Youth Corps workers a relief to Trail of Tears staff

Every day at about 2 p.m. a group of Youth Corps trail workers emerges from the wooded areas at Trail of Tears State Park. Sweaty and visibly worn, they hike back with the tools they use to forge and maintain trails throughout the park.

"They don't seem that heavy when you start," said Heather Themm. Themm, a junior studying environmental science at Southeast Missouri State University, is one of about 20 extra workers who descended on the park this summer.

They are part of the State Park Youth Corps, a statewide initiative launched by Gov. Jay Nixon about four months ago at the park. The corps, funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is available to workers ages 17 to 24 who meet income eligibility requirements. They work at the state's 85 parks and historic sites for $7.25 an hour.

For Trail of Tears' small staff, the extra help is a welcome relief. Layoffs and state funding cuts have taken their toll on the park, which has five full-time workers and two vacant positions, said natural resources manager Denise Dowling. Corps workers have been entering data, and clearing stumps and nonnative plants throughout the park, tasks that have been hard for staff to get to.

"It wouldn't get done," Dowling said. "Basically that's what it boils down to."

Since heavy rainfalls in March 2008, the park has been reeling from a couple of setbacks. Landslides closed Sheppard Point Trail, which overlooks the Mississippi River. The level of Lake Boutin was lowered to relieve pressure on a damaged dam. As a result, the swimming area drained and the beach has since been closed.

Dowling said the swimming area will be moved so the beach can reopen but that the state needs to approve the capital request that would also repair the dam. Park workers are waiting for the Mississippi River to go down to replace culverts on Moccasin Springs Road, Dowling said.

Volunteers have been slowly working on rerouting Sheppard Point, but the project got a quick boost from the corps trail crew.

Themm said it took the group about a month to complete the project.

"That felt really good because we had to make a whole new part of the trail," she said.

Dowling said she hopes the trail will reopen to hikers in the fall.

The state's work-force investment boards are responsible for implementing the corps program. June O'Dell, president of the Workforce Investment Board of Southeast Missouri, said 91 corps workers have been placed in the 12 parks and historic sites within the board's 13-county service region. There are about 171 slots for workers and the board is still recruiting, she said.

Last year, the board placed 500 people in a similar summer internship program, also funded with stimulus funds. That program, which includes more than 110 employers throughout the region, continues this year. The board is looking to fill more than 360 slots by September, O'Dell said. Applications for both programs are available at www.job4you.org. They end Sept. 30 or when the worker reaches 240 hours.

O'Dell said it has been more of a challenge to place workers in the parks program because they are limited to the sites in their area. There are more sites to accommodate workers at the northern edge of the region around Elephant Rocks and Taum Sauk state parks.

"In that respect, it limited the kids that could actually work," she said.

Because both programs are available, there are more options for placements.

"If one doesn't work for them, hopefully the other will," she said.

abusch@semissourian.com

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