Conserving the Future: Wildlife Refuges and the Next Generation

As an alumni of a residential Youth Conservation Corps (1975) and Counselor/Crew Leader (1978 and 1979) I certainly believe this program was instrumental in helping me choose my career in conservation.

I like the reference in the Vision Document, “To give young diverse Americans the opportunity to choose careers in conservation, we must expand youth employment programs, such as Youth Conservation Corps (YCC),”

We will need to commit to the recruiting young people, unlike the years I was in it when there was a plethora of young folks wanting these jobs.

The YCC is a great program indeed. Are there really less youth wanting these jobs, or is YCC less active than in the 70′s? I am wondering because I do know that the Student Conservation Association is currently flooded with both high school and college graduate applicants, wanting to take these low-pay internships because they can’t find or acquire paid environmental jobs.

Re: YCC recruitment process. I used to encourage the at risk youth that I work with as a charter school counselor to apply for the YCC summer jobs at our local Refuge. I used this process as a learning tool to teach the students to write letters of introduction, ask for letters of recommendation and gather the information needed for the application form.

When my students and I learned that the initial screening process for the available YCC positions was simply a drawing of names from the stack of submitted applications and not based on interest, prior volunteer experience, etc. both my students and I were very discouraged by the lottery process.

I have been very reluctant to encourage my students to apply since the selection process has nothing to do with the quality of their application packet and all to do with simply the luck of the draw, literally.

This is a very negative experience for at risk youth who often feel that their lives are controlled by “the luck of the draw” effect over which they have little or no control.

So, while the actual YCC experience is good, the selection process is very negative and a disincentive for the kind of youth I work with to wish to take part in. This is not a positive introduction to finding one’s first job at a Refuge.

Betsy, as the regional YCC coordinator in the Midwest, I was heart-broken to hear about your experiences with the YCC recruitment/selection process. Unfortunately, this is a situation where the YCC Handbook (http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/ycc/reference-manual.pdf), developed in May 1999 and which provides guidance on the YCC program for all federal agencies, might fall short. The Handbook currently states that “the selection process will be conducted in a public forum by a random method. No criteria may be utilized for enrollee selection other than age and fitness for work.” It certainly doesn’t give us mcuh wiggle room!

I understand that there is movement to revise this Handbook in the near future. If so, we may be able to use your experiences to help shape future procedures. Thank you again for sharing with us!

YCC was key in my career and the best government program I know of. Realize I was dragged into the program working with two bureaucracies (state and federal). It changed everything with the nature preserve involved. It become a local assess to the surrounding small farm communities while being a state and national important preserve. It provided meaningful employment for youth BOTH male and female. It leveled the playing field between the sexes. It completed projects that never would have gotten done and BETTER yet it provided confidence and pride in our future leaders. It also gave them a hands on understanding of their role in their natural environment.

Our youth are our future. We need to put their hands, hearts, minds, and sweat to work protecting our natural environments where ever they are found even in the heart of our urban areas.

YCC needs to be top priority because of the above reasons and for fiscal reasons. It is one of the few programs that the return on the dollars spent were near equal.

What I learned from being a YCC Leader and grant writer I continue to follow as a Boy Scout Scoutmaster. I also applied lessons learned as a soccer coach for my daughter’s teams.

The message I want to share is, our youth is our future and should be central to everything we do.