This op-ed was originally published in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle on July 11, 2025.
By Jono McKinney, David Vela, & Leslie Weldon
It’s summertime and Americans are flocking to our public lands. Visitation to Yellowstone is setting records, and national forest trails are as busy as ever.
Unfortunately, as we enter the busy summer season, our public lands face a new risk: The loss of AmeriCorps members.
Federal, state and local public-lands agencies partner with AmeriCorps programs such as Montana Conservation Corps (MCC) to engage young people in critical projects that help keep parks and forests accessible, improve wildlife and water resources, reduce fire risks, and boost our agriculture-based rural economies. Recent cuts to AmeriCorps will not only hurt your outdoor experiences, but will hurt the thousands of young Americans who would’ve gained invaluable work experience serving on public lands.
While MCC’s AmeriCorps funds continue for 2025, since mid-April some $400 million in AmeriCorps grants have been cut nationwide, impacting more than 32,000 AmeriCorps positions in a wide diversity of service activities across all 50 states. Today, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is holding back grant funds authorized by Congress and is proposing to end AmeriCorps.
These cuts don’t just impact public lands. As they accomplish critical projects, AmeriCorps programs such as MCC, Big Sky Watershed Corps, Justice for Montanans, Ag Corps, Billings Metro VISTA, MSU’s Community Health Corps, and Jesuit Volunteer Corps also generate income for families and contribute to the economic viability of Montana communities.
As former leaders of the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service, and as the CEO of Montana’s premier environmental stewardship AmeriCorps program, we have witnessed firsthand how beneficial AmeriCorps programs are for our public lands.
In 2024, MCC’s 500+ AmeriCorps members and youth volunteers helped improve more than 1,200 miles of trails, remove 11,000 trees blocking trails, plant nearly 50,000 trees, complete 4,300 acres of wildland hazardous fuels treatment, treat 5,000 acres for weeds, and install more than 2,400 Beaver Dam Analog structures to improve drought resiliency on ranch lands.
Return-on-investment studies show that every dollar invested in AmeriCorps programs returns over $17 to society. AmeriCorps conservation programs like MCC can yield more than $144 in total benefits for every federal dollar invested.
Those are tax dollars well spent, but the benefits go beyond the financial.
Each AmeriCorps member can tell a personal story about how national service improved their lives and futures. Common themes include finding purpose, learning marketable skills, and developing a commitment to caring for our country’s lands and waters.
Investing to improve outdoor experiences has bipartisan support. President Trump signed the 2020 Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) enabling historic and long-term funding to improve maintenance on federal lands.
Montana Conservation Corps AmeriCorps members have been the boots on the ground to get numerous GAOA-funded projects like repairs to the Bridger Foothills Trail and construction of puncheons across muddy trails in the Bob Marshall Wilderness done in a timely and cost-efficient manner. With Sens. Daines and Sheehy sponsoring a reauthorization of GAOA with the America the Beautiful Act, AmeriCorps is critically needed to get the work done.
Not only are AmeriCorps members essential to preserving our country’s public land legacy, they are also future stewards who acquire workforce development training, certifications and other skills that are transferable to private sector jobs. Through teamwork in the field, they develop essential skills in communications, problem-solving, and conflict resolution that make them valuable employees.
AmeriCorps is America at its best — people stepping up to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address challenge for every American to be dedicated to the unfinished work to make a more perfect union. AmeriCorps is Americans rolling up their sleeves together to get things done.
It’s efficient, effective, life changing, and good for local economies.
Let’s keep strong the invaluable benefits of AmeriCorps national service. Public land agencies simply cannot accomplish their work without the public hands of thousands of AmeriCorps members serving to improve our public lands and communities.
We respectfully ask our national leaders to restore and protect AmeriCorps and invest in a thriving future workforce.