November 13, 2020 | Sometimes when Southwest Conservation Crew 428 arrives at a sawyer job, crew members receive second looks from clients for carrying saws or wearing manual labor gear. At times, the client ends up looking for the man in charge.

“There’s definitely stereotypes and gender norms within this field,” said Cassie McCarty, a crew leader. “Even if they’re slight, they’re still there.”

Crew 428 is a team of all women and gender nonbinary individuals – the first of its kind for the SCC.

September 6, 2020 | Tech Gives Back, a fundraising effort, raised $300,000 for the Community Emergency Relief Fund’s efforts to combat food insecurity and support youth employment at local nonprofits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

August 31, 2020 | In late July, amidst alternating summer heat and afternoon monsoons, volunteers gathered to plant locally and regionally native plant species in southwestern Colorado. Housed at the Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership (GGP) site in downtown Pagosa Springs, members from various groups (Weminuche Audubon Society, Mountain High Garden Club, CSU Extension Master Gardeners, and GGP) came together to install a Habitat Hero demonstration garden despite the current pandemic.

April 30, 2020 | A record snowpack in Colorado from the 2018-2019 winter resulted in epic skiing, amazing rafting conditions, and a nightmare for many trail maintenance organizations. With over 700 percent of the average yearly snowpack still sticking around into June and beyond, the trail maintenance season would be drastically shortened. To add to the shorter season, that level of snowpack caused numerous avalanches. Avalanches leave a path of destruction behind them, and massive debris fields in front of them.

February 6, 2020 | FARMINGTON – After more than 20 years in the area, the Southwest Conservation Corps is gearing up to hire one of its largest summer youth crews yet.

The program plans to hire about 65 students, almost four times more than 2016 when it hired 16 students, said Teresa DiTore, youth programs manager with Southwest Conservation Corps.

January 13, 2020 | Join United Way of Southwest Colorado (UWSWC) at Wolf Creek Ski Area for a fun day of skiing and boarding with discounted full-day lift tickets on Wednesday, Jan. 15, to benefit United Way nonprofit organizations in Archuleta County.

January 10, 2020 | The Southwest Conservation Corps youth program will be the beneficiary of Moonlight Pizza & Brewpub’s Moonlight Monday promotion on Jan. 20.

January 7, 2020 | ALAMOSA — The Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Board awarded a total of  $1,942,586 in youth corps and open space grants to projects in your district.

The City of Alamosa received a $16,600 youth corps grant to hire Southwest Conservation Corps (SCC) to construct and maintain trails on several municipal properties, adding six miles to an existing network of 15 miles of trail. 

October 13, 2019 | The Russian olive – which can grow 35 feet tall – is native to East Asia and Russia and typically overtakes native species, including willows and cottonwoods. It has a vast underground root system, and its stumps can send out shoots if not treated with pesticide. The tree originally was introduced as early as the 1960s as an ornamental plant and also was used as a windbreak.

MSI has spearheaded Colorado-based efforts to eradicate the plant throughout the Animas River Valley since 2016, often partnering with the Southwest Conservation Corps. In 2017, MSI was awarded a grant from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife for a three-year removal project. The organization estimates it has cleared 290 acres of Russian olives in the Animas River watershed and removed about 4,000 stems.

August 27, 2019 | Monarch Mountain’s Ski Conservation Fund has disbursed a little more than $30,000 to three different area conservation projects, the National Forest Foundation announced last week.

The fund gave $12,000 to the Monarch Pass Gravel Pit Restoration Project, $13,200 to the Boss Lake Trail Improvement Project and $7,600 to develop cross-country ski trails near Monarch Mountain.

The gravel pit project is being handled by Trout Unlimited, and the other two projects are being run by Southwest Conservation Corps.