June 1st, 2021 | The six-person AmeriCorps crew, volunteers and federation staff planted the salt marsh grass, completing a restoration project put in place to reduce shoreline erosion, protect the area’s maritime forest from storms, provide fish habitat and help improve coastal water quality, according to the federation. The AmeriCorps crew also collected marine debris and did maintenance work at Cape Lookout National Seashore, Carolina Beach State Park, Morris Landing in Holly Ridge and other spots on the central and southern North Carolina coast.

May 13th, 2021 | [Podcast]: Listen to Zach Foster, Director of the of the Appalachian Conservation Corps talk about the role of reforesting Eastern Kentucky.

May 11th, 2021 | The coastal federation has been promoting living shorelines in recent years as an environmentally friendly alternative to bulkheads. For the Pine Knoll Shores project, the federation hired Restoration Systems LLC of Raleigh to build an oyster sill for the effort. Dr. Weaver said as of Friday, they’ve built 15 feet of the 50-foot sill. “We have this new material, Biomason, we’re trying out with the sill,” Dr. Weaver said. She went on to explain Biomason is a product made of biological concrete mixed with oyster shells, giving it a “low-carbon footprint.”

April 25th, 2021 | The Appalachian Conservation Corps has a new summer program and is looking for youth in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County aged 16-18 to get involved. The program is called the “Rockingham Outdoor Conservation Crew” or “ROC Crew” and will be based in Harrisonburg. Crews will work on conservation projects in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests.

April 22nd, 2021 | Hikers flock to the rugged Santa Catalina mountains north of Tucson, but many trails are still off limits in the wake of last year’s Bighorn Fire. Most trails remain closed within the burn scar of the 119,987-acre Bighorn Fire, which raged from June 5 through July 23. Some trails are within Pusch Ridge Wilderness on the southwest flank of the mountains, and others are north or east of the wilderness.

April 17th, 2021 | “All of the seed was collected from the national forest,” said San Juan National Forest Columbine District Ranger James Simino. “We sent that seed to (the Charles E. Bessey Tree Nursery) that the Forest Service manages in Nebraska and they grew the trees out for us, and then we shipped them back down here to plant in the ground.”

April 16th, 2021 | Rappahannock County Park has been visited recently by the Appalachian Conservation Corps (ACC), an AmeriCorps program of Conservation Legacy. The Piedmont Environmental Council, PEC’s Krebser Fund for Rappahannock County and Friends of the Rappahannock (FOR) have partnered with the ACC to bring a crew of 6 young adults to the Piedmont region for tree plantings and trail maintenance projects.

April 16th, 2021 | The crew was hired for reforestation thanks to funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and landowner participation in the Virginia Agricultural Cost-Share Program (VACS), and was able to take on the 1.5 days of trail work at Rappahannock County park thanks to funding from the PEC Krebser Fund. The new section is 235 feet of a foot trail that switchbacks on a steep bank, and reconnects to existing trails in the Park. The ACC crew installed masonry and log stairs to stabilize the trail, as well as cleared invasive plant species and brush from the trail’s path.

April 6, 2021 | "So many times over the years, I have heard young women say that this work seems so interesting, but they wonder if they are "strong enough" to do the physical work and "tough enough" to endure the lifestyle. On the flip side, I have not once heard a young man utter these words of self doubt. So, I do my best to be encouraging and supportive to this type of opportunity for all of us who are underrepresented in the field of conservation and recreation."

April 1st, 2021| Conservation Corps North Carolina, which dispatches teams to improve parks across the state, sent six people to the forest this week to improve the trails. They’ll be back in Spencer next week, too, to keep working. The goal, assistant crew leader Lillian Cahill said, is to make hiking trails more sustainable so maintenance isn’t as necessary in the future.