THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 16, 1997 TAG: 9702160059
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MEREDITH COHN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 83 lines
Working in pairs, a platoon of teen-agers used flat-headed shovels to spread apart the sodden ground of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, then fill it with saplings the size of blades of grass.
Someday, those tiny seedlings may grow into sturdy trees and valued additions to the refuge's marshy, seldom-traveled forests.
The state is betting that the teens planting them may someday grow into valued members of society.
Among the group of five boys recently helping out at the refuge are substance abusers, and all have a record of serious crime. They all have been committed by a judge to state correctional institutions. But these five, and five others, are the first in Virginia to participate in an alternative program that teaches them self-esteem through environmentally related community service and classes they take while living on an 80-foot boat behind Norfolk's Nauticus.
The kids from the Tidewater Environmental Program spent one day last week in the wooded wetlands of the swamp, planting some of the 5,000 long-leaf pines refuge workers brought in to replace loblolly pines devastated by the southern pine beetle. Refuge manager Lloyd Culp said the staff will rely on volunteers this winter to plant the long-leaf, which are less susceptible to the beetle, fire tolerant because of their thick bark and preferable to federally protected red-cockaded woodpeckers seeking homes.
``I like it even though we don't get paid,'' said Jimmie Price, a 17-year-old from Waynesboro, as he packed dirt around a young pine. ``Helping the environment, that's our pay.''
Price and friend Tim Wrobel, a 17-year-old from Fredricksburg, both entered the program in December and are expected to finish next month and go home with high school equivalency diplomas, some knowledge of marine and environmental sciences and pride in having helped Hampton Roads' outdoors.
They plan another tree-planting trip to the swamp soon, and they've already laid mulch on eroded trails at First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach.
``People throw their trash out the windows of their cars and think they're the only ones, or they don't think at all,'' Wrobel said as he trekked through mud, soggy leaves and fallen branches. ``People don't think it adds up. . . . I don't think I'll get any kind of wildlife job when I leave here, but I'll probably keep doing community service. I have an appreciation of nature.''
Back on the boat, the teens learn background for things they see outside. They go to classes to prepare for the field trips, as well as for a job, in between a structured routine of exercise, food preparation and cleaning. They sleep in bunk beds in the bow of the former Navy vessel.
The Tidewater Environmental Program is a privately run state program for 14- to 18-year-olds, which began as a pilot program in Texas. The company, Tampa, Fla.-based Associated Marine Institute, is a 30-year-old, nonprofit group that runs 43 programs nationwide, including two others in Hampton Roads.
``It's not a boot camp in terms of being punitive; it's more of a motivational program,'' said Ron Boyce, a former U.S. Marine who directs the program. ``This is the newest, the smallest and the only one of our programs on a ship.''
Most of the youths - who sport military garb and haircuts - will stay for four months, said Boyce. None will go before he has found a job or enrolled in school, and they all will be required to report to a state official for three years.
New kids from all around the state - except Hampton Roads - will enter the program as others leave, he said. The teens are less likely to seek a chance to escape the program if they are far from home, Boyce said.
Some of the teens, like Price, plan to learn more about environmental sciences and a job in the field. Two of the 18-year-olds enrolled in the program are already attending Norfolk State University for a biology class.
State officials are looking for more of these type of programs so kids can be moved from overcrowded correctional facilities.
``You have a better chance of succeeding if you have fewer kids,'' said Cari Brunelle, a spokeswoman for the state Juvenile Justice Department. ``We're constantly looking for things like this.'' ILLUSTRATION: MORT FRYMAN photos
The Virginian-Pilot
Tim Wrobel, left, and Jimmie Price plant trees in the Great Dismal
Swamp. Wrobel and Price are part of an alternative program that
teaches teen-agers with crime records self-esteem through
environmentally related community service.
Program director Ron Boyce, a former Marine, shows the living
quarters for the youths in the program. They sleep in the bow of a
former Navy vessel tied up behind Nauticus in Norfolk.
KEYWORDS: ALTERNATIVE PROGRAM JUVENILE