The Southwest Conservation Corps is hiring high school students to learn conservation skills on public lands. The paid conservation crews will consist of students ages 14 to 18 and will be offered in Montezuma and Dolores counties, as well as La Plata, Archuleta, San Juan (New Mexico) and San Juan (Colorado).
The first session will run June 1 through June 27. The second session will be held July 6 through Aug. 1.
Lucy Perry, youth programs coordinator, said five different crews will run each session, and each session will include day crews, camping crews and backcountry crews.
“So, for the teenagers who aren’t super-stoked or not wanting to dive full-on into the camping world, we have a day crew option where it’s a normal 9 to 5,” Perry said.
In this crew, students will work with local nonprofits like Farm to School Project, and will do agriculture-based work such as planting, weeding and composting. They have also worked with the Montezuma Land Conservancy and others in the past.
This model allows students to keep other summer jobs.
“If they’re like, ‘Look, I have to go to work at 4 p.m.,’ they can do that,” Perry said.
The session also includes two different camping crews. In one crew, eight students will camp with two crew leaders for five days at a time while doing conservation work, and have a break on the weekend. Students will do more trail work in this crew, including trail construction and maintaining current trails. They also will do some fence work for private landowners whose land is under conservation easement, as well as other restoration type projects.
There is also a backcountry crew. The backcountry crew works and camps for nine days with a five- or six-day break in between.
“That’s our returners usually, or people with a lot of backcountry experience,” Perry said. “We want to set people up for success in that space. It’s cool; we can see kids who start at a day crew model and then by the time they’re in their second year, they’re stoked and ready to get out on that backcountry crew as well.”
They will also have an Indigenous youth crew that will do work in Chaco Canyon and other archaeological sites that require weeding and other upkeep.
“There is a huge variety of work,” Perry said. “It’s open to anyone that is willing to try. It’s definitely a development program. They don’t need to come from a ranching family and know how to be a hard worker in that way.”
The corps, which has been running this type of session for about 10 years now, serves about 80 youths per summer.
Food will be provided, and a uniform shirt, protective equipment and outdoor gear are available to borrow.
Pay is Colorado minimum wage, $14.81 per hour, for a 32- to 36-hour work week. Some of the projects students will participate in as part of the corps include trail maintenance, community cleanups and more. Outreach sessions and the application’s open will take place in February.
There is also a middle school program the Conservation Corps offers, and this unpaid program is what Perry described as a “service learning program.”
“They do a little bit of work, but it’s also a lot of outdoor education type stuff,” Perry said. “They don’t have to pay to get in, and it’s a good opportunity if they do want to be in a high school crew in the future, to get their name in that pot and then it’s just a natural transition. I think this will be our third year doing the middle school program, so it’s new, but we’re excited to keep growing that.”
Additional information can be found by visiting the corps website at www.sccyyouthprograms.org or by contacting Perry via email at lperry@conservationlegacy.org or phone (970) 946-0211.
