Coming off its busiest season ever, Steamboat Springs-based Rocky Mountain Youth Corps is slowly but surely expanding into Craig and Moffat County with its programs that provide outdoor service opportunities for area youth.

“We’ve worked with various partners in Craig extensively over the years but now we’re expanding our operations there and hoping to acquire more projects with the city of Craig municipality,” said RMYC Youth Program Director, Sara Duft. 

The main two ways it’s doing this is through its Service Learning Crew and Yampa Valley Science School programs—both of which have long served Routt County communities but now RMYC is setting their sights westward. “We’re extending the Yampa Valley Science School by two weeks to include sixth graders from Moffat County,” Duft added. “This marks the first time in RMYC history we’ve made this expansion. Additionally, we’re growing our SLC crews by adding a third, with daily pickups in Craig to engage even more youth from Moffat County.”

Providing place-based environmental education through experiential and interactive lesson activities, RMYC’s Yampa Valley Science School serves as many as 275 Routt County 6th grade students each September in a residential science camp operated at the historic Perry Mansfield Performing Arts Camp in Strawberry Park. Operated in cooperation with local schools since 2000, it incorporates a four-day, one-night science curriculum integrated with Colorado 6th grade academic standards. This year it will grow that outreach to include Moffat County sixth graders thanks to funding from Colorado Parks and Wildlife Outdoor Equity Grant Program. 

Its Service Learning Crew provides education and experience in citizenship, volunteerism, and community service for youth based in Routt and Moffat counties, with more emphasis also now being directed to the Craig area. Sessions are two weeks long, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and supervised by two crew leaders. Service projects youth may find themselves doing include gardening, planting, trash pick-up, light trail work and other projects. “It enhances youth’s sense of belonging and community connection through meaningful outdoor-based service projects, education, and group recreation activities,” said RMYC’s Lauren VandenHurk, adding the $200 registration fee is often covered by scholarships, made available through generous donor support.​​ She added that it includes an optional two-night overnight on the second Wednesday and Thursday of the session, with all camping gear and campout food provided. ​

Confirmed partners for this year’s Service Learning Crews include the City of Steamboat, Strawberry Park Elementary School’s peace garden, the Botanic Gardens, Steamboat Ski Resort, Stagecoach State Park, Carpenter Ranch and Oak Creek Mountain Bike Park in Routt County. In the Craig/Moffat County region they include Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Senior Social Center of Craig, and more. “The focus is to get all participants working all over Routt and Moffat counties,” added Duft. “All crews will do a variety of these projects weekly and will be volunteering and recreating in both Routt and Moffat counties.”

Another way RMYC is targeting Moffat County is through its internship program. Last year it placed three wildland fire interns with the BLM’s Little Snake Field Office for the first time ever, as well as an archaeology intern serving Moffat County, both of which were huge success stories, said RMYC’s Natural Resource Internship Director Alex Guerra. All three wildland fire interns are hoping to move onto employment with the BLM this year.

“Last summer we were lucky to have three fuels interns, dispatch interns, and an archeology intern from RMYC,” said Brandon Voegtle, assistant fire management officer with the BLM’s Northwest District Fire and Aviation. “The fuels interns helped us with hazardous fuels mitigation projects and fire suppression; the archeology intern increased our capacity to survey fuels projects for section 106 clearance, which is part of the National Historic Preservation Act; and the dispatch interns allowed us to staff the interagency fire dispatch center for the summer.”

RMYC also placed interns in the BLM’s Terrestrial Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring (AIM) program out of the White River Field Office in Meeker, collecting field data on vegetative and soil conditions across rangelands and woodlands. RMYC recruits and employs crews for the BLM’s four northwest field offices, including Kremmling, Little Snake (Craig), Colorado River Valley (Silt), and White River (Meeker). “I can’t say enough good things about RMYC and its internship program,” said Rachel Barnett, project lead for White River Field Office in Meeker. “The amount of data this program collects is monumental and so important for management decisions and policy changes. BLM programs like mine could not be accomplished without such partnerships.” 

Barnett added that one benefit of the AIM internship is that upon completion of 640 hours of service, interns qualify for the Public Land Corps Hiring Authority, which is a huge steppingstone for future employment. Some interns, she said, have already been hired on by the BLM, Natural Resource Conservation Service, and state agencies like Parks and Wildlife. “RMYC’s internships create pathways to professional work in conservation, but they also strengthen teamwork skills, work ethic, mental fortitude, conflict management skills, physical fitness, and an appreciation of the great outdoors,” she said. “It’s a beautiful blend of hard work, personal growth, lifelong friendships, and great memories.” 

Its efforts in Moffat County are just part of RMYC’s more than 30-year heritage providing service opportunities for area youth and young adults. Housed in a 4,300-square-foot headquarters on a 3.4-acre campus in Steamboat Springs, it has served more than 13,000 youth in its three decades of service, including more than 5,000 through its Yampa Valley Science School program. Its crews work on everything from community cleanups, wildfire mitigation and tree planting projects to trail building and maintenance, GIS programming, historic structure preservation, hydrology and archaeology projects, beetle kill removal, and more. Over its 235 project weeks last year alone, it served over 850 young people through its programs, improving 1,621 acres of public lands; maintaining or building 700 miles of trails; and removing or mitigating more than 16,000 trees.

“We’re looking forward to another action-packed summer providing life changing service opportunities to young people of all ages,” said CEO Ryan Banks, who joined RMYC’s full time staff team in 2017 and took over for retiring founder Gretchen Van de Carr in February 2024. “I’m excited to work with our team to continue to provide meaningful service opportunities to young people, while strengthening partnerships with land managers throughout our region.”

Visit RockyMountainYouthCorps.org to get involved.