UCC gets grant to continue bilingual youth program
Utah Conservation Corps (UCC) in partnership with Salt Lake City Public Services Department -Parks and Public Lands Division, US Forest Service and Wasatch Water Legacy Partnership . (WWLP partner agencies include Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, UCC, Utah Department of Environmental Quality Drinking Water Division, Town of Alta, Solitude Mountain, Resort, Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort, Save Our Canyons, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities and Department of Public Services, Cottonwood Canyons Foundation, Brighton Resort, Black Diamond Equipment, and Alta Ski Lifts.) has gained $95,000 in funding through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to dramatically increase the number of youth participating its Bilingual Youth Corps (UCC BYC) program over the next two years and extend the program out of Cache Valley to engage Salt Lake-area youth.
UCC was one of twenty successful applicants among over 300 that applied for National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s America’s Great Outdoors: Developing the Next Generation of Conservationists funding opportunity. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley announced the funding with representatives National Fish and Wildlife Foundation on May 18th.
This funding will add 36 youth participating in the UCC BYC in 2012-2013 in addition to the 20 that will serve this year through funding from Youth Discovery Inc, Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, and Golden Spike National Historic. .This grant will fund six separate five-week sessions (four in 2012 and two in 2013) in which members are anticipated to complete maintenance of 50 miles of wilderness and urban open space trails and habitat restoration on 135 acres of public land. Each five-week session will give six youth a variety of job training and hand-on conservation experiences. All program materials will be available in Spanish/English and all UCC BYC leadership will be bilingual, lifting the language barrier that often prevents Latino families from becoming involved.
Four sessions will focus on trail maintenance and river habitat restoration projects in Salt Lake City and on the Salt Lake District of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. Priority projects and activities for the UCC BYC in this area will be on-the-ground restoration and conservation work along the Jordan River and its tributaries managed by Salt Lake City’s Parks and Public Lands Division. In 2011, the Jordan River and the Jordan River Parkway were listed in the America’s Great Outdoors Fifty-State Report as one of the nation’s best investments to reconnect American’s with the natural world and to create jobs through travel, tourism and recreation.
Two sessions will complete trail maintenance projects within the Mt. Naomi Wilderness area of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. UCC BYC members will join seasonal adult trail crews from Logan Ranger District to maintain at least 50 miles of trail. These projects and job training are essential to a heavily used Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest with more annual visitation than Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks at a time of shrinking federal budgets, an aging federal workforce, and high youth unemployment.
Salt Lake City Parks and Public Lands director Emy Maloutas comments that “Salt Lake City is excited to partner with UCC to provide opportunities for our youth to be employed locally and receive training in public land management and maintenance through hands on work to improve trails and restore rivers. This forward looking program builds job skill and enhances the stewardship of public lands that improve our quality of life.”
The UCC is an AmeriCorps program dedicated to developing the conservation leaders of tomorrow through service and education. In the last ten years the UCC, as a department of Utah State University Student Services, has constructed or maintained 808 miles of trail; built, repaired, or rehabilitated 84.7 miles of fence; restored 4,831 acres of public land; and harnessed over 5,700 volunteers contributing 19,500 hours of service.