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Student Conservation Association

New SCA course teaches traditional trail skills

The Student Conservation Association has a new class open to anyone interested called "Old School Rock: Traditional Trail Skills Workshop." The class is designed to teach working with rock and native materials from seasoned pros and skilled volunteers: Material selection and placement, Safe handling technique, Rigging and mechanical advantage, Trail Improvements and site restoration. It is sponsored by the Student Conservation Association and USDA Forest Service. Contact: www.theSCA.org/rockwork.cfm or call (510) 832-1966

Opportunities for agencies to put youth to work on resource projects

As SCA's programs grow and strengthen, so does our applicant pool. Our Placement team is working hard to find valuable experiences for our applicants. In reviewing our applicant pool, we have discovered that we have a high concentration of applicants desiring specific types of positions— although we do have a diverse applicant pool interested in all sorts of things. We are reaching out to our agency partners and contacts to see if you have a need that fits the interest of many of our applicants. While our interns participate in projects representing over fifty different disciplines, there are a few that are quite popular. We want to offer as many opportunities of interest to our applicants as possible and having more of these types of positions will help. These disciplines include:

• Ecological Restoration
• Backcountry
• Wildlife
• Natural Science
• Resource Management
• Marine Biology

In case you are unfamiliar with Resource Assistants and Conservation Associates: Resource Assistants (RAs) are college students and other adults who serve as volunteer interns typically for 12-week terms. Conservation Associates (CAs), on the other hand, serve for 6 to 12 months; consequently, they are older than RAs on average (mostly college graduates). Estimated costs for each can be found at: http://www.theSCA.org/req_prices.cfm

It is not too late to submit your requests for our summer/fall season, especially if your position request includes projects relating to the above disciplines. We do prefer that you consider requesting positions that are flexible or with start dates after June 1, although we'd be happy to try for whatever date is convenient for you. We understand budgets are tight and SCA is a cost effective means to get projects completed. One of our Army Corps partners stated that his site saw a return of $3 for every $1 dollar spent for an intern. Now that AmeriCorps education awards ($1,000 minimum) are available to all eligible SCA interns, a greater number of applicants are able to serve. Federal sites that find they have year end funds, can contact SCA for assistance in obligating funds for next year's projects.

If you would like to see examples of position descriptions, visit www.theSCA.org/ci_select.cfm where you can search current positions in various ways. Additional information about SCA interns is located at www.theSCA.org/agency.cfm

In order to access and complete the online request form, go to www.theSCA.org/req_vol.cfm If you prefer a paper request form, just contact us and ask for one.

For further questions or assistance, please contact Charmion Lea Handy, Partnership Accounts Director at 603/543-1700 ext. 150 or via e-mail at chandy@thesca.org.

The National Trails Training Partnership
American Trails, P.O. Box 491797, Redding, CA 96049-1797 • (530) 547-2060 • Fax: (530) 547-2035 • nttp@americantrails.org • www.AmericanTrails.org

The National Trails Training Partnership is an alliance of Federal agencies, training providers, nationwide supporters, and providers of products and services. Visit the online calendar of training opportunities, access hundreds of trail-related resources, read the news, learn how you can help, and see training resources in your state.

This material is based upon work supported by the Federal Highway Administration under Cooperative Agreement DTFH61-06-H-00023. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the Author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Federal Highway Administration.

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