The fall 2024 issue of Audubon Magazine includes a feature titled, “The American Climate Corps Puts a Fresh Spin on the New Deal” spotlighting our very own VYCC crews! 

The story explores how our work is part of a larger initiative to recapture the nearly century-old power of the Civilian Conservation Corps and turn it toward a modern necessity: combating climate change.

The CCC put three million young men to work improving natural infrastructure, teaching skills and supporting families during the Great Depression. Today the American Climate Corps, which includes VYCC, expands the CCC’s legacy to train a workforce in skills that climate change demands, like mitigating floods and developing sustainable farms. While the ACC follows the rough blueprint written for the CCC, it’s undergone myriad modernizations to essential activities including hiring policies and conservation best practices.

For VYCC Crew member Katie Vartenigian, that sense of purpose has been as important as the technical skills she’s gained in Vermont’s forests. As Climate Corps workers strengthen communities and ecosystems, she hopes they may be transformed, too—building up a personal resilience. “Living in a little crew, camping in the woods, removed from everything, is hard,” she says. “But if you can do that, you’re prepared for whatever else.”

_{Illustration: Chris Turnham for Audubon Magazine}