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Fortifying Parks, Acquiring Skills

Five ways young people are focusing on climate resilience and their future

Interns examine a green branch
Traditional Trades Advancement Program (TTAP) interns study different types of trees at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine in Baltimore, Maryland. TTAP is part of the Landscape Stewardship Corps program.

NPS / S. Sparhawk

Five National Park Service youth and young adult programs supported by the Inflation Reduction Act are helping to fortify NPS sites from Maine to Guam and the Caribbean to Alaska in the face of a changing climate.
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    • Sites: Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate, Youth Programs Division, Gateway National Recreation Area, Gateway Arch National Park, Ste. Geneviève National Historical Park
    Two young campers hold their curricula worksheets in front of a body of water

    Over the past 10 years, the National Park Service and the YMCA have partnered to connect more than 100,000 young people from 21 Ys across the nation to 65 national parks and historic sites through summer day camp programs.

    • Sites: Historic Preservation Training Center, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate, Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Youth Programs Division, Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area,
    A young intern smiles with a hard hat and goggles on under a branch

    The Landscape Stewardship Corps, supported by the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Conservation Experience, is composed of 35 interns at 19 National Park sites.

    • Sites: Interpretation, Education, and Volunteers Directorate, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate, Youth Programs,
    A young woman holds two fingers up in front of a cactus, seemingly doing the same thing

    The primary duty of the Community Volunteers Ambassadors is to encourage local residents, particularly young people, to volunteer for climate-resilience-related projects in the park.

    • Sites: Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate, Youth Programs, Youth Programs Division, American Memorial Park
    A young intern carries supplies to pick up trash on the beach

    Via a partnership among the National Park Service, AmeriCorps, and the Kupu ʻĀina Corps, a conservation nonprofit in Hawaii, five young adult residents of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are working on wildfire recovery and climate change-related resilience projects in parks in those two U.S. territories.

    • Sites: Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate, Youth Programs, Youth Programs Division
    A young intern examines a mussel in their hand

    Scientists in Parks is one of five youth and young adult programs supported by the Inflation Reduction Act that help fortify NPS sites in the face of a changing climate.

Supporters of These Programs

These five youth and young adult programs are supported by many non-governmental organizations, including: American Conservation Experience, AmeriCorps, Conservation Legacy, Ecological Society of America, Environment for the Americas, Geological Society of America, Kupu ʻĀina Corps, National Park Foundation and Stewards Individual Placements.

Last updated: August 12, 2024