The clank of shovels hitting rocks and the whine of chainsaws sounded like a forced-labor camp along the East Shore of Flathead Lake on Friday morning. But the labor there was purely voluntary, as nearly the entire sophomore class and a few juniors from Bigfork High School did trail work and put up interpretive signs along the Beardance Trail south of Woods Bay.

"When the kids get a sense of ownership over a piece of land like this, it gives them a larger sense of ownership of public lands," said John Ingebretson, a fire ecologist with the Forest Service's Swan Lake District in Bigfork. "We can get them connected back to the ground and away from the Xboxes."

This was the fifth year a work day like this has been planned, with kids splitting up this time into four groups in charge of trail building, planting trees, clearing brush and putting up trail signs.

Nearly 80 kids were involved in the effort, with most of them either working the morning or afternoon shift and spending the other half of the day in the Mission Valley at the Ninepipes Museum.

"It's nice to get the kids out," said BHS teacher Hans Bodenhammer. ""Every year we come down here for a field trip."

Bodenhammer and Stormy Taylor were instrumental in organizing the event with the Forest Service, and students in Bodenhammer's geology class even wrote and illustrated the trail guide brochure that will be available to hikers.

The 40 acre chunk of federal land is the only Forest Service property anywhere on Flathead Lake, according to Ingelbertson.

The spot, which features a day-use trail and a few benches and picnic tables, but prohibits overnight camping, is rare along the lake because it is completely undeveloped.

"This is the only place along the lake like this," Ingebretson said.

The parcel was logged as part of a forest thinning process on the East Shore two years ago, he said, and now looks more like it would have 80 years ago when fires were a more common part of the landscape.

The history of fire, along with pretty much everything else, is covered in the six-station interpretive brochure the students made. The numbered points in the pamphlet correspond with metal markers that were made by the BHS shop class and installed along the trail. Hikers can now learn about more modern uses of the area, as well as the extensive Native American and even geologic history of the Lake and the East Shore.

Bodenhammer said the project, both the brochure and the work on the ground, is a great hands-on learning opportunity for the kids.

Ingebretson agreed.

"We want to continue to have them plugged into this site," he said, noting the trail was only about 10 minutes from the students' classroom. "We want them to keep a connection to this piece of ground out here."