![[Image Description: Two MCC members are walking away on a rocky trail, carrying their packs, surrounded by burnt orange bushes. Through the haze in the background, there are a multitude of mountains, overlapping one another.]](https://cdn.firespring.com/images/7ba12407-5e3a-41c1-b4b4-f00aac9d37a1.jpg)
Flashback to 2008: a thunderstorm rocks the skies as rain destabilizes a hillside that was just burned a year prior. Debris flows down the hill, burying the Meriwether Picnic Area that lies below under 3 to 7 feet of material. It closed for 8 years as the USFS removes material and cleans it up, but damage and debris still remain. “That’s where MCC comes in,” said Mandy Alvino, Recreation Operations Lead of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, “they were the top choice on the list to get the non-equipment work done.”
MCC’s Women’s Saw Crew will be working at Meriwether for most of the summer, completing a laundry list of projects to give the site a much-needed facelift. They’ll replace the siding on the picnic pavilion, rehab the rock wall fireplace, power wash and paint inside and out, wash and seal the concrete floor, put up signs, install fire grates and picnic tables, and touch up the trails leading to the Gates of the Mountain Wilderness. “It’s a big chunk of work!” Mandy exclaimed, “I was just up there and the progress is amazing for a crew that essentially just started. The work is slightly technical, and all of the leaders and crew members have picked up the skills needed to do that. It looks like a professional job. It’s fantastic!”
The site will be used as a showcase for USFS districts across the state. “[It will show] how to use an MCC crew to do these skilled projects done, and what kind of results it can have. There is no doubt in any of our minds what they can bring to the table,” Mandy raved.
