NPF Invests $5.8 Million in Service Corps Program

2024 – 2025 Service Corps Grantees

Since 2018, NPF has granted more than $25 million to over 260 service corps crews and individual placements. Each of these projects will take place throughout 2024 and into 2025:

The American Conservation Experience will recruit a crew at Everglades National Park to perform trail maintenance, facilities improvements, and invasive plant monitoring and removal. They will also recruit two crews at Salt River Bay Historical Park and Ecological Preserve – one that will focus on trail development and habitat restoration, and one that will implement a restoration assessment and long-term monitoring plan and facilitate outreach and educational programming.

American YouthWorks will engage diverse youth, including a Tribal youth crew and individual placements for three deaf youth, at Chickasaw National Recreation Area and San Antonio Mission National Historical Park to work on trail maintenance, habitat restoration, climate change resilience projects, and more. They will also recruit an Asian American and Pacific Islander affinity crew to complete vital environmental resiliency projects at Big Thicket National Preserve.

Cesar E. Chavez National Monument will partner with the Farmworkers Institute of Education and Leadership Development (FIELD) program as corpsmembers help preserve this park’s unique history by rehabilitating structures and landscapes at the park’s visitor center and Memorial Garden. The National Chavez Center will be a key partner in the project.

Child and Family Services of Northwestern Michigan, Inc. will recruit and support YouthWork Urban Connections Corps and YouthWork Indian Youth Service Corps crews to complete climate intervention and resiliency, environmental stewardship, and community engagement activities prioritized by local NPS staff at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, River Raisin National Battlefield Park, and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Conservation Legacy will convene diverse crews across its local programs and work with partners to provide meaningful opportunities to youth. From a Women of Trades crew repairing stonework along Skyline Drive to Indigenous youth tagging Monarch butterflies for conservation research at the Grand Canyon and so much more, crews will address priority projects and trail maintenance at New River Gorge National Park & Preserve, Shenandoah National Park, National Parks of Boston, Grand Canyon National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, Wright Brothers National Memorial, Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Chiricahua National Monument, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Saguaro National Park, and Tumacacori National Historic Park.

Environment for the Americas’ Diversity Conservation Corps crew at Saguaro National Park will work to remove invasive species and monitor Saguaro cacti, foster climate change resilience, and perform other natural resource priority projects such as the removal of grazing fences and desert tortoise monitoring.

Friends of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park will partner with the park to host the Guardian of the Trails crew, who will spend 50 weeks working on invasive species control, rehabilitation of native forest, trail brushing and maintenance, and traffic services across multiple sites.

Friends of Saguaro National Park’s Next Generation Ranger Corps Internship Program will expand to provide paid internships for young adults from underrepresented communities in southern Arizona, providing an opportunity for participants to gain skills and experience while increasing park staff capacity to complete vital activities.

Friends of Virgin Islands National Park’s Youth Summer Trail Crew program will provide job opportunities to Virgin Islands high school students to inspire an appreciation and passion for the natural world, conservation, and environmental stewardship. 

Grand Portage National Monument and the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa will co-manage Grand Portage Band’s Gichi Onigaming Conservation Crew as they work on maintenance of trails and campsites. The crew will also work on natural resource inventory projects at both Grand Portage and Isle Royale National Park, and assist with reservation forestry, landscaping, and Food Sovereignty-based gardening projects.

The Great Basin Institute will support Yosemite National Park in fielding a local Indigenous crew with the Yosemite Ancestral Stewards to complete high-priority conservation projects – including restoring and revegetating several sites – and encourage Tribal youth to explore potential careers in resource management and science.

Groundwork USA will convene diverse crews of young adults to contribute to infrastructure improvements and other important projects at parks across the country, including Yellowstone National Park, Indiana Dunes National Park, Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park, Morristown National Historical Park, and Gateway National Recreation Area.

The Hispanic Access Foundation will facilitate two one-year internships for Indigenous youth at Flagstaff Area National Monuments where they will focus on enhancing community relationships, revitalizing cultural demonstrations at the park, researching and documenting Indigenous cultures, and developing interpretive materials and storytelling initiatives.

MobilizeGreen will recruit and support four 10-week interns and one year-round intern at Colonial National Historic Park where they will work on boosting tourism and supporting historic preservation activities at the park.

Mount Rainier National Park in partnership with Northwest Youth Corps will engage two affinity crews – an LGBTQ+ Rainbow crew and an all-women crew – to work on deferred trail maintenance in high-use and critical areas of the park, sensitive resource protection efforts through the installation of temporary fencing, and active restoration in Paradise and Sunrise Meadows.

The National Park Service Historic Preservation Training Center in partnership with Conservation Legacy Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps will host Indigenous youth at Aztec Ruins National Monument, Bandelier National Monument, Flagstaff Area National Monuments, and Mesa Verde National Park to gain hands-on trade skills and learn about preservation work as they help stabilize structures build by their ancestors and support critical maintenance projects at the parks.

Northwest Youth Corps’ Equity and Inclusion Internship Project will engage two interns from the Japanese American community to provide interpretation to park visitors at Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial and Minidoka National Historic Site. Additionally, in partnership with the Nez Perce National Historic Park and Nez Perce Tribe, they will provide internship opportunities for up to four Nez Perce youth to gain valuable professional experience in cultural resource management, facilities management, interpretation, education, and administration.

Rock Creek Conservancy will lead crews at Rock Creek Park and Strathmore Music Center to contribute to forest restoration efforts, including invasive plant removal and litter cleanups.

Rocky Mountain Conservancy will partner with Rocky Mountain National Park to host a crew dedicated to land management issues – such as re-establishing native plants to the various landscapes found throughout the park and technical trail work on Longs Peak – and a high school leadership corps that will assist in repairs and clean up on the most popular hiking trails in the park.

Rocky Mountain Youth Corps Taos - NM (RMYC) will partner with Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, Petroglyph National Monument, and Pecos National Historical Park to host crews of deaf and hard of hearing youth to address critical infrastructure improvements, vegetation management, and historic preservation.

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area’s SAMO Youth Program will engage diverse college students with the work of the National Park Service and offer valuable skills and experience, encourage interest in conservation and stewardship, and inspire them to consider careers in public service.

SEEDS Ecology and Education Centers’ EcoCorps crews will partner with local chapters of the North Country Trail Association (NCTA) and federal, state, and local agencies to clear roads, enhance ecology, remove beaver dams that have impacted trails, and complete other critical projects.

The Student Conservation Association will work with key partners to conserve and restore lands and provide impactful opportunities for youth in Indiana Dunes National Park, San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, Assateague Island National Seashore, Fire Island National Seashore, Manassas National Battlefield Park, Navajo National Monument, Yosemite National Park, and Big Bend National Park. Whether a long-term intern to monitor the impacts of climate change on a park’s wildlife or a summer crew to rehabilitate beloved trails, each participant will make vital contributions to the parks.

Wabanaki Youth in Science will convene crews of Indigenous leaders and volunteers to conduct trail work, invasive mitigation, and natural resource work in Acadia National Park and Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, along with additional trails on trust land in eastern Maine.

Year One Inc. will engage two Mile High Youth Corps Land Conservation crews to address deferred vegetation, fencing maintenance, and other restoration priority projects at Amache National Historic Site.