Scappoose teens thrive on hard work in the great outdoors

Bridges students learn about restoration while gaining work experience

By Erica Ryberg

The South County Spotlight, Feb 4, 2010

Erica Ryberg / The South County Spotlight

DIRTY WORK—Joshua Mahon, 17, and Jon Adams, 18, pull ivy at the Nob Hill Nature Park last week while participating from a Scappoose High School program that teaches youth about the environment while giving them paid work.

On a sunny – but still chilly – day last week five Scappoose teens were pulling ivy and chatting animatedly.

The teens, who attend Bridges, Scappoose High School’s alternative school, are benefiting from an Oregon Youth Conservation Corps stimulus grant designed to shore up Oregon’s natural resources while putting extra dollars into the local economy – and into students’ pockets.

While they work, the students learn about habitat restoration from their crew leader, Sam Johnson, who is part friend, part teacher and part taskmaster. She has been leading restoration crews for six years and said she loves working outdoors with teens because of the opportunity to get to know them.

This morning, they’re working in St. Helens’ Nob Hill Nature Park, one of multiple sites across the county the Scappoose Bay Watershed Council, the agency that is managing the projects the teens are working on, has identified as in need of restoration.

Soon, Johnson said, the teens, troubled or falling behind enough to end up in Bridges, will design and implement a site restoration plan on private land. They’ll dig out the non-native plants, shore up the dirt and put plants down that do belong.

But right now, they’re only in their third week on the job. Every other week through May, they will leave their classes to spend all day working. For their efforts they earn minimum wage – $8.40 per hour. And, as a bonus, they can put in more time and earn science credit for the knowledge they’re picking up.

But mainly, the kids seem to thrive on hard work, Johnson said.

“It was 9 degrees outside and 25 degrees inside and these guys rallied,” she said of the early weeks of the project when they transformed the high school’s cluttered green house and rebuilt most of the planting tables. Their efforts will make next trimester’s botany classes possible.

A series of fortuitous events led to this program. Science teacher Rebecca Steinke applied for the grant and received nearly $50,000 from the State of Oregon. And Johnson, who has her master’s degree in teaching and was subbing in the district, happened to hear about the position.

The teens jumped right on board.

“Me and Eian were the first students to shoot our hands up,” said Jon Adams, 18. “It sounded like a cool way to earn credit and you get paid.”

Many of the students have known each other since kindergarten. They’re already good friends and they display a high degree of comfort and trust with each other.

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