kendall, you might be surprised. I don't know the folks of this forum well enough, but on another guitar-related forum on which I participate there's a guy who does stuff like this as a hobby. And his end result is anything but hobby-like. I know the average age here is considerably older than at that other forum (and thus, less up-to-date with computer software stuff), but I'd be surprised if there wasn't one or two people expert enough with computer sound editing software to do a good job with your field recordings. And there's really no harm in trying. You wouldn't lose the field recordings if someone were to diddle around with them and come up with something.

Heck, I just had someone send me an out of print vinyl recording of John Hartford music that, with simple computer software, came to me hiss and pop free and wholey enjoyable.