Immerse yourself in the wilds of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Play a vital role in improving our public lands and the environment.
The residential Youth Camping program combines education and job skills training with outdoor adventure for 16 to 18 year olds. With the guidance of experienced field staff, youth crew members work on conservation, reforestation, and recreation projects, while developing leadership and teamwork skills. Crews camp for their entire session, traveling to new projects often and pursuing outdoor adventures on the weekends.
Participants earn money and potential high school credit while gaining job skills and professional references.
Crews work on conservation projects such as tree planting, fuels reduction, invasive plant removal, trail construction, and fencing.
Join the Youth Camping program
Youth Camping programs combine education and job skill training with outdoor adventure for 16 to 18 year olds. Participants earn a weekly stipend and potential high school credit, make new friends, learn new skills, explore wild places!
- For Ages 16-18
- 4-5 week Duration
- Earn $450/week, plus up to $50/week bonus
- $300 Tuition fee (TA available) $66.50/week deducted for food
job skills focus
Position Overview
The journey begins here! With our Youth Camping crews you will complete vital resource management projects and explore the hidden corners of the Pacific Northwest. You will learn how to swing a tool, bake in a Dutch Oven, pitch a tent, build a campfire, and load a backpack.
You will learn how easy it is to live in the woods without the comforts of modern civilization. And, you will find incredible pride in a newly peeled log, a stack of firewood, or the removal of a huge boulder. It will be a experience filled with days you will not soon forget; like the feeling of accomplishment that Friday, after a week of sweat and hard work, that you and your crew hike back out over a mile of freshly dug trail.
You will discover a unique magic where strangers become family, hard work becomes fun, and people find joy and laughter in trivial daily events. It is a place where you discover new priorities. A place where, when you return to the world of pizza and porcelain, you experience a new appreciation for little things and a new distinction between what you need and what you want.
For weeks you will live and work outdoors all day, every day. You may go to sleep watching the moon rise and get up in time to see the sun come up. It is a busy world, one where days blur into a rhythm of working, eating and sleeping. But it is also a world you will leave with lasting friendships, pride in accomplishment, fresh perspectives and untold new skills.
Tuition and Benefits
Program Costs:
There is a tuition cost for this educational program of $240 (4-week program) or $300 (5-week program) with scholarships available based on need. Tuition Assistance is awarded based on need and we are determined to not make tuition a barrier for our programs, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us with any questions. $66.50 is deducted from pay each week to cover participants’ food expenses.
Benefits:
The base stipend is $450 per week with the potential for an additional $50 per week in bonuses (Based on 2024 rates, subject to change.)
*Participants leaving the program before graduation will receive a prorated portion of this stipend, calculated to the nearest full day of work, but will forfeit all bonuses.
Travel Details
Participants are required to provide their own transportation to and from their orientation and graduation for their specific program. In the event that a participant chooses to leave prior to completion, is asked to leave or is unable to complete the program for any reason, they are still required to provide and fund their transportation home. In the event circumstances require NYC to provide and/or pay for a participant’s transportation home for any reason, the participant and his/her family agree to reimburse NYC, upon demand, for all expenses it incurs.
Requesting School Credit
School Credit requests can only be processed after completion of a program.
NYC programs help you learn by doing. Each program follows a carefully developed curriculum with segments on ecology, resource management, work experience, job skills, leadership and life skills. You will learn a lot. However, you will need to talk to the counselor at your school about earning credit for this experience; only your school can make this decision.
To request school credit information be sent to your counselor please email info@nwyouthcorps.org with the following information:
1.) Name of participant
2.) Name of school counselor
3.) Name of school
4.) A way we can send information to your counselor :
-mailing address
– email address
or – fax number
- Members earn up to $7,178
Oregon Crews
Dates
Session 1: 06/23-07/25/2025
Session 2: 07/22-08/22/2025
Location: Crews start and end in Eugene, OR, but housing is not needed as crews camp together onsite for their entire session. Project locations generally include national forests and parks.
Washington Crews
Dates
Session 1: 06/23-07/25/2025
Session 2: 07/29-08/29/2025
Location: Crews start and end in Lake Wenatchee, WA, but housing is not needed as crews camp together onsite for their entire session. Project locations generally include national forests and parks.
Idaho Crews
Dates
Session 1: 06/02-07/03/2025
Session 2: 07/12-08/16/2025
Location: Crew based out of our Idaho Conservation Corps branch in Boise, Idaho. Local housing is not needed as crews camp together onsite for their entire session. Project locations generally include national forests and parks.