Yellowstone National Park is one of America’s premier wilderness areas and one of main ways tourists explore the park is walking it’s 15 miles of boardwalks. Boardwalks not only connect visitors with its wild places and natural wonders, they are also one of the park’s primary tools for protecting visitors from harm.
With over 4 million visitors per year, Yellowstone’s boardwalk get a lot of wear and tear and there are 40,000+ linear feet of boardwalk in critical need of repair and replacement. Damaged boardwalks create safety hazards, degrade visitors’ experience, and threaten the fragile natural features they protect.
To address damaged boardwalks near some of Yellowstone’s most iconic destinations the park’s incredible boardwalk crew has been joined by the Youth Conservation Corps for the month of June. Youth Conservation Corps employees age 15-18 have been hammering away on the boardwalks at Morning Glory Pool and Giant Geyser and their progress looks amazing.
“This project will fund the improvement and accessibility of trails, directly ensuring that future visitors will be inspired by, and safely experience, the park’s otherworldly thermal features.” –Yellowstone National Park
The Youth Conservation Corps is an incredible program for youngsters to do meaningful work at National Parks while earning a wage. Learn more about employment opportunities below.
About Youth Conservation Corps:
The United States Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) is a federal youth employment program that engages young people in meaningful work experiences at national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and fish hatcheries while developing an ethic of public land stewardship and civic responsibility. YCC programs are generally 8 to 10 weeks and members are paid at least the state or federal minimum wage (whichever is higher) for a 40-hour work week. YCC opportunities provide paid daytime work activities with members who commute to the Federal unit daily.
Please note, Yellowstone National Park is the only residential program. All other YCC programs are non-residential programs, which means that no housing is available at the site, and participants must independently provide their own transportation to the site each day. If you have questions about eligibility, please visit the park’s webpage to contact them directly before completing the application.
Who is eligible?
Youth, 15 through 18 years of age, who are permanent residents of the United States, are eligible. Please note, the Youth Conservation Corps is a local program, so participants need to be able to commute to and from the site daily. Transportation to the site will generally not be available.
What would I do?
Youth Conservation Corps members work in a healthful outdoor setting on a variety of projects including building trails, maintaining fences, cleaning up campgrounds, improving wildlife habitat, place-based STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), stream restoration, historic building preservation, and more! You’ll also participate in educational field trips where chances are you’ll see wildlife or history before your eyes, hike and stand on a mountaintop, or gaze at an ancient ruin.
What benefits would I get from participating?
Not only would you get paid to work in some of the coolest places in the country, but you will also have the chance to learn about careers with the National Park Service and gain valuable work skills that can help you get your next job! You will be working with other incredible people and hopefully you will build a lifetime bond. If you like to hike, backpack, climb, kayak, bike, horseback ride, etc national parks are perfect for that!
