From planting trees to fixing trails, Anchorage teens spend summer improving city parks

On a recent afternoon, a group of teenagers in hardhats shoveled a mountain of gravel into wheelbarrows at Anchorage’s Abbott Loop Community Park. The teens, including Jassity Kentaro, dumped the gravel out onto the trail and raked it flat.

Kentaro said it’s been a good way to spend the summer.

“It’s actually kind of fun meeting new people and doing the work around Anchorage,” she said.

She’s one of about 25 teens working with Youth Employment in Parks, also known as YEP. It’s a 10-week summer program that hires highschoolers to work on park and trail improvements around the city. It’s run by the Anchorage Park Foundation and the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. 

Annie DuBois, with the parks department, said the group has already worked on new bike trails in Russian Jack Springs Park, removed invasive bird cherry trees at Campbell Tract and planted over 400 trees and shrubs in University Lake Park. On this afternoon, they were fixing up a muddy section of trail.

“The teens are laying a lot of gravel,” said DuBois. “We’ve had 10 dump trucks of gravel delivered and they’re working hard, moving it all and tamping it down and making sure it’s a nice solid surface for people to use.”

DuBois has been with YEP for eight years now. The program started back in 2007. She said this is the first job many of the teens have ever had. For some, it’s tough to be outside for eight hours a day, working rain or shine. But it’s a bonding experience. DuBois said every summer the teens go from strangers to a tight-knit group.

“By the end, they’re just such a family unit, it’s kind of great,” she said. “So while it might be really tough mentally, I think that they have developed the skills to support one another and help each other through those tough times.”

After a few hours of hard work, it was finally break time. The teens tipped over their wheelbarrows and used them as makeshift lounge chairs.

Enzio Rangel, like many of the teens, said the job can be hard work.

“Wheelbarrowing, shoveling all day, it can get exhausting, especially on rainy days or on super warm days where the sun’s out there,” he said. “It’ll take a toll on you for sure.”

But, he said, the people around him make it easier.

“These other crew members, they’re very inspirational,” said Rangel. “You motivate each other to keep going. I really like the environment that’s around us.”

This is Rangel’s second year at YEP. Teens who return work as senior crew members, who act as team leaders. Rangel said this was a new challenge for him. 

“It gets you introduced to more of a leadership role. That was a struggle for me at first, and just being introduced to that, working on that, it’s really helped me improve my skills,” he said.

Rangel is going into his senior year of high school. After that, he’s heading to the University Fire Department in Fairbanks. But next week, he’ll try something new and shadow a zookeeper. During the last week of YEP, all of the teens will move off the trails and into mentorships — others in this year’s program will shadow city officials, drone pilots and pastry chefs.

But first, they had to get through this pile of gravel.