This photo depicts a natural resources staffer utilizing his landscaping and construction skills back at the Green Mountains Cabin in Chester in the article “The Smokey House Project is Working” from the Summer 1978 issue of Vermont Life (Vol. 32 Issue 4). The Smokey House Project is an intensive eight-week Summer session or during after-school hours during the Fall and Spring. It was started by Rick Kelley and involved using resources of the Green Mountain state to create an “educational work experience” for youth based on sound principles of land management and progressive projects in agriculture, forestry, and technology. The project has goals “provide basic skills for the kids when they get out of high school” and “provide a learning experience” and “broaden [kids’] horizons”.

The Smokey House Project helps kids find what they are passionate about, while also introducing increased public awareness for conservation, environmental protection, and ecology. Environmentalism is portrayed as consisting of awareness and action for the Earth itself and for student learning experiences, rather than for the city or preservation of Vermont’s pictorial image. Instead of garnering support from policy makers and legislators, many young people are involved, presenting environmentalism in a nature- or experience-focused approach rather than a policy-focused one.

Source: The Smokey House Project is Working, Vermont Life. Vol. 32, Iss. 4