Years of budget-cutting have taken their toll on the
trails and roads of the national parks, and the Park Service is
using a windfall from increased user fees to clean up its act. Two
million dollars in park user fees have jump-started the Public Land
Corps, a program administered by the nonprofit Student Conservation
Association. Through the program, about 100 volunteers live and
work in national parks, says SCA staffer Wally Elton. He says the
program covers most living and travel expenses for the volunteers,
who earn their keep doing restoration and maintenance work on
backcountry trails, primitive roads and historic buildings. The
volunteers, mostly college students or recent graduates, commit to
a full-time, three-month stint in one of about 100 national parks.
High school students are eligible for shorter-term summer trail
crews. The National Park Service Fee Demonstration Program, a
three-year pilot project (HCN, 6/22/98), spends about 20 percent of
its revenues for agency-wide programs like the Public Land
Corps.
For more information, write to SCA, 689
River Road, Charlestown, NH 03603, call 603/543-1700 or visit the
group’s Web site at www.sca-inc.org.
* Michelle
Nijhuis
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Fees feed volunteers.
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