Student Conservation Association

Twenty miles from town, in a brutally lovely land where the road and sky collide, a ragamuffin tribe of college-age kids is hard at work in the middle of nowhere. They're healing the desert. Dan Prell whacks the sun-scorched earth with a sodbuster pick, his dreadlocks shimmying under a blue bandanna. He grins habitually, happy to miss another cold winter in his native Neenah, Wis. "It's a blast," the 21-year-old said between swings, no trace of irony hedging his words.

It's not a bad job for teen-agers who like to sleep in: Roll out of your sleeping bag and, bingo, you're at work, faster than you can say, "Smokey Bear." Four inner-city students from Oakland and Los Angeles are starting four weeks in the backcountry of the Angeles National Forest, working on trails and camping out, as part of a program to encourage careers in conservation. The students, ages 16 to 18, and two crew leaders will work near Mt.