Service and Conservation Corps and America’s public lands
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Service and Conservation Corps and America’s Public Lands / november 2009
Service and Conservation Corps
and America’s public lands
Sally T. Prouty, Eugene Sofer, and Judy Karasik
November 2009
Established in 1985, The Corps Network is the voice of the nation’s 143 Service and Conservation Corps. Currently operating in 44
states and the District of Columbia, Corps enroll more than 29,000 young men and women in service every year. Corps mobilize
approximately 227,000 community volunteers who in conjunction with Corpsmembers generate 21.3 million hours of service every year.
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Service and conservation corps and america’s public lands / November 2009
“Of all the questions which can come before this nation, short of the actual preservation of its
existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task
of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us. . . . Conservation is a
great moral issue. “
“An expanded
Public Lands
Service Corps
--Theodore Roosevelt, New Nationalism Speech, 1910 1
“Since it was organized in April, 1933, the [Civilian Conservation] Corps has made men out of
hundreds of thousands of undernourished, underdeveloped and inexperienced youngsters…. the
Corps has toughened them physically, taught them work skills, improved their morale, and taught
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them love and respect for their country and its government.”
--Civilian Conservation Corps Director, James J. McEntee, July, 1940
would help to
diminish the public
lands maintenance
backlog today—
and build a diverse
Our public lands, America’s great natural heritage, including our parks, forests, refuges, and
coastlines, face three major immediate and critical needs:
• A multi-billion dollar backlog of maintenance work. $9 billion in jobs wait to be done in the
National Parks alone.
• Replacements for the upcoming wave of retirements within the public lands agencies—for
example, by 2012 a full 38 percent of the Department of the Interior’s workforce will be eligible
for retirement.
• The pressing need to create a more diverse public lands management workforce in this new
generation.
The answer lies in using service as a strategy. America’s Service and Conservation Corps have
proven their effectiveness, both in getting the job done and in delivering land management
professionals to the public lands system. An expanded Public Lands Service Corps, where young
men and women serve to improve America’s parks, forests, coastlines, and wild places, would help
to diminish the backlog today—and build a diverse workforce for tomorrow.
1 http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=501
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workforce for
tomorrow. ”
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Service and Conservation Corps and America’s Public Lands / november 2009
A CCC for the 21st Century
In June 2009, when Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced the Department’s plans to create a Youth Conservation Corps for the 21st
Century, he declared, “Jobs are not the only reason for such a program.” Similarly, when President Franklin Roosevelt created the Civilian
Conservation Corps during the Great Depression, he said, “More important than material gains will be the moral and spiritual value of such
work.”
Indeed, while the Secretary’s effort aims to address unemployment by significantly increasing the number of young people in service on public
lands, his plan embodies a vision that has the depth and passion to transform how modern America supports public lands. While his proposed
program is new, it has roots in history—and roots in service as a strategy.
FDR’s CCC provided work and vocational training for unemployed single men through conserving and developing the country’s natural resources.
Between 1933, when FDR created it, until 1941 when the CCC was disbanded, it employed almost 3.5 million men. Estimates say they planted
2.5 billion trees, protected 40 million acres of grazing land, built 125,000 miles of roads, fought fires, and created 800 state parks and 52,000
acres of campgrounds. According to the testimony of the CCC “boys” themselves, however, it is clear that Roosevelt was right when he believed
that the biggest legacy of the CCC would be the hope it provided for both the young men and their families.
Today, a modern, expanded Public Lands Service Corps—including service in our forests, refuges, and coastlines, as well as our national
parks—not only will deliver visible improvements to our public lands and the timely replenishment of the ranks of land management
professionals, but also will provide intangible but no less valuable outcomes for those willing to serve. Public Lands Service Corps legislation
has been created in both the House and the Senate—for implementation in the Department of the Interior, which oversees public lands
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Service and Conservation Corps and America’s Public Lands / november 2009
including the National Parks Service and Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, including the Forest Service, and the U.S.
Department of Commerce, overseeing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Just as FDR’s CCC mended a public lands system that was in tatters, a CCC for the 21st Century will address work left too long undone. For
many years, Corps have protected what is wild and strengthened our public lands’ abilities to restore the balance of nature and offset climate
change. Corps have fought invasive species, supported health in ecosystems, repaired trails, and brought wetlands and streams back to full
life. Corps have served in fire crews—and have also helped with fire prevention and recovery and provided support to fire fighters in action.
Corps partner with community-based organizations in disaster preparedness and relief activities; rehabilitate burned areas, and restore
streams, vegetation, and replant forests after the fires are out; reduce the likelihood of catastrophic fires, thin around homes and structures to
prepare for prescribed burns or firebreaks; and work on fire fuel reduction projects.
In just the last 10 years Service and Conservation Corps have delivered more than $30 million worth of projects in the National Park System
(NPS) alone through the current Public Lands Corps (PLC) program, in which projects are funded through limited recreational fee revenues and
through the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC), a summer employment program for 15-18 year-old youth. In FY 2008, NPS spent $4.1 million
on PLC, supporting about 1,500 young men and women working on 178 projects at 99 park units, and employed 833 YCC youth to work on
conservation projects across the country. The typical PLC project is small, receiving an average of $25,000 from NPS (plus a 25 percent match
from a partner organization). The NPS also conducts other youth service and conservation projects at larger parks that are funded out of the
parks’ own budgets.2
Similarly, the U.S. Forest Service spends approximately $10 million on projects with Service and Conservation Corps each year. Much of this
work involves wildland fire mitigation and restoration. However, unlike the National Park Service, which can use recreation fee revenues to
support such projects, the Forest Service must support its work with Corps from program-specific accounts, which prevents the Forest Service
from providing additional education and training to Corpsmembers. The Forest Service is anxious to have the ability to expand its work with
Corps and to engage young people in a more substantial way. According to Forest Service Associate Chief, Hank Kashdan, the Public Lands
Service Corps Act, “would strengthen and facilitate the use of the Public Lands Corps Program, helping to fulfill the vision that Secretary Vilsack
has for promoting ways to engage young people across America to serve the community and their country.” 3
2 This severely limited funding stream, designed for a demonstration program through which national parks voluntarily devote a percentage for thei visitors’ fees to support
conservation projects, has hampered the ability of the Parks to tap the valuable resource of Corps.
3 Testimony of Will Shafroth, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Department of the Interior, April 2, 2009 to the House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands, page 3.
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Service and conservation corps and america’s public lands / October 2009
Corps can deliver a much-needed more diverse workforce as well, for they have the capacity not
only to mobilize large numbers of young people, but to nurture and develop disconnected and underemployed youth. Engaged in visible and valued public work, achieving shared goals together in
teams or crews, Corpsmembers develop work readiness as well as specific applicable skills. These
young public servants will be knowledgeable as well as experienced, understanding their work in
the light of science and history. Corps, using the instructional method known as service-learning,
tap public lands as a vast living learning resource to teach Corpsmembers about biology, ecology,
history, culture, archeology and paleontology, including the history of native peoples and all those
Public Lands
Service Corps
would “fulfill
the vision that
Secretary Vilsack
who helped to build our country.
has for promoting
Finally, Public Lands Service Corps will be an effective pipeline because, as Secretary Salazar’s
ways to engage
vision suggests, it will profoundly connect a generation of young people with the natural world
flourishing in public lands and wilderness. Today, too few young people make that connection,
resulting in what the writer Richard Louv has termed “nature deficit disorder.”4 By contrast,
Corpsmembers who make long-term commitments to become stewards of our national patrimony
often do so because, through sustained and substantial experience on public lands, they have
experienced unforgettable discovery, the power and contentment that comes with the exercise of
civic responsibility, the challenge of hard physical teamwork, and lasting sense of purpose in their
young people
across America
to serve the
community and
lives.
their country.”
For the past fifteen years policymakers tapping service as a strategy to meet pressing national
–Hank Kashdan,
and community needs have focused on programs administered by the Corporation for National and
Community Service. But service as a strategy can be applied more broadly; our nation’s public
lands provide an ideal target. Service’s capacity to deliver results while developing the knowledge,
skills, and abilities of those who serve provides powerful dual benefits that can solve our current
conservation crisis.
4Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books,
2005.
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Associate Chief, US
Forest Service
Service and conservation corps and america’s public lands / October 2009
Public Lands Corps: Addressing the Backlog with Experience and
Energy
The Problem: A Maintenance Backlog According to the National Parks Conservation Association,
the National Park System has an annual operating shortfall estimated at $750 million and a
maintenance backlog of approximately $9 billion. Parks are underfunded and managers are asked
The Minnesota
Conservation
Corps rebuilt the
Superior Hiking
to do more with less.
In addition, the Department of Agriculture’s National Forest System, with lands in 42 States
and Puerto Rico, also faces a backlog estimated at $280 million in deferred trail maintenance
work.5 And, according to the House Appropriations Committee, the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) has “an extensive legacy of old mining, oil, and wildfire rehabilitation needs and deferred
maintenance for offices, work centers, and visitor facilities. Much of this work is considered ‘Green
Jobs’, as it involves habitat restoration, abandoned mine land repair, native plant restoration, and
retrofitting buildings.” Finally, the National Wildlife Refuges and National Fish Hatcheries have an
estimated backlog of deferred maintenance and construction needs of $3 billion, including capital
improvements focusing on safety, energy efficiency, and habitat infrastructure.
The Solution: Corps Can Reduce the Backlog A larger Public Lands Service Corps can be widely
deployed to reduce this backlog. The energy, focus, and commitment that motivated the original
CCC can now be brought to bear on today’s problems.
trail, following the
rocky ridgeline
above Lake
Superior for 210
miles, connecting
seven State parks,
two State forests,
county-owned
lands, and the
Corpsmembers do fuel reduction, remove invasive species, rehabilitate campgrounds and
deteriorating structures throughout our national parks and forests, renovate and maintain historic,
cultural, and archeological sites, and help conduct natural and cultural resource management,
science and research projects. Significantly increasing service opportunities in our public lands
would have a considerable impact on the maintenance backlog in the Park Service and the Forest
Service and in other agencies.
5 Testimony of Hank Kashdan, Associate Chief, Forest Service, US Department of Agriculture, April 2, 2009 to the House Natural
Resources Committee, Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands, page 3.
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Superior National
Forest.
Service and Conservation Corps and America’s Public Lands / november 2009
To choose a few examples of how young Corpsmembers are part of the solution already, the Citizens Conservation Corps of West Virginia has
completed backlogged maintenance work for New River Gorge National Park and Harpers Ferry National Park, including maintenance work on
hiking and biking trails, renovating trail bridges, and stabilizing buildings. The Minnesota Conservation Corps, which places crews on public
lands throughout the state, rebuilt the Superior Hiking trail, a 210-mile long-distance hiking trail following the rocky ridgeline above Lake
Superior on Minnesota’s north shore, connecting seven State parks, two State forests, county-owned lands, and the Superior National Forest.
In addition, Corps’ decades of experience in the traditional work of public lands management and wilderness preservation can “green” our
public lands, which have the capacity to offset the effects of burning fossil fuels as natural places are brought back to life, supported, or
enhanced. Revitalized and expanded forests and grasslands, urban parks and rain gardens help create a balance between carbon and oxygen
through carbon sequestration, the absorption of carbon in living plants. The Public Lands Service Corps will help to restore America’s ability
to counter carbon emissions by planting trees, restoring wetlands and streams, landscaping, managing grasslands, maintaining trails and
restoring the environment.
Ecosystem Restoration and Invasive Species Reduction Corpsmembers at Conservation Corps North Bay (CCNB), located in Marin and Sonoma
Counties just north of San Francisco, bring native ecosystems back into balance. A landmark CCNB project has been the restoration of Golden
Gate National Recreation Area’s Lower Redwood Creek, an important habitat for federally listed species such as Coho salmon and Steelhead
trout, as well as more than 80 species of birds, accomplished through intensive hands-on non-native vegetation removal, revegetation, erosion
control, and bank stabilization.
Because invasive species spread aggressively as a result of the disturbance of the natural cycle of heat and cold, public lands have suffered
disproportionately from global warming. The National Wildlife Federation reports that “higher average temperatures and changes in
precipitation patterns will enable some of the most problematic species, including kudzu, garlic mustard, purple loosestrife, and Japanese
honeysuckle, to move into new areas. In addition, global warming will contribute to more severe infestations and habitat damage from both
native and exotic insect pests, including black vine weevil, gypsy moth, bagworm and mountain pine beetle,”6 citing significant differences of
temperature distribution between the USDA hardiness zones for 1990 and that of 2006. Invasive plants are estimated to infest 100 million acres
in the United States. According to a 1996 Bureau of Land Management study, up to 4,600 acres of additional Federal public natural areas in
the Western continental United States are negatively affected by invasive plant species every day. One recent report from the U.S. Forest Service
indicates that the economic cost of invasive species to Americans is an estimated $137 billion every year.7 Invasive species have affected
6 National Wildlife Federation, www.nwf.org/gardenersguide.
7 United States Forest Service Research and Development, http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/invasive-species/
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Service and Conservation Corps and America’s Public Lands / november 2009
up to 46 percent of the plants and animals listed as endangered species by the federal government. Purple loosestrife diminishes waterfowl
habitats, alters wetland structure and function, and chokes out native plants. The Asian longhorned beetle is causing the destruction of
valuable city trees and could spread to forests, while nutria are devastating large portions of wetland ecosystems.
Corps have considerable experience combating invasive species—both plant and animal—planting native vegetation, and controlling erosion.
The Rocky Mountain Youth Corps (RMYC), based in Taos, New Mexico and the Western Colorado Conservation Corps (WCCC), based in Grand
Junction, Colorado, have been actively involved in tamarisk removal for several years. Tamarisk consumes high levels of water, draws more
salt from the groundwater than native plants, and deposits that salt on the ground surface when it sheds leaves, preventing the germination
of many native plants. The high amount of leaf litter increases wildfire frequency and intensity, killing native plants and further stimulating
tamarisk growth. All of this results in a loss of biodiversity.
CREC, the Coconino Rural Environment Corps, based in Flagstaff, Arizona, restores wildlife habitat and monitors wildlife population, surveys
and eradicates exotic plants, and conducts ecological testing and monitoring, along with constructing and maintaining trails, maintaining
public parks, campgrounds, and recreation areas. CREC thins more than 500 acres a year of federal, state, county, city, and private lands
every year and returns more than 4000 acres to native grasslands. The Montana Conservation Corps has partnered with the National Forest
Foundation, Gallatin National Forest, and Gallatin/Big Sky Weed Management Area Committee to undertake an extensive invasive weed mapping
and removal project in the Lee Metcalf Wilderness.
Wildfires Fires also damage ecosystems on public lands—and Corps can help in many ways. In 2004, the National Fire News noted that “as
firefighters control wildland fires, another group of quiet heroes move into the area to start the healing. After a wildland fire, the land may need
stabilization to prevent loss of topsoil through erosion and prevent the movement of dirt into rivers and streams. Land management specialists
and volunteers jumpstart the renewal of plant life through seeding and planting with annuals, trees, and native species that help retain soils
and fight invasive weeds. It’s a long term process that comes alive as the wildland fires die down.”8
Corps help wild lands recover, support fire fighters, and help prevent fires. For example:
Emergency Response, including Fire Fighter Support, Fire Recovery, and Fire Prevention: The California Conservation Corps (CCC) is one of
California’s premier emergency response forces, with more than 9.3 million hours of emergency response since 1976. The CCC has been called
out to nearly every major natural disaster since that time—fires, floods, earthquakes, pest infestations, oil spills and more. Crews can be
8 National Fire News, 2004, quoted by the Western Colorado Conservation Corps, http://westerncoloradoconservationcorps.community.officelive.com/default.aspx
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Service and conservation corps and america’s public lands / October 2009
dispatched within hours anywhere in the state. In 2008 alone, the CCC deployed over 800
Corpsmembers, who provided a half-million hours of fire response to CAL FIRE and the U.S. Forest
In 2008 alone,
Service, the largest fire response in the CCC’s history.
more than
Fire Recovery: Nevada Conservation Corps’ arid land, fire and riparian restoration teams offer a wide
800 California
range of assistance for desert, forest and wetlands rehabilitation initiatives. Experienced NCC crews
reseed, plant, re-vegetate, and restore disturbed areas. The teams are efficient – and effective –
and are capable of spike camping at the site of disturbance. Crews can cover substantial treatment
areas with 4 wheel drive vehicles to access difficult backcountry sites. They travel throughout the
state, restoring desert tortoise habitat, eradicating invasive plants, obliterating illegal wilderness
roads, and planting and reseeding thousands of native species to mitigate fire and human caused
disturbances. NCC teams have successfully advanced new partnerships with Bureau of Land
Management and National Park Service field offices. In southern Nevada, crews have crossed Lake
Mead by land and water to eradicate thel – an exotic hybrid that threatens to outcompete native
flora, treating over 100,000 plants in one season alone.
Fire Prevention: In 2003, what is now the Southwest Conservation Corps partnered with ApacheSitgreaves National Forest, the Coronado National Forest, and Chiricahua National Monument.
Corpsmembers cut and piled excess fuels in preparation for a burn as part of a hazardous fuel
reduction project. They also thinned and removed trees for habitat improvement in the ApacheSitgreaves. The group worked with Ramsay Canyon, a facility of The Nature Conservancy in southern
Arizona, to remove hazardous, flammable material from buildings.
Fire Fighting: The Minnesota Conservation Corps (MCC) is involved in roughly 40 wildfires statewide
on an annual basis, totaling over 11,000 hours of direct assistance. All members go through a
wildland firefighting certification where they are required to attend a weeklong training and pass
a physical ability pack test in order to receive their “red card” to be eligible to fight wildland fires.
MCC Corpsmembers represent roughly one-fourth of Minnesota’s trained wildfire response team.
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Conservation
Corpsmembers
provided a halfmillion hours of
fire response to
CAL FIRE and
the U.S. Forest
Service.
Service and conservation corps and america’s public lands / October 2009
Fire Prevention and Fire Fighter Support: The Western Colorado Conservation Corps (WCCC) does
access and egress within the urban interface in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
housing area to insure safe passage for emergency response workers. Corpsmembers are trained
in firescaping around new suburban neighborhoods as cities spread into rural areas. They help to
provide both visually aesthetic and fire resistant landscape around structures of value and along
By 2012 a full
38 percent
of Interior’s
the avenues of emergency response.
workforce,
Public Lands Service Corps: Replenishing the Nation’s Public Lands
Workforce
35 percent of
The Public Lands Service Corps could be an important strategy to develop the land management
professionals of tomorrow as it introduces young people to America’s public lands – instilling
appreciation for nature, enjoyment of recreation, and stewardship for our public lands.
Public lands leadership identifies two key workforce problems: loss of personnel and the need to
increase the diversity of land management and resource management professionals.
Loss of Personnel Between 2009 and 2014, more than half a million full-time, permanent, Federal
employees will leave government, most of them through retirement.9 Federal public lands agencies
are due to be especially hard hit to a degree never before experienced. To choose a few key
examples: during the period from 1995 to 2004 the Department of the Interior lost 3.3 percent of its
employees to retirement and the Department of Agriculture lost 4.8 percent. By contrast, by 2012
a full 38 percent of Interior’s workforce and 35 percent of Agriculture’s workforce will be eligible to
retire.10 Over 25 percent of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) employees are eligible to retire
by 2012, with nearly half of BLM’s leaders eligible to retire within the next five years.11
The loss of personnel needs to be addressed rapidly to minimize stress on the employees who
9Statement of Kevin Simpson, Executive VP and General Counsel, Partnership for Public Service, “Restoring the Federal Public
Lands Workforce,” Hearing of the US House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands. March 19, 2009.
http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/index.php?option=com_jcalpro&Itemid=27&extmode=view&extid=235.
10 Older Workers: Enhanced Communication Among Federal Agencies Could Improve Strategies for Hiring and Retaining Experienced Workers, US Government Accountability Office Report. Washington, DC: February 2009.
11 Statement of Daniel N. Wenk, Acting Director, National Park Service, “Restoring the Federal Public Lands Workforce,” Hearing
of the US House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands, March 19, 2009. http://resourcescommittee.
house.gov/index.php?option=com_jcalpro&Itemid=27&extmode=view&extid=235
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Agriculture’s
workforce, and
over 25 percent of
the Bureau of Land
Management’s
employees will be
eligible to retire.
Service and conservation corps and america’s public lands / October 2009
remain. In addition, when experienced staff depart before new staff come aboard, agencies
can lose the knowledge needed to manage the land and resources, which “is a site-specific
understanding [that] must be gained from on-the-ground experience. . . [U]nfortunately, mentors
with this irreplaceable knowledge are leaving before they can transfer it.”12 Time is of the essence.
Corps are a Proven Pipeline Corps are already providing public lands with trained workers, many
continuing in a lifetime of service. The California Conservation Corps does not track all of its
alumni, but an informal data base includes over 180 former Corpsmembers who have become trail
workers, archaeologists, firefighters, trail and park maintenance workers and supervisors, GPS
surveyors, biologists, and park rangers. In recent years, 11 of 18 new hires at Yellowstone National
Park have been Montana Conservation Corps graduates, and one of the trail crews in the San Juan
National Forest is made up almost entirely of graduates of the Southwest Conservation Corps, which
also places many Corpsmembers in fire-related positions with “hot shot” and other Forest Service
crews.13 The National Park Service estimates that 12% of its uniformed employees launched their
careers through Student Conservation Association internships.14
In recent years, 11 of 18
new hires at Yellowstone
National Park have been
Montana Conservation
Corps graduates, and one
of the trail crews in the
San Juan National Forest
is made up almost entirely
of graduates of the
Southwest Conservation
Service provides Corpsmembers with what amounts to a pre-apprenticeship program: training in
resource stewardship, health and safety, teamwork and leadership, and communications. These
experiences often lead to a love of the outdoors, respect for the legacy of our public lands, and the
desire to serve the nation as a land management professional. Corpsmembers connect to working
hard, leaving behind tangible improvements. A Southwest Conservation Corps blogger writes, “We
get up early and go to bed early. Soon we’ll be eating breakfast before sunrise. We stink. But we
don’t notice each other’s stench most of the time. You get used to it. It’s all part of the adventure.
Sunday morning we woke up on top of Mount Lemmon in the middle of a cloud. It would have been
mystical if not for the chill. But I suppose that’s part of the mysticism they don’t write about in
books... After two days in town I still haven’t managed to wash all the dirt out of my elbows... I can’t
12 Statement of Ron Thatcher, President, National Federation of Federal Employees’ Forest Service Council, “Restoring the
Federal Public Lands Workforce,” Hearing of the US House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands,
March 19, 2009.
13 Many thanks to Mark Rathswohl, California Conservation Corps, Wendy Wigert, Montana Conservation Corps, and Harry
Bruell, Southwest Conservation Corps.
14 Testimony of Dale Penny, President and CEO of the Student Conservation Association, April 2, 2009 to the House Natural
Resources Committee, Subcommittee National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands, page 2.
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Corps, which also places
many Corpsmembers
in fire-related positions
with “hot shot” and other
Forest Service crews.
Service and conservation corps and america’s public lands / October 2009
wait to get back out there and hack out a trail with my trusty pick-mattock. My name is Danielle,
and I’m a member of the Technical Trails Crew. We go big.”
“As population
demographics shift,
The Need for Greater Diversity Today’s public lands agencies are committed to diversifying their
workforces. The Department of the Interior’s Strategic Plan highlights the need to “create a more
inclusive national team that reflects the varied faces of the American public that we serve. . . . The
Department’s regional offices, field stations, national parks and recreation areas, and numerous
fish and wildlife facilities are scattered across the country, located in large cities, medium to
small cities, and other remote locations. As population demographics shift, the composition of
our customers and end-users also shifts, highlighting the need for the Department to increase
the composition of our
customers and end-users
also shifts, highlighting
the need for the
representation across its workforce to better serve local communities, partners, and neighbors.”15
Department to increase
Corps Bring Diversity Because Corps recruit from diverse populations themselves, they are an
representation across
effective way to help land management agencies become more diverse. The historical engagement,
enjoyment, and leadership of people of color in the National Parks, a focus of Ken Burns’
its workforce to better
documentary National Parks: America’s Best Idea, is alive and well in the modern-day Corps.
serve local communities,
Rosalio Cardenas, a California Conservation Corpsmember from Los Angeles writes, “On the
partners, and neighbors.”
backcountry trails program I left the luxuries of life behind for a simple life. The cell phone was
traded for envelopes and stamps. My motorcycle was replaced by a pair of hiking boots. I never
imagined myself bathing in a creek or climbing a peak. I worked on mountain ridges during
thunderstorms, near soothing creeks, at the world famous Yosemite Falls and throughout the
northern California wilderness. The work was intense and strenuous, and the days were long. I
slept on the ground and under the stars. … The biggest impact was that of my crew. . . . My
influence on my crewmates and theirs on me will never be washed away. We were an extremely
diverse yet close knit crew of twelve. We worked, ate, hiked, relaxed, played, lived and grew
together. I made friends for life.”
15 Strategic Plan for Achieving and Maintaining a Highly Skilled and Diverse Workforce, FY 2005-2009, US Department of the
Interior. Washington, DC: February 2005. Also see Statement of Daniel N. Wenk, referenced above, which describes various
efforts within the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management to reach out to minority schools and events,
including “partnerships with the Historical Black Colleges and Universities. . . . Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). . . .
[and] the League of United Latin American Citizens.”
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--US Department of the
Interior, Strategic Plan
Service and Conservation Corps and America’s Public Lands / november 2009
Corps Mobilizing Young People and Developing Work Readiness
Rosalio Cardenas’ story provides an excellent example of how Corps successfully engage diverse young people in service and provide them with
the supports necessary to make the transition into the workplace. This ability comes from long experience.
Modern Service and Conservation Corps—born in the 1970s and expanded throughout the 1990s—have inherited the legacy of the CCC. In the
last 25 years, Corps, now 143 strong and operating in 44 states and the District of Columbia, have recruited, enrolled, and trained more than
600,000 young people. They have re-engaged some of society’s most vulnerable young people through a comprehensive approach involving:
• Full-time accountability-based service,
• Technical skills training,
• Minimum wage based stipend,
• Work readiness, being part of a proud, high-functioning, goal-oriented team,
• Civic engagement, taking responsibility by delivering solutions to community and environmental problems through visible, valued public
work and national service,
• Classroom instruction to improve basic competencies, build computer literacy and secure credentials,
• Life skills development,
• Career development through strategic partnerships with local businesses; supportive services, and, in many cases,
• A post-service education award.
Corps are a research-validated accountability-based strategy for giving young men and women the chance to change their communities, their
own lives and those of their families, in particular meeting the needs of low-income, under-educated, and unemployed youth and young adults.
Corps enroll primarily 18-24 year olds, with close to 37 percent of all Corpsmembers being female, and well over half, members of minority
groups. 72 percent of Corpsmembers lack college experience and 66 percent have family incomes under the federal poverty levels. Because
the current economic dislocation has hit youth especially hard, Corps’ ability to create opportunities that lead to success becomes increasingly
valuable. These young people need positive options: in May 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nationwide unemployment
reached 9.4 percent. Youth unemployment was almost 23 percent; the unemployment rate for African-American youth between the ages of 16
and 19 was 39.4 percent, and for Latino youth, 31 percent.
National experts recognize Corps as one of the few national programs that are proven to make a significant difference in the lives of vulnerable
youth. A recent paper from the Center for American Progress commented that “with one out of three youth dropping out of school, including
one out of every two African Americans and Hispanics, second chance strategies are badly needed to reconnect them to educational and
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Service and conservation corps and america’s public lands / October 2009
career opportunities. . . . Youth Corps have proven track records of helping these young people
transform their lives by encouraging them to finish school, teaching them important job skills and
providing opportunities to give back to their communities through service. . . . Experts suggest
that the return on investment for reconnecting a young person through such programs is as high
as $500,000 per youth--$1 million if the young person has a criminal record.”16 In a Hewlett
Foundation Working Paper, MDRC Vice-President Rob Ivry called Corps one of three “proven and
promising programs.”17 Finally, a report from the American Youth Policy Forum said that “Corps
are versatile, cost-effective programs that allow young people to accomplish important projects
while developing employment and citizenship skills.”
18
“Corps are
versatile, costeffective programs
that allow
young people
to accomplish
Corps provide vulnerable youth with the skills, experience and work ethic necessary to succeed. A
rigorous multi-site control group evaluation conducted by Abt Associates/Brandeis University found
that Corps are especially effective in producing positive outcomes for young African-American
men.19 The Abt Associates/Brandeis University study also found that:
• Significant employment and earnings gains accrue to young people in a Corps;
• Arrest rates drop by one third among all Corpsmembers; and
• Out-of-wedlock pregnancy rates drop among female Corpsmembers.
Creating and expanding Corps to serve on public lands will reduce the youth unemployment rate,
create opportunities for those youth to win jobs as land managers, and provide others with the
education and skills that will serve them well, regardless of where they ultimately find employment.
Building Knowledgeable Public Lands Professionals
Public Lands Service Corps will also provide a knowledgeable workforce to the work at hand.
In many different ways, Corps use the setting of public lands to provide a living resource for
16 Serving America: A National Service Agenda for the Next Decade, Shirley Sagawa, The Center for American Progress, September 2007.
17 “Improving the Economic and Life Outcomes of At-Risk Youth.” Robert Ivry and Fred Doolittle, Manpower Development
Resource Corporation, Spring 2003.
18 Preparing Youth for Careers, Lifelong Learning, and Civic Participation, Glenda L. Partee and Samuel Halperin, American
Youth Policy Forum, 2006
19 Youth Corps: Promising Practices for Young People and Their Communities. Jastrzab, Blomquist, Masker & Orr. Abt Associates. February 1997.
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important projects
while developing
employment
and citizenship
skills.”—American
Youth Policy
Forum
Service and conservation corps and america’s public lands / October 2009
Corpsmembers to learn science, history and culture—and develop a deep commitment to service
and stewardship.
Corps offer an
environmental
Public lands provide a prism through which to see the entire breadth and scope of American history;
indeed, a history of the land and its inhabitants long before there was a United States. Public
lands also offer the opportunity to study anthropology, paleontology, and archeology. Using servicelearning, which integrates community service with academic study to enrich learning, teach civic
responsibility and strengthen communities, Corpsmembers gain intellectual skills and personal
competencies as well as work readiness skills. Service-learning has been documented to reverse
student disengagement, promote the public purposes of education, build on the willingness of
students to become involved in service, improve engagement in learning and achievement, and
contribute to young people’s personal and career development. Service-learning also promotes civic
education that
includes critical
tools for a
21st century
workforce by
engagement.
providing students
Corps offer an environmental education that includes critical tools for a 21st century workforce
with the skills
by providing students with the skills to understand complex issues—especially environmental
issues—helping them to learn how to make informed decisions in their own lives, and find solutions
for the real world challenges that we face us as a nation. Business leaders also increasingly believe
to understand
complex issues—
that an environmentally literate workforce is critical to industry’s long-term success.
especially
One example of a Corps-based service-learning program is the California Conservation Corps’
environmental
Watershed Stewards Project (WSP); a comprehensive, community-based watershed restoration and
education program. Biologists and educators created WSP in 1994 to fill critical information gaps in
the scientific and education communities. In collaboration with the commercial and sport fishing
industry, timber companies, teachers, nonprofit organizations and public agencies, WSP members
and the WSP partnership work to revitalize watersheds inhabited by endangered and threatened
species through the use of the WSP “Real Science” environmental education curricula and state-ofthe-art data collection and watershed techniques. Under the guidance of resource professionals, in
collaboration with local land owners, public agencies and private industry, Corpsmembers learn and
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issues and
issues of energy
and water
conservation.
Service and Conservation Corps and America’s Public Lands / november 2009
perform advanced monitoring and analysis techniques, present the WSP “Real Science” curricula to students in grades K-12, participate in
instream and upslope restoration activities, tutor K-12 students in math and science, perform environmentally-based public outreach, and
conduct environmental education workshops and symposiums.20
The Nevada Conservation Corps (NCC) combines service and learning by combining field research and hard work. NCC, based at the Great
Basin Institute, is devoted to field-based youth education and research including an Environmental Field Studies program as well as the
Corps, promotes ecological literacy through field research and direct conservation service. The foundation of the Institute results in a
program with considerable intellectual rigor, and many NCC graduates continue into advanced studies. Corpsmember Noah Ambrose wrote
that the Corps has “prepared me to work at a professional level in the field of archaeology. I plan to put my Education Award toward graduate
school, a Master’s where I will focus on remote sensing in archaeology or maritime archaeology.”
In other Corps, systematic service-learning integrates reflection on history, culture, politics, and personal civic engagement into the crew
schedule. The Montana Conservation Corps’ PLACE curriculum, (which stands for Public Lands And Citizenship Education), focuses its
weekly lessons as much on issues of stewardship, civic responsibility, and citizenship as it does science, history, and the politics of public
lands. PLACE engages Corpsmembers in understanding a wide range of issues while they serve in the back country of Western public lands.
PLACE’s lesson topics include:
• The contested use of wilderness areas from the time before Europeans arrived on the continent to the present day (and the often illusory
categories of “environmentalists” versus “land users” versus “land managers”);
• Neighboring land management policies;
• “Scavenger hunts,” in which Corpsmembers identify trees, animal signs, plants, human footprints, local watershed, types of trails, local
land management agencies, and possible threats to the area;
• Perspectives of a university environmental studies professor, a former Congressman, the Dean of Forestry and Conservation, and an
economist studying changing Western demographics and their impact on public lands;
• In-depth study, including local commentary from a variety of sources, of a regional project to preserve the Cutthroat Trout;
• The cycle of how change happens in communities (assessment, creating awareness, creating groups, planning, implementing,
evaluating);
• Options for getting involved in public policy at the local level; and
• Creating a personal community change action plan.
20http://www.ccc.ca.gov/SPECIAL/watershed.htm
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Service and Conservation Corps and America’s Public Lands / november 2009
In addition to the reading, writing, and analysis skills applied while engaged in PLACE, many of a crew’s service projects will involve science,
mathematics, group decision-making, planning, coordination, and redesign. In other programs, Montana Conservation Corpsmembers work in
schools to teach students about public lands.
Public Lands Service Corpsmembers could serve both on and off public lands, connecting schoolchildren to the outdoors through schools in
classroom settings and after-school programs, or with youth-serving community-based organizations.
Building Committed Stewards of Our Public Lands
Stewardship—the commitment to serve, protect, and pass on the natural world in better condition than we found it—is key to success in a
public lands career. Service profoundly connects young men and women to the natural world.
The strong tie of those who serve—the “the moral and spiritual value” of the work—stands in stark contrast to a phenomenon named in recent
research. “Nature deficit disorder” is a condition in which children of the digital age are increasingly alienated from the natural world, with
disastrous implications, not only for their physical fitness, but also for their long-term mental and spiritual health. According to journalist
Richard Louv, “Within the space of a few decades, the way children understand and experience their neighborhoods and the natural world
has changed radically. . . . their intimacy with nature is fading. As one suburban fifth grader put it to me, in what has become the signature
epigram of the children-and-nature movement: ‘I like to play indoors better ‘cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are.’”21 In a typical
week, only 6 percent of children aged nine to thirteen play outside on their own. Studies by the National Sporting Goods Association and by
American Sports Data, a research firm, show a dramatic decline in the past decade in such outdoor activities as swimming and fishing. Even
bike riding is down 31 percent since 1995. In San Diego, according to a survey by the nonprofit Aquatic Adventures, 90 percent of inner-city kids
do not know how to swim; 34 percent have never been to the beach. In suburban Fort Collins, Colorado, teachers shake their heads in dismay
when they describe the many students who have never been to the mountains visible year-round on the western horizon. 22 The consequences of
this are serious. Studies documenting the rising indicators of nature deficit disorder show that time spent out of the classroom for learning is
critical to the intellectual, emotional, and physical health of young people.
By contrast, providing students with high-quality opportunities to directly experience the natural world can improve students’ self-esteem,
21 Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 2005.
22 Orion Magazine, March/April, 2007. http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/240/ Environmental education “in the field” gets kids outside, contributing
to healthy lifestyles through outdoor recreation, exercise, play and experience in the natural world that is critical to helping prevent obesity and address other related health
problems. Fewer and fewer students, however, are involved in important environmental education courses, class work, and field investigations. Hands-on, experience-based
environmental education connects children to the natural world, and research supports the belief that time spent outdoors lessens the symptoms of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD), reduces stress and aggression, helps children sleep better, and improves physical health.
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Service and conservation corps and america’s public lands / October 2009
personal responsibility, community involvement, personal health (including child obesity issues),
overall readiness to learn and academic performance, as well as an understanding of nature – and
deep connection to the natural world.
This happens in the Corps. To choose an example from the website of The Northwest Youth Corps’
Summer Conservation Corps, “You can choose between completing vital resource management
projects and exploring the hidden corners of Oregon or Washington. Join a ten-person NYC crew
and you will spend time building hiking trails, protecting endangered species, and restoring wildlife
habitat. You will learn how to swing a tool, bake in a Dutch oven, pitch a tent, build a campfire, and
load a backpack. . . . With NYC you will learn how easy it is to live in the woods without the comforts
of modern civilization. . . . For more than a month you will live and work outdoors all day, every day.
You may go to sleep watching the moon rise and get up in time to see the sun come up. It is a busy
world. . . . But it is also a world you will leave with lasting friendships, pride in accomplishment,
fresh perspectives and untold new skills.”23
“You will spend time
building hiking trails,
protecting endangered
species, and restoring
wildlife habitat. You
will learn how to swing
a tool, bake in a Dutch
oven, pitch a tent, build
a campfire, and load a
The impact is crystal clear when Corpsmembers report on their experience. Zoe, a Montana
Conservation Corps blogger, writes from her backcountry crew: “We were protected by darkness
so thick we couldn’t see our hands in front of us, veiled by canopy so dense no raindrop could
touch us, invigorated by sights so enormously beautiful, that no one could tell us there were no
beautiful places left on this earth. We carried on in a world unto itself. Dutifully in the woods we
worked, enamored with the world we lived in, feeling so beautifully unscathed by the constant tug
of civilization, and feeling so engrossed in the boundless majesty of nature. I hope you get that
chance. Whoever you may be. To be so free.”
Once a Corpsmember has seen and felt the majesty and mystery of our public lands, it is hard for
that young person to let go of the sense that it is a privilege and honor to be responsible for their
preservation. These ideas and feelings are part of a life-long commitment to service and a career
in land and resource management. They will also affect the hundreds of thousands of young people
who never opt for a career in these fields.
backpack. . . . and learn
how easy it is to live in
the woods without the
comforts of modern
civilization. . . . For more
than a month you will live
and work outdoors all day,
every day.” –Northwest
Youth Corps
23 http://www.nwyouthcorps.org/summerconservationcorps.html
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Service and Conservation Corps and America’s Public Lands / november 2009
Federal History
For the last 75 years, the federal government has developed policies and implemented that tie youth service to work on public lands.
Unfortunately, few of these efforts have been sustained.
The CCC operated between 1933 and 1942. In 1970, the late Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson sponsored legislation that created the Youth
Conservation Corps (YCC). At its height during the mid-1970s, the YCC was funded at the level of $60 million and enrolled some 32,000 young
people each summer in programs operated by the Departments of Interior and Agriculture, as well as by states. YCC participants worked in
both cities and wilderness across the country, performing a variety of conservation projects, including tree planting, river cleanup and erosion
control. The Young Adult Conservation Corps (YACC) was one of two federally funded youth conservation corps programs that existed prior to
1981. The YACC operated on a year-round basis. In operation between 1977 and 1982, the YACC received funds of approximately $232 million
each year, and at its peak it maintained roughly 25,000 slots for youths between the ages of 16 and 23. The program was open to youths from
all educational and economic backgrounds and was intended primarily to complete backlogs of high-priority work that had been identified
by state and federal natural resource departments. Although the YACC was not renewed under the Reagan administration, it left a legacy of
experienced youth corps advocates and program operators and a number of state programs patterned after its model.
In the meantime, the Student Conservation Association (SCA) had been founded in 1957, placing 53 summer volunteers in Grand Teton and
Olympic National Parks in its first year of operation. In 1968, SCA began a partnership with the US Forest Service. Over the years, SCA grew
slowly but steadily: in 1983 the organization placed over 1,000 volunteers. Today, SCA’s 4,000 interns and volunteers provide more than two
million hours of conservation service per year. SCA members annually serve more than 500 natural and cultural sites in all 50 states, building
or maintaining over 2,500 miles of trail. 70% of SCA alumni remain active in conservation in their careers or communities
In l990, Congress passed, and President George H.W. Bush signed, legislation that created a new Commission on National and Community
Service, marking the first federal support for national service programs in almost two decades. In 1992, the youth corps movement received the
targeted federal funding for the first time in more than a decade, when the Commission awarded approximately $22.5 million in grants to 23
states, the District of Columbia, the Los Angeles Conservation Corps (for disaster relief projects) and five Native American tribes. These funds
became available under the American Conservation and Youth Service Corps Act or Subtitle C of the National and Community Service Act of
1990. While only half of the established corps benefited directly from these funds, the number of corps programs almost doubled, to just over
100, as a result of the new Federal “seed” money.
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Service and conservation corps and america’s public lands / October 2009
In 1993, the Congress enacted and President Clinton signed The National and Community Service
“On the backcountry trails
Trust Act, which amended Subtitle C of the 1990 legislation to provide federal support to many kinds
of community service programs besides the traditional youth corps. The new law also established
post-service educational benefits for participants through the AmeriCorps Program. During the first
program I left the luxuries of
life behind. My motorcycle was
full year of AmeriCorps, beginning in September 1994, 53 youth corps received AmeriCorps grants
through statewide population-based and competitive processes as well as through a national direct
replaced by a pair of hiking boots.
application process and collaborations with Federal agencies. AmeriCorps has helped to bring more
Corpsmembers into public lands, although its funding covers a wider range of service areas, from
education to health care to public safety.
I never imagined myself bathing
in a creek or climbing a peak. I
Conclusion
worked on mountain ridges during
America’s Service and Conservation Corps have proven their ability to deliver high-quality
stewardship to our nation’s public lands, accomplishing what legendary conservationist President
Theodore Roosevelt called “the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our
thunderstorms, near soothing
creeks, at the world famous
descendants than it is for us.”
Yosemite Falls and throughout the
By tapping the expertise and commitment of Corps and Corpsmembers nationwide, we can create
a diverse and enduring CCC for the 21st Century in a Public Lands Service Corps, restoring our
natural legacy, re-inventing land management with an experienced and diverse cadre of young
northern California wilderness.
The work was intense and
professionals, and thereby establishing a new era for service, stewardship, and commitment to the
strenuous. I slept on the ground
enduring health of our public lands.
and under the stars.”
--Rosalio Cardenas, California
Conservation Corpsmember, 2007
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1100 G Street, NW
Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20005
Tel. 202.737.6272
Fax. 202.737.6277
www.corpsnetwork.org