Federal stimulus money is paying for improvements now underway to a walking trail in the Oak Creek Greenbelt off 53rd Avenue in southeast Albany.

Five young people and a crew leader started the project July 6 with a little help from the city's parks maintenance department. The work is expected to be completed Aug. 28.

Workers are widening and clearing a 10- to 12-foot wide 1.75-mile-long trail, spreading wood chips and removing invasive plants from the pathway and alongside it.

The trail begins at Teloh Calapooia Park, circles around a subdivision on the west, goes near Oak Creek and the Calapooia River and then heads south.

City crews brought in about six loads of two different types of rock to cover four newly installed culverts to create a 40-foot long walkway over a marshy area on the trail that walkers previously crossed over on wobbly, wooden planks.

The green belt is part of a 54-acre parcel that came to the city from the developer of a nearby subdivision. The land includes forest, wetlands, oxbows and the banks of Oak Creek and the Calapooia River.

Other improvements to the property will be paid for by the city and the developer. Those include planting indigenous plants in a wetland area probably this fall, said Craig Carnagey, parks and facilities manager for the city.

The Oregon Youth Conservation Corps workers are being paid with $32,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The funds are being funneled through the Pacific Northwest Region of the U.S. Forest Service for the Oregon Youth Employment Initiative. Crew leader Joel Weinman said his crew is earning minimum wage.

The crew is funded for eight 40-hour weeks of work. The stimulus funds are available for shovel-ready projects involving conservation, stewardship, restoration of natural resources and conservation education for the public benefit.

The projects selected are required to address high priorities in local communities, Carnagey said. The city's parks and recreation department applied for the grant in partnership with the Community Services Consortium.

Those working on the project are ages 17 to 20 and are from Albany and Crabtree.