Texas Conservation Corps providing disaster relief at Gulf Coast as part of 21st Century Conservation Service Corps

As a recent crew of young people pushed through a riparian forest at the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge removing Chinese Tallow and other invasive species, they also stood ready to respond to disaster. Their team, part of a total of 50 Corps members from the Texas Conservation Corps who have signed up for a year of national service in the fields of conservation and disaster response, are trained and ready to be deployed across the region with limited notice.

This past winter, Corps members spent over one month training in disaster response and conservation skills. When the next disaster strikes the teams are ready within 24 hours to integrate into the existing structure of an emergency operation’s Incident Command System. The team’s disaster response skills include hazardous debris removal, home repair and shelter management with a specialization in volunteer management. Their conservation work often has an emergency management aspect as well, with hazard fuel mitigation projects protecting communities from wildfire and habitat restoration work that increases the ability of local ecosystems to withstand natural disasters.

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Last October, The Student Conservation Association (SCA), a member of the 21^st Century Conservation Service Corps, launched the ConSERVE NYC initiative on the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. The initiative has already rallied over 650 volunteers to enhance the storm resiliency of New York City’s public lands. As summer approaches, the volunteer momentum builds.

ConSERVE NYC brings together SCA members, partners and alumni, as well as students and members of the public to participate in large-scale weekend service events at locations around the city. After seven months, ConSERVE has touched all five boroughs of NYC. Volunteers have built erosion control fencing at Great Kills Park in Staten Island, planted flower bulbs at Riverside Park in Manhattan, improved trails at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, mulched beds at Morningside Park in Manhattan, cleared debris from the beaches at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, and removed invasive ivy from the Brooklyn Greenway. In celebration of Earth Day, 150 volunteers gathered at Hudson River Park in April to plant native shrubs.

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Five HOPE Crew members work to preserve historic fabric of Skyland Stables at Shenandoah National Park.

The Skyland Stable, constructed in 1939, is located in Shenandoah National Park and is a contributing structure to the Skyline Drive National Historic Landmark District. The stables are owned by the National Park Service and managed by Delaware North Companies, the park concessionaire, who operates the stables to provide trail rides for visitors to the park.

To repair damage caused by water infiltration, ten Corpsmembers of the Citizens Conservation Corps of West Virginia, in partnership with Harpers Ferry Job Corps, completed a nine-week preservation carpentry project to rehabilitate the exterior of the stable. With the guidance of a craft expert and preservation advisor, the HOPE Crew was able to identify and replace deteriorated wooden planks, repair damaged doors, apply stain to the structure, and save a historic structure that would have otherwise been forced out of service.

The stables are now fully operational, and the 1.2 million visitors to Shenandoah National Park can continue to rent horses and utilize the 200 miles of equestrian trails.

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Over the next five months, eight Spokane area young adults working with the Northwest Youth Corps’ Spokane Community Corps will participate in a large scale fuels reduction project.  In partnership with the Spokane BLM and WA State Department of Natural Resources, the crew will work in and around the Spokane area to remove hazardous fuels and create defensible space, minimizing the impacts of wildfire.   Many BLM and DNR lands in the Spokane area lie adjacent to residential neighborhoods and the reduction of hazardous fuels in these locations is an extremely high priority.

The program is the result of a partnership between AmeriCorps, The Corps Network’s Opportunity Youth Service Initiative (OYSI), and Northwest Youth Corps.   Through this initiative, young adults aged 18-24 who are unemployed, out of school and receiving public assistance will gain important work experience and certifications that will provide future opportunities in their employment. While completing high priority resource management projects, the participant will earn a living stipend as well as an Education Award at the end of their service.  With the experience, training, and education award, members will be better prepared to seek higher education and enter the workforce. Continue reading →

In 2011, flood waters surged across the riparian floodplains lining the Missouri River through the National Wild and Scenic River section of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Within weeks, floodplains lining the river were covered in an emerald blanket of native cottonwood tree seedlings – a welcome sign of recovery for the endemic cottonwood forest.  The floods, however, also resulted in the massive dispersal of invasive tamarisk. Within months it was clear that new tamarisk stands were displacing native cottonwood seedlings and the valuable wildlife habitat provided by the cottonwood gallery that historically lined the river.

This summer, as part of the 21^st Century Conservation Service Corps, twenty youth with the Montana Conservation Corps are joining volunteers of the Friends of the Missouri River Breaks Monument to help the BLM protect native Cottonwood stands along this 149 mile section of Wild and Scenic Missouri River.  While removing the tamarisk and erecting fencing to protect cottonwood seedlings from grazing and browsing, the youth will learn about native plants and the historic, cultural and natural values of the Missouri River corridor. For centuries, this river corridor was utilized by Native American tribes following the great herds of bison, and in 1805, Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery navigated the Missouri on their way to and from the Pacific.

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The inaugural Arizona Conservation Corps First Stewards Corps crew, a program of Conservation Legacy, is working to maintain the Siphon Draw and First Water Trails, which lead into the Superstition Wilderness from Lost Dutchman State Park, just outside of Phoenix, AZ. This area is near the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and the area of the Superstition Mountains where the crew working is highly regarded by the native people from this area. This region of Arizona has hosted a relationship between the land and the people since 300 BC, when groups migrated into the Gila River Valley, and we honor this relationship with this crew and our conservation work.

The Superstition Mountains and the wilderness area that surrounds them is a special place to many people. In order to preserve and maintain the land while also allowing people to experience this wilderness, the crew is working to maintain several trails that have been damaged or were in severe disrepair. Many parts of the trail are unsafe and lead through steep and rocky terrain, which the crew is repair and increase the accessibility into this area.

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