![\"spikecamp\"](\"https:\/\/www.northwoodscenter.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/spikecamp-e1405949814951-1024x411.jpeg\")
Each year, NorthWoods partners with the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife\u00a0Refuge on conservation efforts throughout the Connecticut River watershed. Together,\u00a0we field five Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) crews on refuge lands at Conte\u2019s\u00a0Nulhegan Basin Division in Brunswick, VT; Pondicherry Division in Whitefield, NH; Fort River Division in Hadley MA; Stewart B. McKinney NWR in Westbrook, CT; and\u00a0new this year, the Fannie Stebbins Unit in Springfield, MA.<\/p>\n
In July, all five crews gathered for the 10th\u00a0annual YCC Spike Camp at the Fort River\u00a0Division in Hadley, Massachusetts. In this annual tradition, crews made up of local youth\u00a0ages 15\u201318 hailing from communities around the various refuge lands come together\u00a0to work, learn, and bond as crews. Together, these 36 young people ![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/www.northwoodscenter.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/image-e1405950074854-293x300.jpeg\")
accomplished an\u00a0impressive amount of conservation work, specifically universal access trails and water\u00a0chestnut control efforts. Trail work included: 3,205 feet of trail covered with stone dust;\u00a0600 feet of gravel spread; 72-foot section of elevated boardwalk constructed; and 64 feet\u00a0of hand railing installed. Three sites were surveyed as part of efforts to control invasive\u00a0water chestnut\u2014Hatfield Great Pond, Oxbow Bay, and Cove Island Cove\u2014and 1,582\u00a0gallons of water chestnut were collected.<\/p>\n
The real value of the experience, however, is exposing these young people to vastly\u00a0different environments\u2014both natural and human\u2014and meeting a wide diversity of\u00a0individuals. YCC members from the rural communities of Northern Vermont and New\u00a0Hampshire might never have had the opportunity to see the islands of Long Island Sound\u00a0and the mansions of Greenwich, or even the broad meandering Connecticut River in\u00a0Hadley, Massachusetts, where it\u2019s much larger than in Bloomfield, Vermont! Members\u00a0of this season\u2019s newest crew, from urban Springfield, MA had never been camping\u00a0or canoeing\u2014which they did while pulling water chestnut\u2014and were amazed by the\u00a0brightness of the stars at night.<\/p>\n
A second Spike Camp will be held later this summer\u00a0with Southern YCC crews coming north to work at the Nulhegan Division\u2014giving the\u00a0more urban youth the chance to see a moose, active logging operations and a remote,\u00a0wilderness feel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"