Funding through NFF’s Matching Awards Program and Ski Conservation Fund has made it possible for Forest Guild in New Mexico to increase the capacity of their Youth Conservation Corps. Youth from rural, forest-based communities gained summer employment, training and job experience in natural resource management through this program. Each of the past two summers, they implemented a comprehensive set of natural resource conservation projects on six different Forest Service Ranger Districts in New Mexico involving approximately 45 youth, from seven different counties..

In 2014, the Carson, Cibola, and Santa Fe National Forests benefitted from the successful leverage of funds from the NFF’s Matching Awards Program, which included in-kind and cash donations from the state funded New Mexico Youth Conservation Corps Grant Program and the McCune Charitable Trust, as well as an award from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation “Next Generation of Conservationists”. Results included 27 miles of trail maintained or improved, 11 miles of fence constructed or repaired, 155 acres of fuel reduction completed, and 205 acres treated for invasive plants.

In 2013, through the generous donations of guests at Ski Apache in partnership with the National Forest Foundation’s Ski Conservation Fund, Forest Guild’s Youth Corps accomplished 6.5 miles of road decommissioned, 167 campsites maintained, 280 acres of invasive species, 25 trees or shrubs planted, 15 acres of recreation damage restored, and 4 bear cans installed.

The Youth Conservation Corps program consists of many crews on six different districts, and in 2014 five of the eight crews worked in Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration (CFLR) program landscapes such as the Zuni Mountain and Southwest Jemez CFLR. On the Santa Fe National Forest, Jemez Ranger District, the crews assisted with management of archaeological sites in restoration areas and helped monitor and repair riparian fencing that protects the newly listed meadow jumping mouse.