SANTA FE —The Forest Stewards Guild’s Forest Stewards Youth Corps wrapped up a successful summer season in which 24 young adults from across New Mexico took a hands-on role in conservation projects with the US Forest Service, National Park Service, Pueblo of Jemez, and other land managers.
The nine-week program put these young crews to work in a wide range of disciplines including ecological monitoring, forest thinning, watershed restoration, rangeland improvements, and wildlife surveys. Over the summer, program participants gained a deeper appreciation for the effort required to steward our forests and watersheds, developed interpersonal skills as they navigated the challenges of working within a crew and, for a few particularly motivated crew members, jumpstarted a budding career in conservation and natural resource management.
«I got good exercise, learning experiences related to future jobs and the environment, and great friends at work,» wrote one crew member.
In addition to paid on-the-job training, crew members also received transferable college credit, access to preferential hiring status for federal jobs, and a growing professional network of local community members engaged in environmental stewardship.
While the summer season has now wrapped up, the Forest Stewards Guild is diving into its fall Fire and Fuels program which is oriented towards wildland firefighting and prescribed burns. The program will kick off on Aug. 26 with two weeks of paid training at Cottonwood Gulch Expedition’s Basecamp in Thoreau, where crew members will learn the ins and outs of wildland firefighting, proper use of hand tools, how to read weather patterns to predict fire behavior, wildland chainsaw operation and maintenance, and staying safe on the job with proper precautions and protective gear.
Once equipped with this knowledge and the relevant certifications, they will return to their home units in Espanola, Mountainair, and Pueblo of Jemez to work alongside more seasoned wildland firefighting crews. The fall program, which runs until Nov. 15, is an excellent opportunity to assume more professional responsibility and creates a seamless transition to shoehorn participants into a career in wildland firefighting, a field with ever-growing demand.
For over 25 years, the Guild has provided youth training and an introduction to natural resource management through our successful FSYC program. During a typical year, Forest Stewards Guild crews complete over 15,000 hours of natural resource management projects and over 2,000 hours of educational sessions on five USFS Districts and at Jemez Pueblo.
More than 900 young New Mexicans have been through the program, many of whom have continued on to higher education and careers with the Forest Service. This program is made possible through support from the New Mexico Youth Conservation Corps Commission, the National Forest Foundation, the Pueblo of Jemez, Region 3 of the USDA Forest Service, the Cibola National Forest, the Santa Fe National Forest, Taos Ski Valley Foundation, and private donors.
The Forest Stewards Guild is a national organization of foresters, natural resource professionals, and supporters that practice and promote ecologically, economically, and socially responsible forestry as a means of sustaining the integrity of forest ecosystems and the people dependent upon them. For more information, visit https://foreststewardsguild.org/.
