February 2011 brought a close to the Curlew Job Corps CCC’s Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation project.

The project was completed by Job Corps students from not only Curlew, but Welding, painting, and carpentry students from the Anaconda, Cass, Centennial, Columbia Basin, Golconda, Lyndon B. Johnson, Weber Basin and Wolf Creek Job Corps Centers.

“We are excited about expanding our partnership with the Forest Service to include this project with the Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers,” said Steve Decker, Elk Foundation vice president of marketing. “It is great to have Job Corps students from around the country working together with volunteers for the RMEF to improve habitat for elk and other wildlife. Every contribution is important.”

At Curlew Job Corps, the students produced 225 plaques that, along with others produced, will be featured in the 2011 Elk Foundation catalog and auctioned off at its chapters to raise money for conservation projects across elk country. The foundation has more than 158,000 members in more than 500 Chapters across the U.S. Funded in 1984, and has protected and enhanced more than 5.8 million acres of wildlife habitat and completed more than 6,800 projects, including permanent land protection, habitat stewardship, elk restoration and conservation education and hunting heritage.

Job Corps Centers have a unique mission supporting the conservation of the nation’s natural resources.

In Curlew’s carpentry training program, instructors, Al Eveland and Terry Miller received oak boards that the students planed, sawed, sanded, routed and laminated into wood plaques that were approximately 20”x22” and oval shaped. Before they were able to glue the metal plasma cut elk head and lettering onto the finished plaques, the center’s painting crew lead by instructor, Mike Storrs, fine sanded, stained, and polyurethaned the plaques with three top coats. “Our students took pride in their accomplishment of a project well done.” Said Al Eveland, who figured that their estimated hours on the project were 445, at an approximate value (based on current volunteer wage at $20/hour) was around $8,900. The painters also clocked over 400 hours for their part of the project, and added $8,000 to the total project.