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 9, 2021 | One provision of the American Jobs Plan would devote $10 billion to creating a Civilian Climate Corps. In his vision, the new CCC will have temporary, part-time, and full-time positions, and they can also transition to permanent positions in the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and other federal agencies. The new corps will likely build on existing infrastructure across the country, such as the Colorado Youth Corps Association (CYCA), which especially focuses on hiring in forestry. The organization, established in 1997, is modeled after New Deal programs.

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.

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. The workers in Spencer have been building trails by hand, including new switchbacks at the trail off Rowan Avenue to replace the entrance that went straight back into the forest.

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.