Park Service lands in Nevada win youth grants

Monday, June 8, 1998 | 4:46 a.m.

Youth leaders joined Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and National Park Service Director Robert Stanton at the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Washington D.C. to mark the opening of the Park Service's Public Land Corps Youth program.

"This initiative helps the National Park Service to clear up some of the critical maintenance projects while building character and encouraging a sense of responsibility among young people participating in the program," Babbitt said Monday.

Great Basin National Park and Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada are among 99 Park Service units that will share the $3.6 million in grants.

The program will employ about 1,025 young people nationally performing badly needed work in national parks.

Projects range from rebuilding trails and preserving historic structures on the C&0 Canal, to restoration and campground rehabilitation at Rocky Mountain National Park, and cabin restoration in Yosemite National Park.

At Great Basin, youths will work to improve landscaping at the Lehman Cave. Workers will concentrate on arid land restoration at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Each site will receive at least $15,000.

The PLC youth program was authorized May 27, 1993, under the National Community Service Act. A major commitment for the program was announced by President Clinton during his Summit on America's Future, April 27, 1997.

"It is essential to the future well-being of our national parks that we give today's youth an opportunity to be involved with our rich heritage at the ground level, working to help preserve these wondrous sites, which are the very pages that make up our diverse history," Stanton said.

"The Public Land Corps will enable us to chip away at the long list of maintenance projects that we have at many of our national park units."