Muck And Meaning

Dan Barry: NORTH EAST, Md.

On a late summer morning so muggy that merely standing constitutes a workout, nine young adults in drenched T-shirts clear a trail in Elk Neck State Park. Three of them buzz expertly with chain saws through drooping oaks and pines, while six others haul the downed limbs deep into the woods.

Horseflies and mosquitoes conspire to thwart their labor, but it is the bees, disturbed from a nest, that succeed. Sadie Stone, 24, clearing brush, takes a sting for her country. Then Hilary Griffin, 23, cutting with her chain saw, takes three. The work stops, but only for a moment.

In the last few months, the combined experience of this team has also included cleaning up the muck after floods in West Virginia, building houses along the hurricane-pummeled Gulf Coast and working with children of low-income families in southern Georgia — all for about $80 a week and $4.50 a day in meal money, and a $4,725 educational award once they have completed their 10-month hitch.