Students hit the trail in Sterling Forest to protect Sept. 11 memorial trees from deer

Sterling Forest — Students at the Education Through Adventure Leadership Camp recently spent a day repairing fences at the 911 tree memorial in Sterling Forest as part of the leadership program’s service project. The work started after hiking more than a mile to the site where the trees were planted just a few years ago. The small forest of trees are set deep in the woods of Sterling Forest; without the fence, deer and other woodland creators would use the young saplings as a food source. Hundreds of trees are behind the fences and most trees dawn the name and photo of a rescue worker whose life was taken on Sept. 11, 2001. The 15 students loaded their backpacks with hand tools, zip ties, lunch and water and headed down the trail just outside the Education Through Adventure base camp. The students work hard to get the site ready for potential visitors on the tenth year anniversary of 911. This was just one day of the four-week Summer Youth Leadership program funded by the Orange County Youth Bureau.