In Spencer Butte Park, the “Blue Crew” lays down their blue hard hats for their mid-morning break. A group of eight youth, ranging from 15 to 18 years old, they’re a part of the Youth Urban and Community Forestry crew, one program under the Northwest Youth Corps umbrella. The Blue Crew, and nearly 1,000 other young people, spend their summer maintaining biodiversity, reducing fire risk and maintaining trees.
Ava Waters is going into her junior year at South Eugene High School and is interested in STEM. “Every day in this job you’re able to see how science actually comes to terms in real life,” she says.
NYC, as the corps calls itself, is currently operating in the third of a five-year federal grant-funded project. As part of a wider conversation about federal funding for park services, NYC, after the completion of the grant, will have to rely more heavily on philanthropy and service work for pay from public agencies than federal funding. These programs provide opportunities to young people to gain leadership skills and make an impact, and for the surrounding environments to receive specialized care and restoration at little to no cost to the areas that benefit.
The Blue Crew’s first major project was removing material and debris from an easement that was flooding the nearby houses. On July 8, the crew drove to trees in the neighborhood and put down fresh mulch.
“These trees here, these are gonna last for many, many years in the future,” says Grafton Dietz, a 15-year-old from South Eugene.
Waters says the biggest challenge she’s faced is learning how to bond as a crew. Alice Crenwelge, a 17-year-old from Marist High School, and Dietz say it takes someone with a strong work ethic, passion for outdoors and collaborative spirit to succeed in the crew.
Each day they choose a “leader of the day,” whose responsibility is to run safety circle, a morning routine involving stretching, going over potential safety risks and organizing groups for the day. The group comes away from the five-week experience with knowledge about power tools, the local environment and leadership skills. Participants receive a stipend and can earn high school credit.
“It’s different from all the other jobs and everything,” Crenwelge says. “They teach you stuff.”
Founded in 1984, NYC operates through partnerships with the likes of the federal Bureau of Land Management and Willamalane Park and Recreation District to provide services specific to the land it’s on. Programs are broken down for youth and young adults, offered in five- to 12-week sessions throughout the year. NYC also offers internship and field staff opportunities.
For Willamalane, NYC was integral in cleaning up the parks after the January 2024 ice storm. It also collected data over the course of two summers for a digital tree inventory. In addition, NYC works on stormwater infrastructure, weeding, trail maintenance and on developing the tree canopy in Eugene.
“We really appreciate the ability to contribute back to skills development and job growth within the profession and hopefully help with recruitment of new professionals within parks and recreation or natural resource management,” says Eric Adams, chief operating officer at Willamalane. “I think for us as an agency it’s a great synergistic relationship.
In 2023, NYC received a $12 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry Inflation Reduction Act. Four million of that was invested in the Eugene/Springfield area, funding the Youth Young Adult Conservation Corps Crews and the Summer Youth Conservation crews for a period from 2024 to 2028.
According to Sarah Worthington, director of the Community Wildfire Protection Corps and Eugene Urban Community Forestry Corps, NYC had to suspend all programming in 2025 due to a delay in invoicing.
“We’ve become pretty nimble at adjusting to where there’s scarcity,” says Jeff Parker, president and CEO of NYC. He says when one area of funding dips, the organization relies more heavily on other sources of funding, in this case philanthropic donations and for-profit work.
In 2025, NYC had 979 crew members, interns and charter school students participate with its various programs, completing over 200,000 hours of service work.
Parker is in his 33rd year with NYC and comes from a labor family. He sees the future of the organization focusing more on natural disaster mitigation and prevention work.
“It’s the right thing at the right time for a young person,” Parker says. “Anyone who wants to spend five weeks doing conservation work will be better at whatever the next thing they do, no matter what it is, whether they’re gonna be a ballerina, a brain surgeon or a research biologist.”
Learn more about Northwest Youth Corps at NWYouthCorps.org.