Youth Programs
Engaging Tomorrow’s Trail Stewards
The Pacific Crest Trail was originally built by volunteers and agency partners at a time when children played and explored outdoors. Today, the USFS and groups like the PCTA are all too familiar with terms like “nature deficit disorder” that are used to describe the human costs of alienation from nature. The PCTA directly addresses this growing detachment from the outdoors by expanding opportunities to connect kids with nature through volunteer opportunities on the PCNST.
The PCTA successfully works with adults who are passionate about the PCNST and also actively recruits youth groups. In 2009, of the PCTA’s 77,062 volunteer hours, 32 percent were accomplished with youth corps and other youth programs. The USFS and PCTA’s volunteer program supported more than 41 weeks of youth corps trail maintenance crews in California, Oregon and Washington. This work has the added benefit of connecting volunteers with nature and developing future citizen stewards.
The PCTA recruits a variety of groups, such as AmeriCorps, Northwest Youth Corps, Student Conservation Association, as 
well as various high school and college programs. While these youth programs focus on building and restoring the PCNST, the programs also offer kids the opportunity to enhance their connection to nature in various ways. These include leisurely backpacking trips, Leave No Trace training, educational presentations by naturalists and, for some, their first opportunity to sleep under the stars and eat s’mores.
