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North Cascades Institute’s Youth Leadership Adventures program introduces teens into the landscape of North Cascades National Park, where they learn environmental stewardship and leadership skills / North Cascades Institute

Editor's note: The following essay from the North Cascades Institute examines a program that connects high school youth with nature. It appeared in the Essential Park Guide Fall 2018.

“Out here in the backcountry, I learned naturalist skills like identifying native plants, how to Leave No Trace and why it’s important, and the indigenous history of this region,” explained O., a young woman who lives in Bellingham in northwestern Washington state. “Most importantly, I learned how to take care of myself, and how I can take care of the Earth."

“It makes me sad to not see people on the trail who look like me,” said S., a Latina student from rural Skagit Valley. “I am a woman of color and I want to help more people like me get outside and get the good energy I get when I’m out here.”

“I had this realization while hiking up to Hannegan Pass,” said M., a student who grew up in a small town on an island in the Puget Sound. “Someone worked hard to make this trail available for me; I should work to make it available to the people who come next.”

These were a few of the reflections from high school students who participated in North Cascades Institute’s Youth Leadership Adventures, a summer program that aims to inspire environmental stewardship and leadership through experiences in nature. Over the course of 8- and 12-day trips that take place in North Cascades National Park and Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie and Okanagon national forests, students canoe, backpack, camp, and complete stewardship projects while receiving hands-on training in outdoor leadership, field science, communication skills, and public speaking.

These students come from diverse backgrounds—first-generation immigrants, local Native Americans, kids who have grown up in rural communities—but all are brought together on transformative trips in wild places to build the next generation of conservation and stewardship leaders.

As we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of North Cascades National Park—and the many people who organized and rallied for decades to reach this conservation goal—North Cascades Institute has also been looking ahead to the next 50 years. Who will be the change-makers, leaders and environmental stewards of tomorrow?

As young people today grow up in an increasingly wired world, with screen time on the rise and time spent out in nature in sharp decline, who will be the defenders of our cherished public lands legacy?

“People who care conserve; people who don’t know don’t conserve,” formulated author and naturalist Robert Michael Pyle. “What is the extinction of a condor to a child who has never known a wren?”

For most Youth Leadership Adventures students, these trips are their first experiences with multi-day canoeing and backpacking trips, and their first time in a national park. But it’s clear at the end of their trips, from their shared emotional reflections and journal entries, it won’t be their last.

“My favorite part of the trip was the stewardship project with the trail ranger,” reflected A., who grew up in a farming community near Mt. Baker. “We rebuilt a washed-out trail using pulaskis. It was very difficult and sweaty, but also rewarding and made me feel strong. This trip was a way for me to find what I had lost for a long time: my self-confidence. I can’t wait to come back.”

Read a July 2018 YLA trip report from Ross Lake in North Cascades National Park at https://blog.ncascades.org/youthprograms/ yla-2018-ross-lake-rockers.

Learn more at www.ncascades.org/ signup/youth/YLA.