The Compass Blog

Of All the Paths You Take in Life

Kathi Noaker

Do you seek out challenges? Like to work hard, be outside all day long, get dirty, recount your day around a campfire at night with your new best friends, fall asleep under a starry sky and get to wake up and do it all over again the next day?  You should consider joining a Conservation Corpscrew. 

Doing a stint as a Conservation Corps Crew member can be physically and mentally demanding, but the pay-offs are life-changing. 

You’ll be fully engaged in the task at hand along with your other crew members, whether that’s building and/or maintaining hiking trails, pulling invasive weeds, habitat improvement, fencing, doing various service projects in rural areas, historic restoration, post-fire restoration, even disaster response sometimes. 

You’ll gain experience in environmental conservation and habitat restoration as well as learning leadership and team building skills. You may be swinging a pick axe, but you’re really going to chip away at who you are and ways you might find yourself.

Featured Employers

Check out these Conservation Corps opportunities! Click on each to explore and learn more about what makes them unique.

“The feelings at the end of the day were indescribable.  Sometimes your entire body was sore and other times you were just physically exhausted.  But the reward was given to us when we would finish a trail and walk the entire way back to camp soaking up the fruits of our labor.  We remade these trails to maintain themselves.  It was hard work, and something I’ve never done before in life.  But I was making a difference, and that was the reward in itself.”

Jason, Montana Conservation Corps Crew 

”National Parks, National Forests, Wildlife Refuges, wilderness areas and other public lands throughout the United States are imperiled by a combination of dynamics that threaten habitat, endanger vital ecosystems, and compromise the non-negotiable right of the next generation to explore the natural world.” – American Conservation Experience

We strongly champion the protection of our public lands, and we hope you find a way to play a part in their celebration and stewardship.