March 8th, 2022 | Chattanooga, TN — Press Release: Aaron Conner, a member of Southeast Conservation Corps’ Veterans Fire Corps crew, will be recognized by The Corps Network, the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps, as a 2022 Corpsmember of the Year.

January 3rd, 2022 | There are two dangers inherent in trimming brush, and at the moment I am confronting both of them. The first is physical fatigue, the strains and overuse injuries stemming from bending too much from the back, from swinging too much with the wrist. The second is tedium, a side effect of bending and sweeping for hours in silence with little more than a stiff breeze and the chance of autumn rain for company. The first I mitigate by bending from the knees, using my core, drinking water. For the second, I attempt to create meaning out of monotony. I reach out with the loppers, clip a beech limb, bend to collect it from the ground, toss it into the undergrowth. Reach, clip, bend, toss. The motions build upon each other like waves, or maybe better, like tree rings, or the seasons that etch them into the cross section of each young tree I cut.

November 26th, 2021 | Through partnership with the Southeast Conservation Corps, the Daniel Boone National Forest was privileged to host a 14 member all-female trail crew earlier this fall. The crew spent eight weeks rebuilding campsites, constructing a quarter mile of trail and completing other necessary maintenance work on the Forest’s popular Bee Rock Campground on the London Ranger District. Their work was instrumental in restoring the severely flood-damaged campground.

Sept 15, 2021 | You don’t see them as you kick through the leaves on your hike. You won’t see them as you squeeze through an inviting crevice between two boulders to discover what’s beyond. Don’t look for them as you pedal toward a perfectly placed berm or you may tumble off your bike. Just know that the people responsible for the thrilling ride and the beckoning passageway, the people who plan where you will step and what you will view — they see you. These trail workers are the unseen architects guiding your interaction with the great outdoors.

July 2021 | The biggest project we did was create a switchback around a ton of fallen brush. We had to make a couple of rock steps and renaturalize the old trail. Because it was the last week, we also had to do the final derig. It’s cool to look back on what all we have done, but that also makes it harder to leave this crew.

July 2021 | During the first week of work, our group spent most of our time working in or around water. We built two different water crossings, working as a team to move rocks into place, building stepping stones across the streams.

July 22, 2021 | The bridge replacement project was especially interesting for me because of the ecological reasoning behind it. Our project partner wanted to use native timber to form the base of the new bridge, so we helped him by removing the bark from the trees that would be used.

June 7, 2021 | Then the real work began: we grabbed towels and knelt down on hands and knees to slowly and evenly scrape away centimeter after centimeter of soil, working steadily downwards in-depth and backward through time.

March 16, 2021 | What I enjoy most is being part of a crew that is working toward a common goal while still looking out for each other. This is something that I did not see much in the private sector and it was one of the things I missed most from my time in the Marine Corps.

November 4, 2020 | Jackie and crew #974 helped Joanna, the Forest Service contact partner, install metal Jack fencing at the Wambaw Cycle Trail, with the intent of keeping motorized vehicles from expanding trails and creating new social trails.