BATTLE MOUNTAIN - An innovative Cooperative Extension program is in its sixth year of helping young people to make a smooth transition to adulthood and fulltime careers.
Bootstraps was created by Rod Davis, extension educator with Cooperative Extension, along with Marilyn Smith, a youth development specialist with Cooperative Extension for Northern Nevada, working out of Elko, and Mike Stamm, of Battle Mountain, who worked as a wildlife biologist for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) when the Bootstraps program began. Stamm has since retired from the BLM and currently works as a special liaison to the BLM for Cooperative Extension, said Davis. Davis currently runs the program and Smith and Stamm continue to assist his efforts.
Several of the participants said they like the program.
"Probably just the fact that it is slowly pulling my life together, helping me out a lot," said Derrick Robinson, of Battle Mountain.
Clifton Thomas, of Owyhee, added, "It just gave me something to do for the summer and gave me a chance to meet new people and work with others."
"It keeps me out of trouble and shows you how to work more," said Flugencio Johnson, of Owyhee.
Bootstraps is the only program of its kind in the nation, said Davis. The program is grant funded through many agencies including USDA, the BLM, the Nevada Department of Wildlife, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Nevada Bighorns Unlimited and the National Mule Deer Foundation.
"There are a lot of players, ..." said Davis. "Getting funding is not a problem. There are people that walk into my office and say, 'I heard about this program, do you want $10,000?' That kind of thing is really wonderful."
Barrick donated the van for the Owyhee residents to make the three-hour drive to the Cooperative Extension office in Battle Mountain.
The program is run like a regular job where the participants apply and are selected by Davis based on certain criteria.
"I think the first thing that I look for is a commitment to move on with your life, that this is not just a job," explained Davis. "The ability to get along and some commitment to be gregarious or wanting to be part of a team or getting along with folks ranks pretty high, so those are probably the most important things I look for."
Usually around 40 people apply and Davis selects 10 to 15 people. This year, he selected 15 and four left the program for fulltime career track employment and a fifth went back to school fulltime. Davis said he loves to lose participants that way.
There are currently 10 young people in the program. In its first year, the program started with five to six young people and has since grown. Many of the people are recruited by word of mouth, said Davis.
"They want to move forward but for one reason or another, they just don't have the tools, the information that they need to transition from being a kid to being an adult, ..." said Davis. "They know that there is something better out there but they just don't know how to get it."
Davis usually brings two or three people back from the previous year to guide the new participants, he said.
"That is really beneficial because they provide a lot of leadership in the camp," said Davis. "They know the drill, you know, they know that you gotta get up, you gotta make breakfast ... they take charge and they provide a lot of leadership and they set the tone, the routine and the attitude ... they are extremely valuable in that role."
The participants earn a salary and are expected to work four 10-hour days out in the field where they camp out during the week. They arrive at the Cooperative Extension office on Mondays at 8 a.m. for classwork taught by Davis before heading out to the wilderness. They learn topics such as building resumes, what to do if your boss upsets you, coming in early versus coming into work late, cooperation and teamwork.
The participants work on projects all over northern Nevada. Currently, they are working on Bald Mountain in Lander County removing pinion and juniper trees from sage grouse habitat. Davis said the program is good because it helps the young people and the environment.
"You're providing an incredibly valuable service to the natural resource base and it is incredibly efficient at getting the work done and at the same time you are providing an incredible life job skills opportunity for young people that otherwise would not have the ability to take advantage of it," said Davis. "A lot of the research that we look at says that an individual that's ignored, that falls through the cracks, can cost several million dollars to society in terms of child support, unwed parents, guys without jobs, alcohol, drug abuse and then some of them invariably ending up in the corrections system. Now you can't say, 'I saved this guy or I saved that guy,' but when you look at it collectively, it's an incredibly valuable investment that society can make in these guys. ... Not only are they working hard and performing an incredibly valuable service to the natural resource base of the state, they are becoming integrated and becoming a productive individual so they're not just not costing society anything, they're contributing to society, they're paying taxes and they're becoming functional members of the community, so I think it is an incredibly valuable program."
The participants work on projects mostly on public lands.
"When it's 105 degrees out there at 3 'o clock in the afternoon and you're cutting trees, it's hard work," said Davis. "I mean there's no question about the fact and they're cooking their own food and their sleeping on the ground. Now that's kind of novel for the first week but I'll tell you after four or five months ... it's a great testament to their willingness but it's a tremendous lesson because it's never going to get any harder out there so when they go to apply for a job at Newmont or Barrick or wherever it happens to be or somewhere else they're not going to be surprised and they know what hard work is and the employers really appreciate that. ... My crew members have got a history and they succeed."
The young people are accompanied out in the field by Job Coach Douglas Howey. Howey said the program is a great experience for the participants and helps them learn life skills.
They have been working on Bald Mountain all summer except for five weeks in the middle of the summer when they worked in Eureka County on mule deer winter habitat restoration. They treated more than 400 acres in five weeks, said Davis. They will be out on Bald Mountain until the end of October.
"They work real hard," said Davis. "The disappearance of that sagebrush community is a great big deal to sage grouse and so there's a lot of sage grouse habitat money out there right now and by removing those juniper and pinion trees from sage grouse habitat we at least prolong the degradation of that habitat so they spend 10 hours a day cutting down trees with big old chainsaws."
The six-month program runs May 1 through Oct. 30. There is also a Bootstraps program run out of Tonopah and administered by Davis. The program has around five to six participants.
Since the program began, around 60 people have completed it in Battle Mountain and Tonopah. Davis said he recruits strongly in Lander County and the Duck Valley Reservation in Owyhee.
"They are 100 miles from anybody," said Davis of the Duck Valley Reservation. "They are very remote and they've got a wonderful community up there. It's different than any other Native American community I've ever worked with. They really want to learn to transition but their opportunities are so limited just for any kind of a job."
To get into the program or for more information, come to the Cooperative Extension office in Battle Mountain and pick up an application or call Davis at (775) 635-5565. The program starts accepting applications in March or April and the deadline to submit them is around the end of April.
"At the end of the day, they can see what they've done," said Davis. "They've knocked down a bunch of trees and this group of young people have a hard time getting a great deal of satisfaction in flipping burgers. They are doing something that they perceive as critically important for the environment and they buy into that and they really, really like it."
On Sept. 13, Davis, Smith and Stamm guided a tour where funders and those interested in the program could go out and see the participants in the field in action. They took the group of around 10 people out to the job site to have lunch with the work crew and see the work that was being done.
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