SCA Editor

In celebration of SCA Founder’s Day on June 24, look back at the history and legacy of our trailblazing founder Liz Putnam.

SCA’s Historic Preservation Corps Wins Prestigious Tsongas Award The SCA’s Massachusetts Historic Preservation Corps received the Paul & Niki Tsongas Award from Preservation Massachusetts, a historic preservation education and advocacy organization dedicated to preserving the state’s historic and cultural heritage. The Tsongas Award is Preservation Massachusetts’ highest honor. It celebrates people and projects that have …

A Lifetime Journey With Glacier National Park And The SCA Larry and Becky Williams’ love affair with each other and Glacier National Park spans 60 years. Over the years, it brought them together and connected them with many SCA interns and volunteers, some of whom they remain friends with to this day. After graduating from …

Growing Together Cities thrive when trees are part of their story. Trees transform urban spaces into vibrant, healthier, safer, and more resilient communities. They cool our neighborhoods, clean the air, nurture biodiversity, and create spaces where people and wildlife can flourish together. In partnership with the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), the SCA’s Urban Green …

One, Beautiful Planet At the SCA, we never miss an opportunity to celebrate our one, beautiful planet. For Earth Month this year, we were fortunate to partner with supporters from coast to coast who joined us in hands-on conservation projects to help greenify our communities. Here’s a roundup of some of the work we accomplished …

Forty-Mile Mission On one hot and humid day last summer, SCA member Dora Figueroa and her egg-running partner Jax were on the beach at 9 a.m., loading gear into their patrol vehicle. Their mission? To cover 40 miles of beach searching for nests of the critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, the smallest and most …

Bats Are The Best Bats get a bad rap, but these adorable flying mammals have an outsized positive impact on our environment. From controlling pest populations to pollinating plants and dispersing seeds (i.e., pooping), bats are a crucial keystone species. Disease, habitat loss and a warming climate threaten many bat populations in North America and …

Spring Into Action: Highlights From An Impactful Year In Conservation Every April, Earth Month serves as a vital reminder of our collective responsibility to protect and preserve the planet. It also inspires action and reflection, highlighting the critical role our dedicated program participants have in fostering environmental stewardship while engaging the communities we serve. From …

It’s Earth Month! This Earth Month, we invite you to “Do One Thing” for the planet. Together, we can make a difference. As a nationally recognized leader in providing hands-on environmental conservation programs for youth and young adults, we want to inspire those in the communities we serve to take (at least one) action in …

Called To Serve In March, the SCA’s Table Rock Fire Crew was called to active fire duty with the U.S. Forest Service in South Carolina to help battle some of the nearly 175 wildfires that had spread across the region. Based in Clemson, the Table Rock fire crew began their season in January after completing …

We asked our Student Conservation Association community to vote for their top photo from three finalists for the cover of the 2026 SCA Calendar. The results are in, and the winning photo is of Yosemite National Park! Read on to learn more about the vital conservation work our program participants are doing at the national …

The New Faces Of Urban Forestry For nearly 50 years, members of the San Francisco Bay Area Urban Green Program have preserved and protected local habitat, particularly in vulnerable communities most susceptible to pollution and extreme weather. To continue the program’s legacy, the SCA launched its 2024 Bay Area Urban Forestry Crew, which spent its …

Futures in Environmental Science We’re celebrating the intersection of Black History Month and the 10th International Day of Women and Girls in Science (Feb. 11) by highlighting the work of SCA crews that connect young Black women with the outdoors while building conservation career-readiness skills.   The Atlanta Black Women’s Crew, Atlanta High School program …

Rooting Out Invasives Every year, the SCA dispatches thousands of young conservationists to more than 350 sites across the country. From the remote wilderness of Alaska to the southern tip of Florida, they are at work for the planet in national parks and forests, nature preserves and urban green spaces. No matter where their service …

At A Crossroad In 2017, SCA Alum Eric Lucas’s life was at a standstill. Then a recent high school graduate with limited resources, Lucas attended career fairs to find his path, but nothing resonated. “I didn’t want to be a firefighter or a police officer or a jail correctional officer,” Lucas said. Then, one day, …

A Look Back, A Step Forward As we step into 2025 with guts and gusto, we’re revisiting our ten most impactful SCA stories of 2024. From our Women’s Fire Crew preventing wildland fires in Alaska to planting trees with gold medal gymnast Aly Raisman in Chicago, our SCA crew members had the opportunity to participate …

From The SCA To Tackling New Heights: A Triple Crown Adventure Twenty-two states and 7,875 miles. That’s the total distance SCA Alum Kelly Graner had covered to finish the Triple Crown of Hiking this summer. Triple Crowners are an elite group of thru-hikers who have completed the three major U.S. long-distance hiking trails: Appalachian Trail, …

See All The Top Ranked Photos To offer a window into their world, we asked our 2024 SCA crew members to submit their best photos from the field and invited our community to vote for their favorite.  These images highlight the vital conservation work performed by SCA program participants on the ground from coast to …

Celebrating Native American Heritage at Four Corners Monument In honor of Native American Heritage Month this November, we’re highlighting the important work performed by the SCA’s Four Corners Youth Crew this past summer. Serving Their Ancestral Lands In 2009, the SCA launched its first Four Corners Native American Youth Crew in Arizona. This unique area …

A Career People Person When Kyle Yarusso responded to a college bulletin board posting for internships with the SCA, he didn’t expect his environmental and ecology studies to lead him on a path to event and volunteer management. “I thought I would end up at a state Department of Natural Resources or something more science-based, …

‘I Love Being Outside’ CJ Goulding spent his first SCA summer with the National Park Service as an energy intern at Yellowstone National Park in 2011. During the internship, he worked alongside graduate students performing energy audits on the park’s buildings. While spending several summers mentoring youth with the National Park Service Academy Program, Goulding …

Did You Know October Is National Clean Energy Action Month? The SCA is always looking for ways to protect the planet and the communities we serve. Out in the field, our SCA crew members learn that, when taken together, individual actions can have a huge impact. Wondering how you can make a difference? Here Are …

Bats Are The Best Bats get a bad rap, but these adorable flying mammals have an outsized positive impact on our environment. From controlling pest populations to pollinating plants and dispersing seeds (i.e., pooping), bats are a crucial keystone species. In North America (and beyond), many bat populations are threatened by disease, habitat loss and …

Desert Warriors: The SCA’s Decade of Dedication For the last decade, members of the SCA’s Desert Restoration Corps have monitored, preserved and repaired fragile habitat at the Mojave National Preserve in Southern California. The Desert Restoration Corps is one of the SCA’s most challenging programs. Small crews live and work in extremely remote locations, quickly …

Appalachian Trail Adventures The SCA’s National Conservation Crews for high schoolers offers program participants a chance to visit places they’ve never seen before and enjoy nature at its best. While working on the crew, participants live on-site in tents, cook their own meals and get to explore local outdoor recreation opportunities on non-workdays. This summer, …

‘Being Here Made It Feel Like I Was Home’ The SCA has been connecting urban youth to nature for decades. And with generous support from Comic Relief US, the SCA launched its first Black Women’s Conservation Crew for young adults in Atlanta last summer. This crew of 12 is a safe space for women of …

Getting Established When Victoria Villarreal began her SCA internship at the Blackwell School in Marfa, Texas, she did not imagine having the opportunity to give a personal tour of the schoolhouse to Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and National Park Service Director Chuck Sams. “That was something,” Villarreal said with a grin. “Having that …

At the Student Conservation Association, we are continuously inspired by our program participants’ efforts to make a difference in the world around us. This Earth Month, we are highlighting our dedicated crew members, past and present. From the Gulf Coast to the Mojave Desert, SCA participants lead the way in improving green spaces and preserving …

In honor of Earth Day, the SCA encourages you to “Do One Thing” for the planet. As a nationally recognized leader in providing hands-on environmental conservation programs for youth and young adults, we want to inspire those in the communities we serve to do one small thing to make a difference in the world around …

In honor of World Water Day (March 22, 2024), the Student Conservation Association is highlighting the work done by our program participants doing their part to protect this crucial resource. This important work includes managing natural resources, monitoring water quality, educating the public on water-related topics and protecting aquatic species. Read on to learn more …

Vote for your favorite photo from these three beloved national parks where you can find SCA crews hard at work this year. Your support fuels our mission to nurture a deep-rooted love for nature among young leaders. The last day to vote is March 15. The photo with the most votes will be featured on …

With National Invasive Species Awareness Week (Feb. 26 – March 3, 2024) just around the corner, we wanted to call attention to the hard work our members are doing to combat these invaders. Lining roads, populating waterways and lurking in your own backyard, non-native plants and animals have hitched a ride with humans and spread …

For decades, those who care about the health of our environment—the Student Conservation Association—have fought to protect our parks and public lands from development, deforestation, pollution and other destructive threats. Today is no different. By providing pathways for young people into conservation, the SCA is building the next generation of leaders to create more resilient …

To honor the life and dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the SCA partnered with the Friends of Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens and Casey Trees to host a clean-up event at one of the most biodiverse natural areas in the nation’s capital, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. Staff were happy to return to there, where SCA volunteers …

SCA participants have completed several essential restoration projects within the last month. We also have teams actively working on critical conservation efforts this winter. Below are some highlights from crews working to restore and improve green spaces across the United States. Joshua Tree Planting and Resiliency Team SCA crew members have been working to keep …

What better way to kick off the new year and bid farewell to the last than to relive and review top SCA moments from 2023? We’ve rounded up 10 of the SCA’s social media posts that our audience engaged with the most. From adventures in Alaska to our beloved founder, the following photos are among …

Women’s Equality Day is celebrated on Aug. 26 to honor the work and achievements that paved the way for women’s rights today. This celebration commemorates the ratification of the 19th Amendment in the United States, officially granting women the right to vote.

Women have always led the way at the Student Conservation Association (SCA). Starting with a movement launched by the SCA’s inspirational founder, Liz Putnam, young women have continued to break down barriers within conservation and service work, demonstrating outstanding leadership and dedication to protecting public lands.