By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

Michael Denis, from Milwaukee, Wis., makes a wallet out of fabric while waiting to head out for 10 consecutive days of field work. (The Hooksett Banner/Nicholas Brown)

With a home base deep in the woods of Allenstown’s Bear Brook State Park, a group of young volunteers have been laboring for almost a year to manage New Hampshire’s natural resources and educate area children about the state’s ecology.

Living with the barest essentials, and often logging 14-hour workdays, about 30 members of the Student Conservation Association New Hampshire State Parks AmeriCorps program have been living on $60 a week.

“It’s enough so they can scrape by, get their incidentals and toothpaste,” said Ethan Hipple, the program’s director. “They’re here to serve, and it’s pretty amazing.”

The program is coordinated by the Student Conservation Association, a national nonprofit group. AmeriCorps volunteers add to the group, and the state’s division of parks and recreation provides some funding.

The first wave of volunteers arrived from all over the nation to Bear Brook in October to begin training for an education program that ran throughout the winter.

Teaching crews were established, trained, and asked to write their own curricula ­ based on state Department of Education standards ­ on the subjects of environmental education and local ecology.

The crews made regular visits to Allenstown Elementary School and classrooms in Manchester. The program reached about 800 area students in all, and about 400 more students were helped by the members’ after-school work in programs like the Manchester Salvation Army’s Kids’ Cafe.

Tim Albers is in charge of organizing the educational portion of the AmeriCorps and Student Conservation Association program. He said many of the volunteers had no experience working in classrooms or with children.

Still, said Albers, “The people who come to this program are motivated people. Motivating them is not a difficult thing.”

Each of the classrooms in which program members taught, which included all of AES’ fourth-grade classes, were taken to the program’s camp in Bear Brook for educational field trips.

“It’s a kind of long-term connection that they get with the kids,” said Hipple. “It’s great to see.”

The other half of the program is focused on managing resources in New Hampshire’s state parks. Crews have been setting out for 10 days at a time to manage eroding trails and protect other natural resources.

The crews sleep in tents, eat dry food, fresh fruits and vegetables, and some food cooked on small propane stoves, and spend long days sprucing up some of the state’s natural landscape.

Training for the work includes chainsaw certification, CPR and wilderness first aid.

One of this year’s projects was to rebuild a 230-foot boardwalk and 34-foot bridge over some wetlands in Bear Brook.

The seven-member crew, without the benefit of heavy machinery, felled hemlock trees, and carried wood to construct the walkway, the design of which they lifted from a field manual.

The crew, often decked in waders and in water up to their waists, built the new boardwalk and bridge in just 24 days.

“I think it’s something to be proud of,” said Rhode Island’s Alison Closter, one of the crew members. “I never thought I’d be building a bridge.”

This year’s group also put in a couple of long days aiding in the construction of Allenstown’s aptly named Volunteers’ Park.

Hipple said the program’s volunteers log a minimum of 1,700 service hours annually, but said many crew members, on their own accord, will likely top 2,000.

“They all had good intentions when they signed up here,” said Hipple. “But when they actually get here with other people who want to serve, it’s multiplied. It’s pretty inspiring to see.”

Life in cramped tents and some of Bear Brook’s rustic cabins ­ which Hipple said tend to feel more cramped in the late winter months ­ invariably can cause some tensions, said Hipple. Yet such tensions don’t seem to trump the intense bonds formed between the program’s volunteers.

Albers, who along with Hipple is one of only four of the program’s regular employees, started as a crew member in the program in 2000.

“My closest friends, still today, are the people I met here,” he said. “It’s great to see these other people making those same close connections.”

For some volunteers, the 10 months of service, including classroom work, offers some self-enlightenment.

“I used to think I might want to be a science teacher, but I’m not sure about that now,” said Seth Warburton, from Boalsburg, Pa.

Still, said Warburton, “The education part was a great experience. I loved it.”

Hipple, who’s run the program for the last two years, said funding issues have threatened its future. Money is primarily needed to transport volunteers to work sites and for food.

He said Americorps funding on a national level hasn’t increased in recent years, and noted the financial problems facing the state’s division of parks and recreation.

“They live a pretty spartan life out here,” he said.

Hipple said similar programs throughout the nation have been facing similar funding problems in recent years.

“What we provide here, nobody else is really doing,” he said. “We think it’s important it remains.”