It’s hard to believe that just 8 weeks ago we were kicking off our Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) season. This year we had two prior crew members become crew leaders, three returning crew members, and three newcomers!
This year, our crew started on June 26th with some ice breakers and training. The first week they did some maintenance projects and started learning how to work as a team. Although it was a slow start to the summer, the projects starting rolling in and the crew worked extremely hard to get as many projects completed as possible.
Over these 8 weeks, this crew grew physically and mentally stronger, as they learned valuable job skills that can be taken with them into the future. It’s our hope that our YCC crew members go on to become lake stewards in their everyday life.
As the Program Manager, I’m impressed by all of the projects our crew completed. We had wonderful project hosts who were equally enthusiastic about keeping our lakes healthy, and providing work for local teens.
This year our crew was able to complete 18 projects across 6 lakes in Wakefield, NH and Acton, ME. On these sites they installed 96 Best Management Practices (BMPs) to reduce the flow of polluted runoff to the lakes and infiltrate that runoff into the ground where it can be cleaned by the soils.
Last week we had a tour for the general public of some of the projects from the summer. We were lucky enough to be joined be a few of our project hosts. Thank you to all who attended!
Below are a few pictures of projects completed this summer. Check out our season reports over on our YCC Page for more information. Thank you to everyone who made this season a success!
– Amy
