Renewal of a decades-long partnership
Student Conservation Association, US Forest Service Sign Five-Year Master Participating Agreement
The Student Conservation Association (SCA), the national leader in youth service and stewardship, has renewed its decades-long partnership with the US Forest Service through a five-year Master Participating Agreement. The national covenant authorizes individual national forests to work directly with SCA and expedites the execution of crucial forest protection and restoration projects by SCA volunteers.
At a Washington, DC signing ceremony with USFS Chief Tom Tidwell, SCA President and CEO Jaime Berman Matyas stated “Today, more than just renewing an agreement, we are recommitting to equipping a new generation to know, love and care for our nation’s forests.”
The SCA-USFS partnership began nearly 50 years ago, when SCA volunteers arrived at Dixie National Forest in Utah in 1968. Since then, close to 10,000 SCA members have served in national forests across the country.
“These young leaders develop a deeper connection with the great outdoors and greater confidence in themselves,” noted Matyas. “As SCA alumni, they continue to have a positive impact on our natural world by bringing their conservation values and sustainable practices to governments, corporations and nonprofits as they join the workforce.”
Among their joint initiatives, SCA and the USFS manage the Veterans Fire Corps, which provides recent-era military vets with career training in wildfire mitigation and forestry while easing their transition back to civilian life. The Forest Service also plays a key role in SCA’s increasing engagement of under-served urban teens.
In 2005, the Forest Service presented SCA with a Centennial Award for leadership and partnership in building young conservationists.
About the Student Conservation Association
The Student Conservation Association (SCA) is America’s oldest and largest youth conservation organization. SCA transforms lives and lands by empowering young people of all backgrounds to plan, act, and lead, while they protect and restore our natural and cultural resources. Founded in 1957, its mission is to build the next generation of conservation leaders, and seven in 10 of SCA’s 75,000 alumni worldwide are employed or studying in conservation-related fields. Headquartered in Washington, DC, SCA also maintains regional offices in Charlestown, NH, Chicago, IL, Houston, TX, Oakland, CA and Seattle, WA. For more, visit www.thesca.org.
