We have some very exciting news to announce: Bears Ears Partnership recently acquired and is now operating the Canyon Country Youth Corps (CCYC)! We can’t wait to continue the operation of this fantastic program, carrying out not only important landscape-scale conservation work but unparalleled on-the-job training and education for participating crew members.
Since 2000, CCYC has provided young adults the opportunity to complete service projects on public lands in the Four Corners region, in partnership with land management agencies. CCYC crew members work on the health and accessibility of these lands through projects such as building and maintaining trails, fuel mitigation, fence construction and maintenance, invasive species removal, and habitat restoration. Since its inception, CCYC has provided over 78,239 hours of outdoor education and job training, and 295,451 hours of service. Over 1207 Corps members and leaders have been employed in more than 174 work crews.
CCYC primarily hires young adults from the Four Corners region - primarily in San Juan County, UT, a diverse county with a large Indigenous population. On average, 50-75% of crew members and leaders come from Navajo Nation - this year, there are 100% Indigenous crew members and leaders.
Working on CCYC crews provides participants with improved work readiness, employment prospects and economic independence for youth. Many crew members have gone on to be crew leaders and full-time staff with CCYC, and then on to find positions with the land management agencies we work with, at both the federal and state levels. Throughout the field season, crews are offered webinars and in-person presentations on skills pertaining to career pipelines - particularly those with land management agencies. The goal of these educational programs is for crew members to not only understand the process for applying for Forest Service and other public lands management jobs, but an understanding of the terminology and improve their writing skills for crafting application materials for any position they aspire for.
The time spent in the field on a CCYC crew provides members with an immersive wilderness experience, offering an opportunity to connect with the landscape they are conserving. While many of the members in this region live within some of the most stunning public land in America, their ability to access and experience them can be hampered by many barriers, including distance, transportation, and financial limitations. Particularly for Indigenous crew members, by spending time in the field, members are able to develop a deeper, life-long connection with their ancestral landscape.
CCYC not only provides regional - and largely Indigenous - youth opportunities for professional development and connection to the landscape, but they are highly equipped to take on a wide range of landscape conservation projects. Crews have extensive experience and many successful outcomes to report, like their work on the Dolores, San Juan, and Escalante Rivers, increasing the number of acres of sustainable, healthy riparian communities, and decreasing those dominated by invasive, non-native plant species - to name a couple of examples. CCYC has also built strong, collaborative partnerships with a wide range of agency and nonprofit partners, including the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, The Nature Conservancy, and RiversEdge West.
We already have some exciting work lined up for CCYC crews: from actualizing our plans with Bears Ears Conservation Partnership for landscape scale watershed conservation in the San Juan River Corridor and beyond to conducting trail work with the Bureau of Land Management to support visitor readiness, CCYC crews will be a vital component of BEP’s work moving forward and allow us to continue carrying our organizational mission.
Stay tuned - we look forward to keeping you in the loop on all of the amazing work done by CCYC crews!