardens removing invasive species for the National Tropical Botanical Gardens; worked with the Waipa Foundation and removed Eucalyptus to replant with Koa for the Koke‘e Resource Conservation Program.
Before the labor even begins, these scrappy teens often spend a few hours beating a path to their prescribed work area — all in good humor schlepping a shovel, ax and backpack heavy with lunch and water.
Cory Carveiro of Hanapepe said he’s been hunting goat and pig most of his life and that until joining YCC he did it just for the sport of it.
“I didn’t know goats and pigs destroy habitat,” Carveiro said. “I didn’t know it was that big of a deal.”
Currently, the program assists over 100 youth annually by providing programs which train, equip and mobilize them to make a positive difference for Hawai‘i, the Web site states. Each year young adults in HYCC programs provide over 54,800 service hours to their communities which equals approximately $1,000,000 of service work.
To learn more visit hawaiiycc.com or call 808-735-1221.
• Pam Woolway, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681, ext. 257 or pwoolway@kauaipubco.com
