NEWS RELEASES
North Carolina Youth Learn Forest Skills Via Summer Internship
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through Citizen Times' website.
NC Youth Conservation Corps program run by the Conservation Trust for North Carolina (CTNC), gathers a crew to spend the summer fixing, restoring and maintaining some of the most heavily used trails in the Pisgah National Forest. Thirty six young people in total have already took to the outdoors with the NCYCC this summer. Lyra Aquino has picked up many skills in her three summers of back-breaking labor with the North Carolina Youth Conservation Corps. The goal is to give youth a summer job while learning work and life skills, environmental stewardship, leadership, community service and personal responsibility.
According to Karen Chavez of the Asheville Citizen Times, "CTNC started this program in 2013 with two summer crews and has since expanded to include weekend crews in the fall as well as summer, said the land trust’s spokeswoman, Mary Alice Holley." The Pisgah Crew this summer is made up of 16-18-year-olds from diverse backgrounds across North Carolina. There is also a young adult chainsaw crew through North Carolina State Parks, who are 18-24 years old. Nearly 200 young people have taken part since the program’s start. Crews work a 40-hour week, camping for the duration, which means sleeping outdoors and cooking meals over a propane stove or fire. The pay is $10.15 an hour, which is Vermont’s minimum wage. North Carolina’s minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.
To read more on the youth outreach program in North Carolina, click for the full article.
Environmental Issues, Nature, News, North Carolina, Outdoors