Just like its crew members do during their trail work in the field, locally based Rocky Mountain Youth Corps is putting one foot ahead of the other as it gears up for its upcoming season providing outdoor service opportunities for area youth. And like its trail crews, this year it’s having to negotiate a few obstacles. 

Last fall, the U.S. Forest Service announced it would be suspending all seasonal hiring for the 2025 season, cutting about 2,400 jobs, the largest single-year staff cut in recent memory. Nearly all the cuts are field-based jobs, ranging from biologists and timber workers to trail technicians and recreation staff.

On the boot heels of this came the Trump administration’s recent cuts to the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the Forest Service, all of which are RMYC program partners.

“All of these cuts to the largest federal public lands agencies in RMYC’s region are definitely affecting RMYC’s programs,” said RMYC Chief Operating Officer Mark Wertheimer. He added that RMYC has a longstanding partnership with three national parks — Dinosaur National Monument, Rocky Mountain National Park and Grand Teton National Park.

“The BLM cuts are a little more under the radar to the general public but we have more projects with them than the National Park Service. They’ve been getting some ‘stop work’ orders that are affecting us,” added Wertheimer.

A bigger concern, he added, is the downsizing of the Forest Service.

“The biggest issue for RMYC’s programs is the Forest Service cuts to projects for 2025,” he said. “Right now, the USFS is in a bit of a holding pattern, with delays in agreements getting signed and budgets being confirmed.” 

RMYC is working to stay creative and rally local support to fill in funding gaps to maintain program offerings for hundreds of youth and young adults. RMYC has served more than 13,000 youth in its 30-plus years of service, including more than 5,000 through its Yampa Valley Science School program.

Its crews work on everything from community cleanups, wildfire mitigation and tree planting projects to trail building and maintenance, GIS programming, historic structure preservation, hydrology and archaeology projects, beetle kill removal, and more.

Over RMYC’s 229 “project weeks” last year, it served over 850 young people through its programs, improving 1,000 acres of public lands; maintaining or building 200-plus miles of trails; collecting approximately 205 bags of trash, and maintaining 87 campsites. For the third year, this season it will also field an all-women’s chainsaw crew for trail-building and wildfire mitigation projects. 

Locally, it serves Routt and Moffat counties through its Service Learning Crew and Yampa Valley Science School programs. In cooperation with local schools, its Science School serves up to 300 Routt County sixth-graders each September in an experiential science program operated at the Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts Camp in Strawberry Park, incorporating a four-day, one-night science curriculum aligned with Colorado sixth-grade academic standards.

This year it will grow that program to include Moffat County sixth-graders thanks to funding from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Outdoor Equity Grant Program.

“We’re expanding both our Service Learning Crew and Science School programs to the Craig region,” said RMYC Youth Program Director Sara Duft, adding that RMYC is launching a third Service Learning Crew with pickups every day in Craig to engage Moffat County youth. “The focus is to get participants working and recreating all over Routt and Moffat counties.”

Confirmed partners for this year’s Service Learning Crews include Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Senior Social Center of Craig, the cities of Steamboat Springs and Craig, Strawberry Park Elementary School’s Peace Garden, the Botanic Gardens, Steamboat Resort, Stagecoach State Park, Carpenter Ranch and Oak Creek Mountain Park.

“It enhances youths’ sense of belonging and community connection through meaningful outdoor-based service projects,” said RMYC’s Lauren VandenHurk, adding that the $200 registration fee is often covered by scholarships. She added that an optional two-night overnight includes all camping gear and food. 

RMYC’s Natural Resources Internship is also booming, helping to fill the void as federal agencies cut seasonal and probationary staff. Last year it filled 142 total intern positions, including 10 with the Hahns Peak Bears Ears Ranger District, three wildland fire interns with the BLM’s Little Snake Field Office, and even an archaeology intern. Many interns moved into employment positions with their agencies. 

“Last summer we had everything from fuels to dispatch interns from RMYC,” said Brandon Voegtle, assistant fire management officer with the BLM’s Northwest District Fire and Aviation. “The fuels interns helped us with hazardous fuels mitigation projects and fire suppression, an archeology intern increased our capacity to survey fuels projects as part of the National Historic Preservation Act, and the dispatch interns allowed us to staff the interagency fire dispatch center.”

RMYC also employs interns for the BLM’s four northwest field offices — Kremmling, Little Snake (Craig), Colorado River Valley (Silt), and White River (Meeker) — with the latter involving collecting field data on vegetative and soil conditions. “The data this program collects is super important for management decisions and policy changes,” said Rachel Barnett, project lead for the White River Field Office.

“Programs like mine couldn’t be accomplished without such partnerships. The internships also create pathways to professional work in conservation while strengthening teamwork skills, work ethic, mental fortitude, conflict management skills, physical fitness, and an appreciation of the outdoors,” Barnett added.

RMYC is also entering the second year of its field-testing program with local outdoor gear-maker Big Agnes, in which its crews provide feedback from the field to the Big Agnes research and development team. “Our adult crews spend most of their summer outside 24/7, sleeping in their tents every night for up to 16 weeks and using their backpacks every day to transport their gear,” said Wertheimer.

“They’re exceptionally hard on their equipment, with it exposed to an array of weather conditions. One week a crew might be removing barbed-wire fencing in 95-degree heat and the next they’re hiking and camping in hail. And our fall programs sometimes work in damp, snowy conditions,” he added.

Results of last year’s partnership were welcomed by Big Agnes, which is excited to gain feedback on its products again. “For all the years we’ve worked with RMYC, this might be the most exciting project of them all,” said Rob Peterson, Big Agnes marketing specialist. “We’ve partnered with them for a while to get their crews gear, and now we get the bonus of receiving valuable feedback on how that gear works from those who use it all season long.”

So while there might be some bumps in the trail amidst the cutbacks some of its project partners are facing, RMYC is still busy building upon its 32-year heritage providing service opportunities for area youth and young adults. 

This year’s efforts will likely also include additional fundraising outreaches to offset setbacks from its public lands partners. To donate, visit rockymountainyouthcorps.org/donate-cogives.

“We’re looking forward to another action-packed summer providing life-changing service opportunities to young people, while strengthening our partnerships with our public land managers to help them complete their conservation goals — especially during this time of uncertainty,” said RMYC CEO Ryan Banks, who took over for retiring founder Gretchen Van De Carr in February 2024. “It should be an interesting year.”