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 parks showcased in the three photo finalists.
Yosemite National Park spans 747,956 acres of land, with nearly 95% designated Wilderness. It is home to hundreds of wildlife species and over a thousand plant species. SCA crews based at the park work for the Yosemite Wilderness Restoration Program, which includes maintaining campsites, removing invasive plants, and ecologically restoring parallel and social trails.
Grand Teton Natation Park is one of the parks where SCA founder Liz Putnam first enlisted student volunteers to assist with the upkeep of U.S. National Parks in 1957, launching the Student Conservation Association. More recently, the SCA provided teens and young adults from our Houston and Atlanta Urban Green programs with the opportunity to learn and serve in the park.
The Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona is home to the endangered Sonoran pronghorn — the fastest land mammal in the United States — which SCA crew members monitor in the park and complete habitat enhancement projects. This 330,000-acre monument preserves the northernmost natural habitat of the Organ Pipe Cactus and an array of desert plants, animals, geology and human history.
Help keep all this work going and reserve your 2026 SCA Calendar by making a gift today.