Catoctin Mountain Park's Conservation Efforts Inspired by the Civilian Conservation Corps Live on Through the Youth Conservation Corps and Appalachian Conservation Corps

The Appalachian Conservation Corps trail crew cuts the trail ribbon

NPS photo

To help our next generation of conservation stewards get involved in preservation, Catoctin Mountain Park has been creating youth opportunities and projects since the 1970s. Through youth programs, like the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) and Conservation Legacy’s Appalachian Conservation Corps (ACC), youth are restoring the cultural and natural resources of national parks and public lands.

The park is a recreation area nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Maryland. Home to winding trails, flowing waterfalls, and beautiful scenery, it is a popular location for people to visit. It offers over 25 miles of trails to choose from. The diverse cultural history starts with Native Americans quarrying rhyolite to make tools and moves forward in time to agriculture, production of charcoal for the iron industry, the operation of sawmills for lumber, and moon shining. Historic structures and products of the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps, along with the site of our nation’s first Job Corps Center, are tangible reminders of the capability of vigorous youth programs to strengthen the nation’s economic and social fabric. The totality of resources found in Catoctin Mountain Park reflects much of the early fabric of our country. Over the summer, several youth crews helped support the park with conservation projects.

The Youth Conservation Corps crew pose for a photo

NPS Photo

Going back in time, the first eight-week YCC program at the park began in March 1971, with 26 female and 24 male members. They initially lived in the park, completing research and restoring the vertical sawmill at the Owens Creek Campground, constructing a hiking trail in the northern section of the park, creating a seventeen-mile-long snowmobile and bridle path, improving the Poplar Grove youth group tent camp area, and constructing a fire circle at Round Meadow. Soon after, in 1981, the YCC became a non-residential program, so local members commute to the site daily.

Today, the park continues to have a YCC program each year with five to six members ages 15 through 18. Most commonly, members work on maintaining 25 miles of park trails by clearing vegetation during the growing season, while also maintaining the sawmill boardwalk and vegetation around camp structures. They also assist other local parks with projects, which enables them to learn more about these parks.

Youth Conservation Corps member Clara staining the boardwalk

NPS Photo

This summer, the 2024 YCC crew consisted of six members, two of whom were second year YCC youth leaders, and one YCC crew leader (who was a former Community Volunteer Ambassador intern, now a biotechnician at the park). One of the main projects they worked on was assisting the park’s maintenance staff with re-staining the boardwalk at the sawmill exhibit at Owens Creek Campground. This was the same sawmill that the first Catoctin YCC crew restored in 1971. The crew worked on several other projects, such as assisting with vegetation removal at one of the park’s cabin camps and assisting to treat invasive plants. This has included string trimming and then performing cut-stump herbicide treatment of invasives, including barberry and multiflora rose. These two invasives have been in the park for a long time and need to be controlled with regular monitoring.

The Appalachian Conservation Corps invasive plant crew poses for a picture

NPS Photo

Another program (through Conservation Legacy) is the Appalachian Conservation Corps, which was founded in 2016 with a similar model to that of the original Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Catoctin Mountain Park began working with the ACC in the fall of 2022, and since then, the park has hosted two types of ACC crews: trail crews and invasive plant crews.

Each fall and spring, trail crews of six youth, led by an ACC leader and co-leader, maintain and build new trails. These projects are guided by the leaders, who help them develop skills in building stone steps, grade dips, and constructing trail tread. One of the most time-consuming parts of trail reconstruction is filling the holes caused from erosion. Crews will crush rocks and cover them with soil to fill them, which ensures that they have a smooth surface to hike on for visitors.

The park hosted a summer ACC invasive plant crew in 2023 and 2024 to focus on invasive plant species management as one of the pillars in the park’s efforts to promote forest restoration amid growing threats to the native tree canopy’s regeneration, and fight climate change. This year’s crew has managed over a dozen species of invasive plants in over 100 acres of forest, including some of the G2 (plants that are at a high risk of extinction) imperiled plant communities, primarily adjacent to the Greentop Campground.

Two Appalachian Conservation Corps trail crew members crush rocks to fill holes on the trail

NPS Photo

The work youth have been doing in Catoctin Mountain Park since the 1970s has been crucial to its success. Through the park’s comprehensive trails plan, crews have made a difference in the development of the park, and they will continue to shape the next generation of local land stewards through their meaningful work.

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