This op-ed was originally published by National Parks Traveler on June 25, 2025.
By David Vela and Leslie Weldon
June is Great Outdoors Month — a time to celebrate America’s public lands and the many ways to get outside and explore them. Unfortunately, as we enter the busy summer season, our public lands face an overlooked challenge: the loss of AmeriCorps members.
Federal, state, and local public land management agencies partner with AmeriCorps programs to engage young adults in critical projects that help keep parks and forests accessible to the public. Cuts to AmeriCorps will not only hurt your outdoor experiences in parks, forests, and refuges, but will hurt the thousands of young Americans who would’ve gained invaluable work experience serving on our public lands.
Since mid-April, some $400 million in AmeriCorps grants have been cut, impacting more than 32,000 AmeriCorps positions in a wide diversity of service activities across all 50 states. This loss of funding has affected dozens of non-profit conservation corps programs that depend on AmeriCorps for anywhere between 15 percent and 50 percent of their budgets. These cuts don’t just impact public lands: national service programs can be a lifeline for rural towns and big cities. As they accomplish critical projects, AmeriCorps programs also generate income for families and contribute to the economic viability of surrounding communities.
As former leaders of the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service, and Youth Conservation Corps alumni, we have witnessed firsthand how beneficial AmeriCorps programs are for our public lands and for AmeriCorps participants. In 2024, thousands of AmeriCorps members enrolled in conservation corps programs helped construct or improve over 19,000 miles of trails, plant nearly 885,000 trees, restore over 411,000 acres of fish and wildlife habitat, and preserve more than 4,100 historic structures.
Return-on-investment studies show that every dollar invested in AmeriCorps programs returns over $17 to society, program members, and the government. Environmental stewardship AmeriCorps programs can yield more than $35 in outcomes.
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. Conservation corps programs yield benefits to young adults that are impossible to express in dollars, but are nonetheless invaluable.
Maintaining public lands is also good for the economy. The Bureau of Economic Analysis calculated the economic output of outdoor recreation to be $1.2 trillion annually. In 2024, the National Park Service alone recorded nearly 332 million visits. Heavy visitation is good for outdoor gear companies and businesses in the gateway communities surrounding public lands but can take a toll on our infrastructure. The Department of the Interior has an estimated backlog of more than $33 billion in projects. Deferred maintenance means closed trails, overgrown fire fuels, and deteriorating buildings. This is where AmeriCorps programs can help.
For decades, national, state, and local public land agencies have brought in crews of trained AmeriCorps crews to help ensure trails remain safe, campsites and other facilities are accessible to visitors, and hazardous fuels are removed to reduce risk of wildfire in communities.
Investing to improve outdoor experiences has bipartisan support. President Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) into law in 2020 enabling historic and long-term funding to improve maintenance on federal lands. This act has funded AmeriCorps projects like masonry restoration at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, and improvements to the Appalachian National Trail in the Green Mountain National Forest of Vermont. These are cost-effective partnerships; non-profit conservation corps are required to bring twenty-five percent matching resources to the project.
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 transferrable to the public and private sectors. Through teamwork in the field, they develop essential skills in communications, problem-solving, and conflict resolution. Go to any national park or forest service property, and you will find national service alums working there.
America’s 250th anniversary next year will bring an influx of visitors to public lands to celebrate this momentous occasion. The National Park Service and Forest Service are depending on the energy of our youth, young adults, and returning veterans to prepare for America’s Quarter Millenium.
As young teenagers, we both had our first paid work experience as a United States Youth Conservation Corps members on our federal lands. This federally funded program paved the way for our public service careers in conservation and resource management. These programs are life changing. Let’s keep strong the invaluable benefits of AmeriCorps. Public land agencies simply cannot accomplish their work without this support. We respectfully ask our national leaders to restore and protect AmeriCorps and invest in a thriving future workforce.
David Vela is the former Deputy/Acting Director of the National Park Service. Leslie Weldon is the former Deputy Chief of the U.S. Forest Service. They serve as board members for The Corps Network, the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps.