Feb 25, 2022 | [VIDEO] Southwest Conservation Corps' 2021 Leaders of Color Crew is featured in a video by the National Park Foundation to help raise awareness about job opportunities in conservation.

November 29th, 2021 | “At the scale of things that we need to do, we can’t really address them just as an agency,” said Tim Leishman, a silviculturist with San Juan National Forest’s Columbine Ranger District. “We have to have groups like Mountain Studies Institute, San Juan Mountains Association, Southwest Conservation Corps and other groups really help us meet those goals.”

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.”

March 31st, 2021 | When President Joe Biden announced a $2 trillion infrastructure bill, several groups in Colorado rejoiced as they crawled closer to a much needed increase in funding. Colorado has eight accredited Youth Corps organizations, and they could see a boost that would bring money, and, in turn, hire people for much needed projects throughout the state.

March 29, 2021 | A stretch of the Colorado Trail that runs through the Weminuche Wilderness is expected to be fixed by fall after a historic year for avalanches damaged the trail in 2019. Kristina Schenck, lead wilderness ranger for the U.S. Forest Service’s Columbine Ranger District, said the winter of 2018-19 brought unprecedented avalanche activity to the San Juan Mountains.

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.