Never Too Young

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[00:00:00.00] Sunset against red mountain peaks, grassy hills.

[00:00:05.42] The sun sets behind forested mountains. Meadow grass rises up in the foreground.

[00:00:10.68] Close up of the seeds at the end of the grass, against the sky.

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[00:00:14.55] I think a lot of kids, especially today don't get out at all to see any of this.

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[00:00:19.62] Girl stands in grass and looks at sunrise.

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[00:00:21.97] You don't learn much about nature in school or our public lands.

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[00:00:26.84] Different people look.

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[00:00:27.77] Exposing it to this, and helping out on public lands, and doing service work can show them that civically they can make a difference as citizens of the country.

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[00:00:38.18] Clouds are bathed in sunlight from below as they float over forested mountains. Text, Never Too Young.

[00:00:44.70] Hardhats that say MCC on them at the bottom of a tree, along with pruning shears and axes. Text, For 26 years, the Montana Conservation Corps has been introducing youth to the wild through conservation service.

[00:00:57.04] Kids walk carefully in a stream that winds through the woods.

[00:01:00.51] Text, Custer Gallatin National Forest. Kat, U S Forest Service.

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[00:01:05.17] Thanks for coming out this morning. The purpose of today is to do a little bit of trail work. So our job as the Forest Service is to conserve these public lands. And public lands means, what does that mean?

[00:01:18.36] Public, open.

[00:01:19.25] Open to anyone.

[00:01:20.10] It's open to anyone. We help manage it, but it's really open to everybody, which is really a cool concept. And if you go to other countries in the world you might not find that same idea. It's a pretty uniquely American philosophy. The older I get and the more I understand how special this is that we have something like this, it's pretty unique and we're really lucky.

[00:01:39.00] Are we ready? All right.

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[00:01:41.33] People hike away.

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[00:01:42.45] I never really knew how trail work worked, how they did all of that. So that was one of the reasons I wanted to do this is to learn how to do that.

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[00:01:50.95] Boy hits trail with pick ax.

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[00:01:52.77] I feel happy to help out because I mean, I go on hikes all the time and people have to make the trails. And now that I'm here I'm like, wow, they do a lot more work than I thought.

[00:02:03.03] I think trail work really brings the kids together because it's a common purpose. No matter what their personal interests are or anything like that, it is everyone has the same goal.

[00:02:12.70] And they appreciate it and they're like, oh, man, look at this trail like look how well we did. Adding that work also within the scenery, they understand why trails are here and why they're important.

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[00:02:24.21] Steve, Natalie, leaders.

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[00:02:26.11] Building sign was a project we had to work most together on. We really had to communicate because there would be someone digging the hole, and kids would just stick their hand in the hole, and giving little signals to make sure no one got their fingers chopped off.

[00:02:39.49] There's so much dirt in my gloves.

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[00:02:41.23] She shows her dirty gloves.

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[00:02:43.57] They were on their own taking turns passing the shovel along. We had a couple girls building a friend out of the dirt, which was very funny at a tie.

[00:02:53.29] That totally looks like a tie.

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[00:02:55.00] Dirt, rocks.

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[00:02:56.23] I don't do a lot of work with other kids. This is really the first time I've done it. I liked it more than just working alone because you get a lot more work done faster.

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[00:03:05.68] The fill sign post hole with dirt, including the dirt man made by the girls.

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[00:03:10.92] We were all starting to get to work together really nicely because we were all talking to each other and appreciate each other.

[00:03:17.22] Some need to just learn there's more than just themselves. Look, we all came together for a greater purpose and now, wow, we helped out the United States Forest Service under 13.

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[00:03:29.41] The kids walk along a trail in a grassy clearing.

[00:03:32.54] Other kids work on grassy plain.

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[00:03:34.42] I am the greatest weed cutter in the whole universe and I can do cool tricks when I cut weeds.

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[00:03:40.35] Text, Yellowstone National Park.

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[00:03:43.57] So we're looking for the crested wheatgrass and it is not native to Montana.

[00:03:50.86] This is called the stalker.

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[00:03:53.08] He sneaks up on a weed and then lunges at it with shears.

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[00:03:57.31] The point of restoring the plants is so that the wildlife can come down and have better food. This is the knight in shining armor.

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[00:04:07.97] He holds his shears in the air, then swipes them down and cuts the weed.

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[00:04:13.45] They call them public lands and they're not public lands if everyone doesn't help out to maintain them.

[00:04:19.15] I've gone to many state parks and national parks and I've noticed how people just mistreat the land. And I feel like we should conserve it so when we are two generations from now it's still there and it's not just gone.

[00:04:33.30] I mean, look what we can do with middle school kids. If every adult who enjoys it out there would come out and just do one day just like the middle school kids do we could help and make it all better.

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[00:04:43.70] Girls hold a mossy rock.

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[00:04:46.48] Its name, what did we decide on?

[00:04:48.37] I think it should be called--

[00:04:50.37] A native Zeus.

[00:04:51.07] I like Zeus, let's do Zeus.

[00:04:52.69] Zeus, OK. The King of all masses because he was there for a long time.

[00:04:57.70] Yeah.

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[00:04:58.22] They walk on grassy area.

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[00:04:59.80] Being outdoors with kids is awesome because you just see them grow into themselves within nature.

[00:05:08.92] In the beginning we'd hike and it would just be hiking and Messing around and trying to run up the trail to be the first one there, but towards the end there was a lot more looking around, there's a lot more noticing different things, there's a lot more asking questions about things they saw. So they were really starting to take in the environment a lot more.

[00:05:25.63] And they gained so much awareness about themselves, and about nature, and it's fantastic to see and be a part of just them grasping that.

[00:05:36.20] All right, bringing it in, everybody. So this is something we like to do called nature appreciation moment. So what we're going to do is it's fun when we're all together, and everybody's talking, and we are having a good time. But it's good sometimes to reflect.

[00:05:48.32] So what we're going to do is we're all going to fan out. You can go anywhere you want to go. But you walk around for 10 minutes and you find a place that you really like, someplace that speaks to you that you're just like, wow.

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[00:05:59.31] Kids walk along area with tufts of tall grass as the sun sets behind the mountains.

[00:06:04.95] A girl stands on the grassy meadowland.

[00:06:09.46] The setting sun illuminates the craggy mountainside under a sky filled with grey clouds lit from below.

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[00:06:14.43] It felt really empowering. Definitely it was work, but it definitely was fun work and I definitely would do it again.

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[00:06:21.43] Another girl watches the sunset.

[00:06:24.18] The pinkish orange clouds above the mountain are visible through the tall grass.

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[00:06:28.91] When I'm outdoors I feel relaxed and relieved that there's not so many people around. And it's just nice to just be outdoors.

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[00:06:41.12] View of grassy area, woods, mountains.

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[00:06:43.89] There's not really one thing I like about the outdoors is just everything, the birds. And it's always fun for me and makes me really happy.

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[00:06:55.07] He stands in the meadow and looks out at the landscape. Huge white clouds float over the mountain.

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[00:07:00.75] I think I changed a little bit. I walk away knowing that there's something more around us than I think there's not just humans, there's more around us.

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[00:07:10.38] She looks out over the panoramic view.

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[00:07:12.57] It's just nice out here. I like the beauty of the trees, and listening to the river, and the birds chirp.

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[00:07:21.54] He watches the huge white clouds.

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[00:07:23.97] I love nature. I just like being in the outdoors. Here in Montana, we're lucky that we have some of the sites we do, some other places they just don't have that.

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[00:07:35.18] He stands with the mountains and clouds behind him.

[00:07:38.50] The pink and gray clouds float over the wooded mountain.

[00:07:42.21] Kids walk along a trail.

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[00:07:44.66] You can't force people to appreciate the outdoors, you can't force people to love being in nature, you can't force people to want to protect nature, that's something that they have to come to from their own experiences.

[00:07:56.62] I never had any experience in nature. So I didn't really realize that I liked nature until I was 18 Once I started getting out in nature I was like, wow, there's so much more, it's so beautiful. The world is fantastic and just having that and knowing that that's out there at such a young age I feel like it's very important.

[00:08:20.86] Who knows what we stirred within them? But at least now I know they've had the opportunity to experience that and see how it does affect them.

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[00:08:30.67] They walk along a grassy flatland.

[00:08:33.07] The kids are each shown with their name next to them. Text, Carson, Morgan, Iris, Keyvin,

[00:08:39.51] Kason.

[00:08:40.50] Anna.

[00:08:41.41] Never Too Young. They walk along a grassy flatland with backpacks on their backs.

[00:08:46.43] Credits, Directed, Produced, Shot, Edited by Marc Leonard, Daniel Glick. Producers L L Bean, Lincoln Benedict, Pam Jack. Music, Jacob Sanders. Color, Marc Leonard. Sound, Daniel Glick. Thanks, Kelly Moorman, Nate Hess, Chris Chambers, Chris Nessett, Theresa Bushman. Montana Conservation Corps, Custer Gallatin Forest, Yellowstone Park, Mountain Sky Guest Ranch.

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[00:09:12.91] There you go, all right.

[00:09:13.78] Let's get our packs on, everyone.

[00:09:16.04] Let's catch you later, buddy.

[00:09:17.32] He's got a bunch of Clif Bars that'll be good.

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[00:09:19.62] A Rove, Kings Road Media Production. Presented by L L Bean.