Steamboat Pilot & Today

Earth Five, is not part of a space program, but a nine-member group of hard-working young people who are heavily into community service.

Earth Five is an Americorps team and they are in Steamboat this week creating a boundary on Emerald Mountain near Dakota Ridge for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Americorps is a national non-profit organization that provides service to communities across the nation and recruits young people from all over the country to provide the service.

The newly purchased land on Emerald Mountain now has legal access through the Agat Creek Trail, but cannot be used by the public until a boundary is marked between the purchased land and private property. The Emerald Mountain land, roughly 400 acres, provides black bear and elk habitat as well as hunting recreation and hiking for public use.

"They are doing in two weeks what we probably wouldn't have been able to do" said Division of Wildlife officer Elizabeth Miller.

Not only would the project be time-consuming for the DOW, but it would be cost prohibitive for the state agency to build a fence.

"They (Amerocorps workers) are doing really hard work" said Miller.

The group followed a sparsely marked trail to create a visible boundary on the side of the steep mountain all the while staying in control of their heavy chain saws. But the members says they love their work and highly recommend the experience with Americorps.

"It's a great experience especially for people who don't know exactly what they want to do" said worker Enid Cardinal of Syracuse, N.Y. "You can dabble in any number of different fields".

Kara Zwartverwer of Oregon joined for the "experience of travel and to work in all genres of community service."

Earth Five proudly lives up to its mission statement: Civic pride and responsibility to get things donethrough community service.

While they battle with the hot weather, steep mountain slope, large chain saws and thick brush, the volunteer workers are happy about their current project.

"This was the kind of project we wanted all year" said Zwartverwer.

Americorps sent in its team after receiving an application from the Division of Wildlife, which was approved by the Americorps administration.

This project is one of many in Earth-Five's 10-month run. Earth Five, covers 17 Midwestern states from New Mexico to Montana and from Texas to Michigan. The group has been involved in a variety of community service projects including building community gardens on an Indian Reservation in Arizona, tutoring children in Detroit, and converting army dorms to homeless shelters.

"I know that this is not the kind of thing that I would do on my own" said Zwartverwer, noting that's one of the reasons she joined.

Americorps works in five different areas, environment, education, unmet human needs, public safety and natural disaster.

Teams work throughout the year, in 10-month increments to make sure all disaster seasons are covered. Currently, the Americorps fire team is in Boulder.

Not only does the prospect of community service give incentive to the 18- to 24-year-olds, but an educational award and a biweekly stipend keeps the group in high spirits.

Americorps works with non-profit organizations through a grant process, and then through a lottery- type system the teams are placed with the different projects.

The members of Earth Five say it's any one's guess as to where they head next; they usually only get a three- week warning.

"It keeps everyone's anticipation level up" said Cardinal.

For more information about Americorps call 1-800-565-7052.