November 13, 2020 | Sometimes when Southwest Conservation Crew 428 arrives at a sawyer job, crew members receive second looks from clients for carrying saws or wearing manual labor gear. At times, the client ends up looking for the man in charge.

“There’s definitely stereotypes and gender norms within this field,” said Cassie McCarty, a crew leader. “Even if they’re slight, they’re still there.”

Crew 428 is a team of all women and gender nonbinary individuals – the first of its kind for the SCC.

September 6, 2020 | Tech Gives Back, a fundraising effort, raised $300,000 for the Community Emergency Relief Fund’s efforts to combat food insecurity and support youth employment at local nonprofits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

August 31, 2020 | In late July, amidst alternating summer heat and afternoon monsoons, volunteers gathered to plant locally and regionally native plant species in southwestern Colorado. Housed at the Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership (GGP) site in downtown Pagosa Springs, members from various groups (Weminuche Audubon Society, Mountain High Garden Club, CSU Extension Master Gardeners, and GGP) came together to install a Habitat Hero demonstration garden despite the current pandemic.

April 30, 2020 | A record snowpack in Colorado from the 2018-2019 winter resulted in epic skiing, amazing rafting conditions, and a nightmare for many trail maintenance organizations. With over 700 percent of the average yearly snowpack still sticking around into June and beyond, the trail maintenance season would be drastically shortened. To add to the shorter season, that level of snowpack caused numerous avalanches. Avalanches leave a path of destruction behind them, and massive debris fields in front of them.

February 6, 2020 | FARMINGTON – After more than 20 years in the area, the Southwest Conservation Corps is gearing up to hire one of its largest summer youth crews yet.

The program plans to hire about 65 students, almost four times more than 2016 when it hired 16 students, said Teresa DiTore, youth programs manager with Southwest Conservation Corps.

December 12, 2019 | Justin Francisco found himself at loose ends after leaving the U.S. Marine Corps. After floating around for a bit, he got into a welding training program with the Wounded Warrior Project. His life was getting back on track, he was learning a useful skill, but welding wasn’t exactly his dream job. After the excitement of serving in the military, it seemed pretty tame.

Scrolling through the Veterans Administration newsletter one day, Francisco saw something that caught his eye: an ad for a veterans’ program under the nonprofit Southwest Conservation Corps.

October 14, 2017 | Mountain Studies Institute and Southwest Conservation Corps continue to wage war against the Russian olive, an invasive species that chokes out native trees and degrades the quality of the watershed. Last year, MSI was awarded a $195,000 grant from the Colorado Water Conservation Board and an additional $52,000 from Colorado Parks and Wildlife for a three-year Russian olive-removal project.