It's wet and it's frustrating. But it's worth it.

Jeannette Lockhart, 16, is one of eight youths who camped in the rain on an island 40 kilometres northeast of Lutselk'e last week to collect data on the effects of the 1994 Kohochella Peninsula fire.

Students have been going to picturesque Wildbread Bay in the East Arm of Great Slave Lake since then to keep a close watch on the area's water, wildlife and plants.

Lockhart and the rest of the 14-member camp, including a co-ordinator, a cook, two wildlife technicians and two elders, didn't let a week of the summer's worst weather stand in the way of their mission.

Judith Catholique, who also attended the fire-effects camp, is one of several Lutselk'e elders who went to government with concerns over the fire's aftermath when they could no longer hunt caribou.

"We saw two moose cooking in the river on our way back to Lutselk'e with my son-in-law in 1994," she said.

The powerful description of what she saw captures the importance of what aboriginals lost with the burning.

Catholique, whose husband, Pierre, also attended the camp, said that it will be many years before the caribou return to the area.

"There used to be lots of moose around here, but now there are none," she added.

The elders were on site to keep them involved with the project, as well as to give the youths a traditional perspective on surviving in the wilderness.

For seven days, the students learned about wildlife management, fishing and plotting, as well as collecting water samples to track how quickly animals and plantlife are returning to the burned area.

"We come to the same area every year to keep an eye on it," said Shandell Kisell, a wildlife technician. "The data is part of an ongoing program for the past three years."

Gloria Enzoe, 19, who proudly calls herself a bush woman, said that the project also gets kids out in the wilderness to learn survival skills that include using a compass and finding food.

"It's a good experience and other students should get a chance to learn about the land," she said.

And after a week of miserable weather and record-breaking amounts of rain, the students couldn't have chosen a better time to test their survival skills.