Conservation Corps: Pairing Climate Action with Economic Opportunity

Conservation corps in the United States employ youths, veterans, and seniors in environmental restoration and resilience projects. These programs, modeled after the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps, provide workforce training in green skills while reducing federal land maintenance costs. Current efforts to expand these programs include President Biden's 2021 Civilian Climate Corps Initiative and various legislative proposals to increase national service positions and funding for reforestation and public land restoration.

• Conservation corps provide significant cost savings for federal land management compared to internal crews or private contractors. A National Park Service study indicated that agencies saved an average of 65 percent by using corps instead of their own crews and 83 percent when using corps over contractor crews.
• The programs generate substantial economic returns through the outdoor recreation industry, which is valued at $887 billion annually. Additionally, every dollar invested in national parks is found to return $10 to the economy, and every dollar invested in national service programs like AmeriCorps returns $17 in social benefits.
• Corps programs offer workforce development by providing credentials in specialized green sectors, including solar panel installation, energy auditing, green construction, hazardous material abatement, and wilderness firefighting.
• President Joe Biden's January 27, 2021, executive order established the Civilian Climate Corps Initiative to mobilize workers for carbon sequestration in agriculture, reforestation, biodiversity protection, and community resilience.
• Funding for conservation corps is diverse, comprising federal grants from the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS)—which provided $576 million in AmeriCorps funding in 2020—as well as state budget allocations, such as California's $195 million allocation for the California Conservation Corps in 2020-21.
• Several legislative proposals aim to scale up national service; these include the Pandemic Response and Opportunity Through National Service Act (S.3624) targeting 750,000 positions, the CORPS Act (S.3964) targeting 250,000 positions, and the RENEW Conservation Corps Act (S.4538) which proposes over $55 billion to employ one million Americans.

APA

Arthur, M. (2021). Conservation Corps: Pairing Climate Action with Economic Opportunity. Environmental and Energy Study Institute. https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-conservation-corps-pairing-climate-action-with-economic-opportunity

Chicago

Arthur, Maeve. Conservation Corps: Pairing Climate Action with Economic Opportunity. Environmental and Energy Study Institute, 2021. https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-conservation-corps-pairing-climate-action-with-economic-opportunity.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Arthur |first1=Maeve |title=Conservation Corps: Pairing Climate Action with Economic Opportunity |publisher=Environmental and Energy Study Institute |date=22 February 2021 |url=https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-conservation-corps-pairing-climate-action-with-economic-opportunity |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{arthur2021conservation, author = {Arthur, Maeve}, title = {{Conservation Corps: Pairing Climate Action with Economic Opportunity}}, institution = {Environmental and Energy Study Institute}, year = {2021}, month = feb, url = {https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-conservation-corps-pairing-climate-action-with-economic-opportunity}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }