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“I first heard about the WTCW while serving as an AmeriCorps member in the Austin Civilian Conservation Corps in 2023. City of Austin project partners, including Sarah Campbell and Kirsten Schneider, had organized a tree climbing day for our professional development and mentioned WTCW as another avenue for growing in this field. The encouragement I received from folks at the urban forestry department and the gratifying feeling after I rung my first bell up in the canopy was incredible. There was no going back.

I continued my work in various Conservation Corps across the country with the goal of becoming an ISA certified arborist and landed back in Austin as a crew leader for the Texas Conservation Corps program’s Conservation and Disaster Response crew last year. Finally, this past winter, I applied to attend WTCW in Wimberley, Texas and was granted a full scholarship! The experience was life-changing in the best way possible and I am beyond grateful.

Our brilliant instructors, Bear, Roxy, Sydney, and Kate, created an atmosphere of empowerment, safety, and cohesion set in the heart of the Hill Country along the Blanco River. There I met a group of 15 extraordinarily impressive women who came from all over, with all different experience levels, and learned that we were capable of climbing a centuries old live oak tree together. Regardless of whether one wishes to pursue a career in arboriculture, I believe it is worthwhile to attend WTCW and to experience the strength and pure joy of solidarity amongst like-minded women. I will take their motto with me wherever I go: know what you know, know what you don’t know, and have the courage to say so!”
 

 

Conservation Corps Program

 

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“Sun comes up in a whiskey color. The morning has a chilly wind and I struggle with the burner on the camp stove. It’s 7:07 AM and the only thing I need in the entire world is a cup of black coffee. If I was home in Austin I would have just walked to any of the many coffee shops in my neighborhood, but on hitch we are deprived of those modern luxuries so I settle for instant coffee. Each sip tastes like acid as I watch my fellow crew members trickle out of their tents and pour their own cups. Together we prepare for the work day as the morning sun rises higher and heats distant hills with a pink glow. We’re at Enchanted Rock SNA, in the heart of the Texas hill country. In early 2025 Texas Parks and Wildlife purchased over 3,000 acres of the surrounding land, tripling the park in size. Our project for this hitch is to create a trail connecting the main trail system to part of the new property. This trail will act as a gateway to previously unobtainable lands, so there is much anticipation for us to finish and open the trail to the public.

We’re in the van by 8 AM and it’s off to the worksite. We drive through a gate and down a deeply rutted dirt road; I hold myself tight in my seat lest I crack my skull on the window. By 8:30 we’re digging, crafting new trail. Cutting tread is a very technical process. You have to cut into the ground and create a path that’s flat enough to walk on but sloped just enough to allow water to flow off and down the hill, otherwise you’re just making a convenient channel for water to erode the trail. And that’s to say nothing of the obstacles you’ll have to route around, such as boulders and stinging insect nests. And cactus. Seas of cactus. Prickly pear. Pencil cactus. Horse crippler. Everything I own is now penetrated by cactus needles.

We work all day in the shadow of the Enchanted Rock. The bald dome rises above the whole landscape like a crashed moon stuck in the earth, surrounded by boulder canyons and hoodoo pillars like fingers clutching the sky. E-Rock has been a fixture of legends for centuries. The Tonkawa spoke of the rock breathing and groaning at night, affixing it with some spiritual significance and there are many tales of human sacrifice and battles raged at the base of the dome. Looking at the landscape it’s easy to see why it became a place of spiritual significance. It stands out in the prairie like a monolith, imposing as it is beautiful. Today the park is flocked with visitors from all around, with potentially hundreds of people ascending the rock each day. The trail TAT is building could end up being one of the most trafficked trails in the region, being an important new piece of an iconic public land.

The work day lasts about 9 hours. That’s 9 hours of swinging tools in the late summer heat, all while sweat runs down your temple and the sun cooks you alive. After a few good hours my muscles are sore and dirt is clinging to my skin like a film, but I keep swinging on. We work in true wild areas, surrounded by live oak and rocky prairie. It’s here where I spend hours analyzing the tread, trying to create a true work of art with the dirt and rocks. The soil here is loose and tough to work with, so I have to put extra attention into what I’m doing. I work away the hours crouching as my back groans and sweat permeates my hard hat. At the end of the day we get to admire how much longer our trail has grown thanks to our labor. Before long we’ll finish and have a complete piece of work to call our own. Until then it’s work, work, work.

The day ends and we head back to camp. I stumble out of the van and into a folding chair to decompress. At camp we have a view of “Little Dome,” another dome formed from the same geology as the main rock. The sky is a deep blue and white puffy clouds are billowing in the sky. For a moment it’s quiet and I feel a cool breeze on my skin as I watch Caracaras fly above the mesquite trees. Soon I’m whipping up curry on the camp stove, cooking as fast as possible to satiate the burning hunger I’ve worked up. The sun goes down in a honey color as we eat and laugh about the day. As night falls the stars begin to light up one by one until the sky is dotted with thousands of pieces of cosmic jewelry. After dinner we sit for hours playing cards under the moonlight. In between losing games I look up to admire the sky, studying the white smidge of the milky way and catching occasional shooting stars that spark across the night.

One after another the crew lumbers off to sleep, leaving me alone to sit and write. The night is alive with an orchestra of crickets and the distant howl of coyotes. We’re 4 days into the hitch, with another 6 to go. Tomorrow will be another early morning, another bumpy van ride, another long day of work. Before I take off to my tent I look to the sky one more time, staring deep into the cosmos. For a moment I stand there, thinking how lucky I am for an experience like TXCC.”

 

Conservation Corps Program

 

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What is your name and position at AYW?
How long have you been working with AYW?
As a Staff Member, what have you learned or what has been your experience at AYW?
How has AYW changed since you started as a Staff Member?
What is a hobby or interest you’d like to share?

 

What is your name and position at AYW?

Megan, AYW Placement Coordinator

 

How long have you been working with AYW?

I became our Individual Placements Coordinator in 2023. Before that I served three terms with Conservations crews: my first with TXCC in Austin in 2019, the second with Southwest Conservation Corps in Durango, Colorado, and the third one with TXCC again with the very first San Antonio Crew. It’s been quite the adventure these past 6 years!

 

As a Staff Member, what have you learned or what has been your experience at AYW?

It’s hard to answer this in just a few sentences! If I have to boil it down, I would say that my time at AYW has taught me about the incredibly vast world of conservation and “land management” (a term I had not heard before working here), and about the deep value of teamwork, especially in challenging situations and projects. I’ve also learned a lot about myself and what matters to me in my own professional development as well as the professional development of our AmeriCorps members.

 

How has AYW changed since you started as a Staff Member?

AYW has gone through a number of changes over time to meet the changing needs of our partner organizations, the interests of our members, and the ever-changing nature of the world we live in. AYW’s resilience and the passion we have for our members, and the members’ own resilience and ability to inspire us, always keeps us motivated to continue growing and improving!

 

What is a hobby or interest you’d like to share?

I enjoy mountain biking and off-roading in my jeep! While there aren’t any mountains in central Texas, there are still hundreds of miles of dirt trails to explore across the state. While serving an AmeriCorps term with Southwest Conservation Corps in Colorado, I had the opportunity to rent a bike and ride it down a trail I had helped build, and to take my jeep to some really cool alpine locations in the San Juan mountains — all experiences I remember very fondly and hope to do again someday!

 

Donate Today!

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What is your name and position at AYW?
How long have you been working with AYW?
As a Staff Member, what have you learned or what has been your experience at AYW?
How has AYW changed since you started as a Staff Member?
What is a hobby or interest you’d like to share?

 

What is your name and position at AYW?

Gabriella Bible, Site Coordinator

 

How long have you been working with AYW?

2 years

 

As a Staff Member, what have you learned or what has been your experience at AYW?

When I began as a member I majored in art history, after my second term I switched my major to environmental science. I enjoyed working with the people I was meeting and learned so much about the environment and the ways I could help make a difference. I wanted to help give others the same opportunity and was proud to return as staff. Knowledgeable staff and members continue to inspire me to learn more and do better.

 

How has AYW changed since you started as a Staff Member?

AYW has changed a lot since I started as a member in 2018. The Houston office has grown in leadership, development, and staff making it feel like there is a clearer path forward.

 

What is a hobby or interest you’d like to share?

I like to crochet

 

Donate Today!

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Can you tell us about yourself and your role at American YouthWorks?
What is an Individual Placement (IP)?
Where and how do IPs serve?
What does it mean to host an IP member?
What impact do IPs have on the communities they serve in?

 

Can you tell us about yourself and your role at American YouthWorks?

First, here’s a little background on me. After graduating with a degree in environmental policy, I served three AmeriCorps terms: one in Austin, Texas, one in Durango, Colorado, and one in San Antonio, Texas.

During my term in Austin my crew and I did some work locally, but we also traveled a lot! We rebuilt a fence at Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, removed overgrown vegetation from colonial irrigation canals at San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, filled sandbags ahead of flooding in Flagstaff, Arizona, did trail maintenance in Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas, and cleared trees to restore pocket prairies in Kisatchie National Forest, Louisiana.

In my second term I served as a crew leader for Southwest Conservation Corps in Colorado. There my crew worked primarily on the Rough Canyon hike and dirt bike trail in San Juan National Forest. We repaired and installed drains, steps, tread and a stream crossing using local rocks and timber.

In my third term I served again as a crew leader, but this crew was special in that it was the first crew dedicated to working solely at San Antonio Missions National Historical Park! My crew’s main task was to manage the vegetation in and along the park’s 13 miles of active acequias (earthen irrigation canals built in the Spanish Colonial period) as not only are they historic structures, but they are also the oldest water right in Texas, and still bring water to a few private properties, and to fields managed by the San Antonio Food Bank.

After my third term came to a close, I went on to supervise three subsequent crews in San Antonio. I began my work supporting individual placements (IPs) in 2022, and transitioned fully into the role of IP Coordinator in the summer of 2023.

Since 2022 I have supported over 40 IPs in our program across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. What makes this work so fulfilling for me is that it allows me to be at the nexus of several things I really enjoy: doing conservation work in the field, mentoring and supporting young adults in their professional development, building out the IP program to better serve IPs and our project partners, getting to travel to many of the neat places where my IPs work, and establishing partnerships with great organizations like the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service who benefit from and enjoy supporting our IPs.
 

What is an Individual Placement (IP)?

An IP is an AmeriCorps member who AYW places at one host site for the entirety of their AmeriCorps term of service. Most of our IPs serve, unsurprisingly, independently without any other AmeriCorps members, though some work in pairs or small teams of three. Our terms range from 3 to 11 months, during which members are expected to serve 40-42 hours per week; they receive a uniform and bi-weekly stipend payment and are expected to fill out timesheets, arrive at site reliably, operate tools safely and follow other basic performance standards. An IP can be any U.S. citizen or permanent resident alien, ages 18 to 28 (up to 35 for recent veterans), with at least a high school diploma or GED, and interested in working in conservation or land management.

An IP serves at their host site and reports to their host site supervisor on a daily basis. A host site can be a national park visitor center, a national forest district office, essentially any physical hub of work for the land management agency or organization hosting the IP. The host site supervisor is the person within the land management agency that directly supervises the IP. IPs also reports to me, the Individual Placements Coordinator, on a monthly basis to talk with me about the work they’ve accomplished, any professional development opportunities they’ve gotten to do, or any challenges they’re facing.

IPs serve with various team members of the land management agency/organization every day; it’s typical for IPs to feel like they have become part of the team by the time their terms are over, as they’re so deeply embedded in the daily operations of the host site.
 

Where and how do IPs serve?

IPs can serve in any of the states AYW operates in: Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. The National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service have historically been our biggest partner organizations for hosting IPs, though we are able to partner with cities, counties, and nonprofits as well!

A difference between the typical conservation crew experience and the typical IP experience is that the scope and variety of service IPs can do is greater.

Most conservation crews at AYW do a mixture of trail building and maintenance, invasive vegetation management, and fuels work (managing vegetation to reduce fire risk or prepare for prescribed burns). While all IPs are expected to do some level of work outside during their terms, depending on their specific host site/position, they may work on a much greater variety of work that is tailored to the needs of that host site.

For instance, a Recreation/Visitor Center Technician IP working in the Sam Houston National Forest will help with weekly maintenance of camping and day use areas, water testing for harmful chemicals, fee collection, mowing and weed eating, hazard tree removal from roads, trails, and day use and camping areas, sign installation, road repair, outreach events in or near the forest, and interacting with visitors in person or over the phone at the front desk of the forest’s district office.

A Heritage IP working in Angelina-Sabine National Forests will help search for, prepare, and may even get to serve in archeological sites, will get to handle artifacts and may help catalogue them as they are found, and may assist with renaturalizing sites so they are not visible to visitors to the forest.

An Education IP working in Big Thicket National Preserve will work with the park’s interpretive team to develop curriculum for in-school presentations about the preserve’s ecology and present those programs to students across the local school district.

There are so many possibilities for IPs!
 

 

What does it mean to host an IP member?

For our host site supervisors, (HSS), hosting an individual placement is also a rewarding experience: they are welcoming a new team member and integrating them into their team or department’s daily operations. The HSS also gets to pull back the curtain on all the work that goes on behind the scenes to maintain our public lands, both the exciting and the tedious, the well-known roles like park ranger and the unsung heroes like forest biologists and archeologists. Host site supervisors are usually department and team leads who manage groups of people and are responsible for the completion of a number of high and low-priority projects at the host site, so the IP may often work with other members of the host site team. Host site supervisors and other team members train and familiarize the IP/s with all relevant tools and tasks, will oversee their daily work and accomplishments, and may periodically take them along on new or unique projects within and outside of their assigned department.
IPs who show exceptional dependability and initiative may be able to complete tasks and projects independently and with other AmeriCorps members and volunteers.

All this time at one location means that IPs have a unique opportunity to interface, build rapport, and network with a dedicated team of industry professionals. While AmeriCorps members on a crew may meet project partners at more locations, IPs get the chance to get to know the same group of individuals over a longer period of time. This has at times set IPs up to be hired onto their host site’s team directly after their terms end, sometimes before they end!
 

What impact do IPs have on the communities they serve in?

The work that individual placements do is impactful in multiple ways.

Their work is most beneficial to their host site and host site team. Most public lands are understaffed, and the IPs fill critical roles on the teams they’re assigned to. IPs have helped complete projects that had been incomplete for years, alleviating time, energy and manpower for more current needs.

When public lands are better cared for, the people who visit them have a better experience. Every national park and forest has a core group of local visitors who come throughout the year and feel deeply connected to these places; these folks can see and use improved amenities and resources in real time, and know that these places that they love are cared for. Non-local visitors have an enhanced experience whether visiting again or for the first time. IPs who interface with visitors provide additional opportunities for visitor learning and education about safety, resources, and amenities.

An IP’s impact can reach beyond their host park or forest’s borders. IPs have tabled at parades and community events, read to school children, dressed as Smokey the Bear in the host Texas and Louisiana summer, and delivered free in-school programming to students at school that lacked the funds for field trips. The archeological research and field work some IPs have completed has brought spiritual healing to Native peoples with ties to federal public lands and has contributed to strengthening relations between tribes and federal land management agencies. An IP focused on studying tree pathology (tree pests and diseases) provided information to concerned land owners near the forest about their own trees’ health.

IPs hired jointly by AYW and CorpsTHAT are part of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community — their presence and contributions throughout their terms help pave the way for a world where people of all abilities have greater access to land management and conservation careers.

 

Individual Placements

 

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“Toward the end of 2024, I found myself ready for a change — a new direction for both my life and career. That’s when I came across an opening with the Arkansas Conservation Corps (ARCC). On a whim, I applied. Within a week, I had packed up, moved to Northwest Arkansas, and began my journey as a crew member. What followed was a series of unforgettable experiences that challenged me, shaped me, and helped me grow in ways I never expected.

The most impactful moment of that first term was being deployed to North Carolina to support communities devastated by flooding. None of us were sure exactly what to expect, but together we adapted, worked hard, and built memories that will stay with us forever. Our crew became a family, learning to “embrace the suck” and support one another through every challenge.

Every project with ARCC — first as a crew member and later as a crew leader — taught me something new. Sometimes it was a practical skill, sometimes new knowledge, and often a deeper sense of personal growth. My time with AYW and ARCC has helped me develop in every area of life, both professionally and personally.

Simply put, my ARCC service has been life-changing. I would encourage anyone to consider AmeriCorps — because through service, you don’t just make an impact, you discover your own potential.”

 

Conservation Corps Program

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Update
8/26/2025

Our Texas Conservation Corps program is accepting donated items for flood relief efforts at our Donations Management Center in Leander, TX. We are asking large donors and organizations to please call (512) 522-8743 to schedule an appointment with our team.

The following items are needed:
• Toilet paper
• Paper towels
• Laundry detergent
• Dish Soap
• Electrolyte drinks
• Diapers
• Cat food
• Full size hygiene items
• Batteries

Donations can be dropped off at 14500 Round Mountain Rd, Leander, TX 78641. The distribution location is in the back of the parking lot.

Make a Monetary Contribution

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Severe weather and flooding occurred on June 19, 2018 that caused a disaster in Hidalgo, Cameron, and Willacy Counties. Nearly 11,000 homes were reported as affected by the flooding with nearly 1,000 homes receiving major damage or even destroyed.

Partnering with Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), American YouthWorks sent Disaster Response Teams from it’s conservation corps programs, Texas Conservation Corps and Louisiana Conservation Corps. These teams were sent to Mission, TX to assist in the immediate recovery efforts for these homeowners.

 

Conservation & Disaster Response Teams

 

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Severe weather and flooding occurred on June 19, 2018 that caused a disaster in Hidalgo, Cameron, and Willacy Counties. Nearly 11,000 homes were reported as affected by the flooding with nearly 1,000 homes receiving major damage or even destroyed.

Partnering with Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), American YouthWorks sent Disaster Response Teams from it’s conservation corps programs, Texas Conservation Corps and Louisiana Conservation Corps. These teams were sent to Mission, TX to assist in the immediate recovery efforts for these homeowners.

 

Conservation & Disaster Response Teams