The outdoors is an education for Ellie Zaher. “Every time I go out on a hike, I’m looking at flowers, plants, and animals and then I come home and learn about them,” she says. “The fact that I can learn so much without going to an institution is empowering,” she says. “I’m still using my brain.”
Ellie has been doing conservation work since she was 18. “I was out there using a chainsaw and I really liked it,” she says. Last summer, as part of the Montana Conservation Corps, she was part of a crew that did work on the Willow Creek area of the BTNF’s Greys River District. She’s also worked in western Colorado and Utah. “I had heard about Forest Corps when I was here last summer and it sounded interesting,” she says. “When I went looking for jobs this summer and there was an opening on the [Corps’ Continental Divide Trail crew] I was excited.
Favorite wildflowers:
Columbine and Indian paintbrush. “I was living in Moab the first time I saw Indian paintbrush,” she says. “It was growing in the middle of the desert and so colorful.”