The goal of this project is to provide youth with training, place-based learning, trade education, and mentoring focused on trails maintenance and vegetation management

The National Park Service (NPS), through the Youth and Veteran Organizations Conservation Activities program (CFDA 15.931), awarded a $100,688 Cooperative Agreement to American Conservation Experience (ACE), a non-profit organization, to provide youth with training, place-based learning, trade education, and mentoring focused on trails maintenance and vegetation management on public lands.

The project will engage conservation corps participants in hands-on work including vegetation management, trail and fence repairs, and using various tools and equipment. The participants will be mentored by NPS maintenance crews to gain technical skills in trail repair, fence work, vegetation management, teamwork, communication, and essential life skills. This will provide an opportunity for youth to learn about and participate in the stewardship of natural resources. The general public will benefit from improved trail accessibility and protected native vegetation, while the conservation corps participants will develop professional skills applicable to land management careers.

The participants will be mentored and provided with job training and education in the areas of conservation, maintenance, and care of natural resources. The recipient crews will be mentored by the national park service maintenance crew to gain technical skills in trail repair, fence repair, vegetation management, road brushing, teamwork, communication, and essential life skills. This will provide an opportunity for youth to learn about the environment through the completion of these conservation projects. The recipient crew will be mentored and trained by the NPS trail crew and maintenance supervisor while participating in project activities. Work will include vegetation management, repairs to trails roads and fences through the use of manual and gas powered wheel barrows to move materials shovels, mcclouds, rakes, pick-mattocks, and hand tampers to grade and compact trail tread hand saws, and loppers to clear trail corridor chisels, hammers, and rock bars to set liner rocks and fence wire pullers to repair fence. Training on all these tools and methods will be provided on site and throughout the duration of the agreement. For all tools, we will cover our associated standard operating procedure document, and our job hazard analysis document. The crew will be trained on powered wheelbarrows on flat ground, and everyone will have a chance to practice in a controlled setting. We will discuss stone shaping techniques, appropriate stone selection, and stone-setting-contact physics. We will teach the crew how to prune branches in a manner that is healthy for the plants, and aesthetically pleasing for the park visitors. We will identify native VS non-native plants and remove problem plants.beneficiaries:general public, conservation corps participants, NPS. The general public will benefit from improved trail accessibility, like level walking surfaces that are free of encroaching vegetation. Also the general public will benefit from a repaired boundary fence that keeps cows from walking on and destroying native vegetation, allowing the public to experience untrammeled native vegetation. The conservation corps participants will benefit from the opportunity to learn the skills required to manage public land, work as a team, identify native and invasive plants, and use tools associated arboriculture, masonry, and carpentry. The NPS receives the indirect benefit of having trails maintained, fences repaired, and vegetation managed.